Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Out of curiosity - what do you do your image editing with? Like DMC44 I'm kinda glued onto Photoshop.

I work more with vector files than bitmaps and now I use iDraw, for bitmaps I am undecided, I am currently using Pixelmator (after Photoshop CS4), and it is less powerful. I'm still deciding whether it is powerful enough. I also use a few other bitmap manipulators (Fotor, iSplash) for a few specific effects as needed.

yes.. double check all the time.. noticed it sometimes needs 2 prods.. thanks for the thought

You are entitled to your opinion, I am showing real pictures for one of the consequences that can result from disassembling the computer to replace the thermal compound by non professional users, for you been able to do that without damaging your logic board doesn't mean that everyone else can do it , I gave the advise and its up to everyone to take it or leave it. for you I know you did not and will not take it and time will tell if replacing the thermal compound alone will make any difference for you. By the way a damage can very much happen not just to the screen port on the logic board as shown in those pictures but also to the screen cable which is extremely sensitive and very easy to get damaged and replacing it if that happen is close to impossible and represent a huge risk for the screen.

ps3specialist

Glad to hear you say that - there are some reball shops that want you to send only your logic board -> assuming, I suppose, that we all have the skills to do so. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm not qualified to dismantle my computer and have to put everything back in the right place again!

Clinton

JoeJen31 wrote:

 

Out of curiosity - what do you do your image editing with? Like DMC44 I'm kinda glued onto Photoshop.

More Velcroed, in my case.

So we still have the mystery of blalab not being able to run CS4 on integrated only, while I can run CS6.  Until recently I stayed on dynamic to see what switched but lately have kept it on integrated.  Might go back to dynamic to see if anything else requires it.  Haven't tried Pro Tools yet, which is my main work program (at work, on Power Macs, or another, later 15" MBP).

I think that the mystery goes even beyond that only fact, I mean, I can't force my computer to run with integrated only because my computer freezes right away when I choose this option with gfxCardStatus while many others can without a problem.

And I personally can launch CS6, can switch to discret but after a short while the screen will split and if lucky I can quit and get back to normal if it doesn't escalate to the black screen and the restart as only option.

By saying to blalab he could forget about running adobe products was more pointing out the fact he couldn't be using it without any risks of failure and even with integrated only, you don't have all capacities that you would expect (need?) to work correctly.

Because, correct me if I'm wrong, running with integrated only doesn't transform our 15" or 17" to a 13" spec.

I run PS5.1 ocassionally but now only to edit pictures of items I put up for sale.  Had to do this a few weeks ago with my crippled mbp and held my breath when I opened my first raw pic to edit.  I make it a point not be running anything else of significance, including iTunes which seems to draw much resources, and I only edited one picture at a time.  No hiccups there.  But my edits are rather simple too.

I'd be curious how much time some of you had to spend directly related to working with this mfg'er's defect.  I estimate that in the past few months, I've spent maybe 60 hours or more.  And I just use my mbp for personal use, e.g. email, surfing, etc.

I'd also estiate that my anxiety level has gone up significantly since I'm not in a financial position to just throw mbp in the trash and replace with another.

Every time I open my mbp and I get a login screen, I think to myself, "today's a pretty good day."  But now I remind myself, "Cheer up, it'll probably get worse."

Just got my MBP back from service center today, with logic board & battery replaced. Thought to upgrade my OS to Maverick 10.9 from Snow Leopard 10.6.8, and will install Adobe CS6. I'm a heavy Photoshop user, let's see will the machine break down again this round.

I agree with the stress it causes, I chose to minimize it and avoid using these softwares, plain and simple.

I'm mostly programming so all I use is pretty harmless and doesn't risk any cpu-gpu freaking out and can still work so I feel kinda lucky compared to some people here who had more serious problems and couldn't work at all.

but even though I learned what soft to launch and not, just surfing the web is stressful as well because some websites can make a freeze, I know I can't access my copy.com account while I can't explain it, I did while running linux and it just uses backbone.js, nothing fancy.

can't use the google store to install any plugin to the browser either, crashes.

while obviously I don't shut the computer off and can use it somehow, I will get it fixed next month and not via Apple of course. Been running like that since late january and it's ridiculous.

Apple service center?

sorry I don't remember all your background you probably detailed already.

akamyself wrote:

 

Because, correct me if I'm wrong, running with integrated only doesn't transform our 15" or 17" to a 13" spec.

Actually, I believe that it does. If I recall correctly, the 2011 models all share the same integrated GPU, with the 15" and 17" having both. I would have to do some research, but I'm pretty sure that I'm correct.

Clinton

having the same integrated chip model is one thing but would any 15" or 17" having AMD removed would then act like a 13" model?

I'm no expert in that field but I think that the differences are not just logic board sizes and having an AMD chip fixed on the integrated one.

but most of all, running with integrated only doesn't make the environment stable as far as I know.

akamyself wrote:

 

having the same integrated chip model is one thing but would any 15" or 17" having AMD removed would then act like a 13" model?

 

I'm no expert in that field but I think that the differences are not just logic board sizes and having an AMD chip fixed on the integrated one.

 

but most of all, running with integrated only doesn't make the environment stable as far as I know.

In the three months since the logic board replacement my machine has seemed pretty stable.  I rarely turn it off and only run discrete when I actually want to see if anything happens.  Most of the time it's left on integrated only and, frankly, I can go for days of use without even thinking about its vulnerabilities. It's only coming back to this thread that reminds me!

As for being a glorified 13", that's probably true as far as video performance goes.  But I do have my nice 17" non-glare screen, my three USB ports and it's quad-core over the contemporary 13" twin-core.

ok so maybe I'm wrong.

it's not really and deeply on topic but I found this interesting though.

but in your case, your cpu/gpu are fine as you had a logic board replacement, you haven't experienced any crash ever since, right?

so maybe in that case running integrated only is not exactly like having a failure AND running integrated only, if you know what I mean.

what I find weird is that I'm obviously using integrated by default and even can switch to discrete, that won't crash my system, but I can't choose integrated only with gfxCardStatus.

that, I don't understand.

and same if I try to uncheck the automatic switch in the preferences system, it crashes right away.