You just know that Steve Jobs is pretty upset with Nvidia right now. Reports are popping up detailing video problems currently being suffered by the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. It seems that, for some people, whenever the 9600M is turned on the screen displays all sorts of nasty tearing and color deformities. That picture up there shows the extent to the damage.
Right now, there’s a few work-arounds. One, switching to the less powerful 9400M seems to eliminate the problem. Too bad the whole point of buying a MacBook Pro is so that you benefit from the power of the discrete 9600M; trying playing WoW using the 9400M! Two, you can restart the computer, which seems to temporarily fix the issue. Of course, a temporary work-around isn’t exactly optimal, nor is is something you should have to do after having shelled out nearly $3,000.
So far, no one knows exactly what’s going on here. Is this a truly widespread problem, or did just a few users win the Unlucky Lottery? (History says this could well be a widespread problem.) If it is a proper problem, who’s to blame, Apple or Nvidia?
And what’s all this I hear about Macs being rock-solid or whatever? It’d be nice to know that buying a premium laptop—I think it’s fair to call the 17-inch MacBook Pro a premium laptop—would preclude you from having to deal with such glitches.
via GIZMODO