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Is Anyone Having MacBook Pro Retina Display Graphics Issues?

So, I'm wondering if anyone has been having issues with their new MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display graphics? I've installed all the updates and ran the diagnostics. Nothing appears to be wrong, but most of my animations or motions on the computer aren't fluent and are choppy. And at least once a day I'll run into an issue like this: http://d.pr/i/elqX


Just wondering if any of you are running into this issue. It also struggles with Flash (but I assume that is just something Adobe has to update on their end).


Cheers!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 3:08 PM

Reply
155 replies

Sep 7, 2012 8:31 AM in response to danielbrown

Three issues with my rMBP that I received on August 22nd:

1. Fails to re-write parts of the screen upon closing a window. Chunky aritfacts remain for a short time.

2. MSWord docs: all the text disappears after sending a doc. to print, just as the print dialogue closes.

3. Word tool bar occasionally goes blank (bar visable but not icons). The tool bar icons will re-appear if I run my mouse across the bar. Strangely similar to the old mouse practice program on the Mac Plus.


rMBP 2.3 gHz, 8 gigs RAM, System 10.8.1 with all updates installed as of 9/7/12.

Sep 7, 2012 8:36 AM in response to brianfromwaverly

One more symptom. The rMBP doesn't handle the automatic switch when I plug in my external display connect through a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter. Once my Mac locked up and had to be forced to power off before I could use it again. A second instance: I plugged in my external monitor and both my main screen and the external monitor went to solid blue. Nothing I tried would restore the screen, and the function keys that control screen and keyboard illumination brightness did not work. I had to force a power down and restart.


rMBP 2.3 gHz, 8 gigs RAM, System 10.8.1 with all updates installed as of 9/7/12.

Sep 8, 2012 11:19 PM in response to brianfromwaverly

Having similar issues, lots of artifacts stick when using webpages like Yahoo or Huff Post or even right now as I'm typing there is awful lag.. I've had several replacements in 2 months not because of these issues but because of hardware issues (video card buzzing, hindge sticking, list goes on); my current rMBP doesnt have any hardware issues (so far) but all my previous replacements including my current one have had the UI lag.


Really dissappointed in this rMBP - I had a Macbook Air that was working great before this but I really wanted more screen - Apple isn't pushing innovation as cleanly as it used to. Hopefully the next update will address these UI issues but from what I've been reading Apple seems to be more focused on facebook integration than on solving rMBP lag..


My comp 2.6 i7, 16gb ram, 512 ssd runing 10.8.1.

Sep 15, 2012 1:24 AM in response to brianfromwaverly

Add similar issues and even more with the Retina Macbook. Sometimes I must unplug/replug the thunderbolt connector to get my external display working again. When waking up from sleep I had tons of issues : blue screens, white screens and black screens. Had to reboot multiple times, reboot with no external display then plugin the thunderbolt/dvi connector to get again the external display.


Recently I purchased the thunderbolt to ethernet connector and instantly after plug in it, the system freeze completely. When rebooting I had a black screen with small dots top left. Had to reboot 3 times to get ride of the black screen, unpluging external display, unpluging ethernet. I had also strange things on the external screen like weird blinking windows, unaliased and distorded characters (had to reboot to fix the nvidia bug).



Moutain Lion is totally unstable with thunderbolt and the nvidia display drivers are full of bugs. Apple should release a new nvidia driver for the Retina macbook as soon as possible ! It is way more important than the Facebook integration.

Oct 22, 2012 6:28 AM in response to danielbrown

I was having the issue until recently. Whenever I scrolled through sites like Google Reader I would parts of images from previous posts overlapping the current post.


Since installing the last update to remove the Apple implementation of Java and replacing it with the Oracle one, the issue (knock on wood) seems to have gone away. I guess time will tell

Nov 10, 2012 5:13 PM in response to danielbrown

Brand new 15 inch retina, 16gb and the 256 and I am having the same issues. I went to the Apple store and they said that there was nothing that they could do on this isssue but to wait for a software update to fix this.


My biggest issue is inside of Safari or other browsers where the screen just does redraw. Also animated gifs and other videos seem to flicker - very strange and annoying.

Nov 10, 2012 5:24 PM in response to GrandStrateguerre

GrandStrateguerre wrote:


Moutain Lion is totally unstable with thunderbolt and the nvidia display drivers are full of bugs. Apple should release a new nvidia driver for the Retina macbook as soon as possible ! It is way more important than the Facebook integration.

I have tested some beta nvidia drivers and they are far from ready, a few glitches here and there are much better than having to re-install ML due to not booting. There are some work arounds but everyones problems are slightly different due to different preferences and software.

Nov 10, 2012 5:28 PM in response to bks123

bks123 wrote:


Brand new 15 inch retina, 16gb and the 256 and I am having the same issues. I went to the Apple store and they said that there was nothing that they could do on this isssue but to wait for a software update to fix this.


My biggest issue is inside of Safari or other browsers where the screen just does redraw. Also animated gifs and other videos seem to flicker - very strange and annoying.


Try gfxCardStatus by Cody Krieger available here at: http://gfx.io/ changing modes and resizing safari make the problem go away

Nov 21, 2012 9:50 PM in response to danielbrown

My retina MacBook Pro has had terrible graphics performance problems for a couple of weeks. I searched all over various forums and tried everything: resetting SCM, manually selecting discrete/integrated graphics card, deleting graphics kexts, etc. Nothing helped until I found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4391500


Now my rMBP has silky smooth graphics again!


The directions in that post are a little hard to understand so I cleaned them up here:


Step 1: Delete system windowserver preferences

  1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
  2. Enter: /Library/Preferences/
  3. Delete the file called com.apple.windowserver.plist


Step 2: Delete user windowserver preferences

  1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
  2. Enter: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/
  3. Delete all files that start with com.apple.windowserver (On my rMBP, there was one file called com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F62-C1E4F2BE81BE)


Step 3: Reset the PRAM

(These instructions are from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379)

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  3. Turn on the computer.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
  5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  6. Release the keys.


Hopefully this helps others with bad graphics performance on retina MacBook Pros.


For anyone that wants to check out the problematic plists from my rMBP, here are the files:

http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.plist

http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F6 2-C1E4F2BE81BE.plist


Jeremy Herrman

Nov 25, 2012 4:44 PM in response to bks123

I experienced the same issue with Safari and Chrome. Some web images don't load properly. Even the Apple website contains distortions. For example, an image of a MacBook will contain dots and pink lines. Some web images are not loaded at all.


Do you think this is an issue with Retina display or with my internet connection?

Nov 27, 2012 12:52 PM in response to danielbrown

Mine's having problems too.


Graphics seem to be tearing here and there especially youtube.


While loading Diablo 3 just before it enters the main screen of the game, a very "fuzzy"shot occurs, pictures that i've opened or browsed on the internet, even screenshots of my skype mates few hours ago would be jumbled up into that "fuzzy"shot.


There's too many problems.


Street Fighter IV's won't play, cos keyboard won't work/nor does control pad.


Mainly graphical issues.

Is Anyone Having MacBook Pro Retina Display Graphics Issues?

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