Following up on the flickering issue we reported about, an undetermined number of 2016 MacBook Pro models are suffering from disturbing graphical rendering issues, with owners reporting full screen artifacts, screen tearing, flashing, random “glitches” and even system crashes. The issue, however, is related to overzealous third-party software and is not indicative of a critical hardware flaw.
Reports of graphics-related issues first surfaced after the release of the 2016 MacBook Pro.
While initial reports were unable to pin down a root cause for the errors, sources close to the story said that overaggressive or otherwise sloppy code distributed in third-party software is to blame. That said, a small number of users report seeing similar problems with Apple’s own Photos app.
In the case of user Jan Becker, who’d purchased a new 15-inch MacBook Pro complete with an optional AMD Radeon Pro 460 GPU, Becker encountered trouble and ultimately crashed while transcoding video in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Becker consequently took the machine into an Apple store for replacement.
Becker has also said he received a call from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., where a team of engineers asked him to help replicate the glitch over the phone and requested access to the affected laptop for further investigation.
As of now, circumstantial evidence suggests that the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models and the Radeon Pro 460 seem to be most impacted by offending software. Identical reports of graphical maladies are cropping up from owners of 15-inch MacBook Pro models running standard AMD Radeon Pro 450 and AMD Radeon Pro 455 GPUs.
Perhaps most telling are similar issues seen in 13-inch MacBook Pro models, both with and without the Touch Bar. Since the 13-inch variants rely on a different graphics processing system than their larger siblings, specifically Intel’s integrated Iris graphics chips, the problem can likely chalked up to faulty software.
Finally, Apple has stated that users experiencing the graphical distortions elsewhere than un-updated software should contact Apple support or make a Genius Bar appointment for case documentation.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and MacRumors