Macbook pro retina graphic glitch

Hello,

I'd like to share with you my story with the problems I've had with my macbook pro retina 15' 2012 (with both intel and nvidia graphics) and ask for some help.

First of all, back when it still had Mountain Lion as its OS I already detected some graphic glitches. When I started the mbpr, 1 out of 5 times it would load buggy. The dock would shake whenever I move the mouse over it, exposé would lag a lot and eventually scrolling in Safari was terrible, incredibly shaky. Basically every animation on the OS went laggy or just at 10 fps.

However the performance in terms of speed and results was still OK. If I played a game I would detect no error whatsoever.

So after some months of ignoring it because I had work and couldn't take the mac to the store I decided to take it. It was getting worse as it started to happen more often than usual. By then I had already upgraded to Mavericks (no clean install, just updated) and the problem still persisted.

Visit #1:

After explaning the problem and being able to show it to the genius they took my mac. They called a couple of days after telling me it was a OS issue and they did a clean install of Mavericks.

So I took it home, reinstall everything from scratch, they told me it may be an account/user issue so I better not use time machine to recover anything.

After a month it started to happen again. I have to say that it happen after I had already installed everything quite some time before, not right after installing any particular app or while running any.

It would load buggy again 1 out of 2/3 times and it wouldn't stop until I restarted and if I was lucky enough it would load OK.

Visit #2:

I returned to the genius and explained again the problem. They decided that it had to be some graphic issue related to the intel or nvidia systems so they replaced the logic board.

Again a couple of weeks later I detected the problem again.

Visit #3:

Once more to the store, they were quite puzzled that even after replacing the motherboard it would still show the issue.

After doing some tests they decided to reinstall Mavericks. Once installed they found no issue so they decided it was solved.

After this I had to return once again because it turn out that they forgot to connect the keyboard backlight system and it wouldn't light.

Anyway, this time I decided to install only the absolutely necesary apps for my work. I even downloaded the newest versions of all of them (if they had newer). Most of those apps are from the Mac App Store and the ones that are not are absolutely famous and used by thounsands of people, not that I use alphas or betas of any app.

One important detail is that the problem was getting worse. Now every time I started the mac it would be buggy and it was extremely shaky, it was impossible to read while scrolling in Safari now. Sometimes when using exposé/mission control it would even show weird pixels on screen. Every time I had this problem it was worse, more shaky and more often.

Visit #4:

Being already a VIP visitor of the genius bar I went decided to solve the problem once and for all. I told them every detail, they saw the problem and I insisted on the software I had was completely "normal". They told me they would replace the screen, the logic board again and the IO just in case.

So imagine my surprise when I receive a call from the genius who was repairing my machien saying that after reinstalling Mavericks it showed no issue! I was furious. They insisted that it was some app I had installed and that I needed to install one app at a time, wait ONE WEEK and if nothing happens install the next.

They were not kidding aparently. After complaining I had no choice but to take my mac back and....here I am.

So my question (after the diary I've written, sorry) is:

Is this really being caused by an app I have installed? Is really an app capable of crash the entire animation system and only while in the OS UI and not in games? I've never had any app running on the background besides Fantastical (from Appstore) and Dropbox (updated).

I am listing the apps I had last time I resintalled everything:

1. 2Do (appstore)

2. Indesign CC

3. Appcleaner

4. Autocad 2014

5. World of warcraft

6. Dropbox

7. Evernote (appstore)

8. Fantastical (appstore)

9. Keynote, Pages & Numbers (appstore)

10. Pixelmator (appstore)

11. Sketchup 2014

12. Skype

13. Steam

14. The unarchiver

15. Transmission

16. VLC

17. iPhoto

So, 17 apps, which I believe are just a few. Is there any of those apps you think may cause any issue? I haven't installed anything yet. I am using my old macbook pro (which btw have every app I had in the buggy retina with no problem whatsoever) while I try to see if the problem persist while installing nothing.

I still don't believe it is a software problem. Since it appears every time sooner and with more "intensity" I suspect it might be hardware but I am no expert.

Thanks for any help or info you can share! 😉