9600M issues - still?

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing any display oddities when using the 9600M on the 17-inch Crapbook Pro in spite of (or possibly, because of...?) the firmware update.

I get 'tearing' of the window contents quite often - e.g. when scrolling in Finder, but also similar display issues in other applications as well. It's pretty annoying. Before the probably inevitable call to Applecare I was wondering if there was anything I could do about it? I've seen it on both of the machines I use in the main, while I haven't seen it on the spare - although this is probably because I only power it on to keep the machine in sync.

 

i thought the firmware update was supposed to fix it.

 

I refuse to buy any mbp with an nvidia chipset in it!

I am patiently waiting for ATI to step in sooner or later.

This is why I want a Mac Pro desktop since you can actually use the ATI 4870 cards.

 

what does the video card have to do with the chipset? on the iMac 24" you can get an ATI video card in it, but it still has an nvidia chipset... you want an ATI chipset and video card? or an intel chipset and ATI video card? sounds strange since the 15" with nvidia is awesome, havent used the 17

the 9600 and 9400 on my 15" MBP run awesomely... so I dunno whats up with the 17"...

 

Everything is nice except the pulsating flickers from the low brightness level from the 15" mbp.

I sold off my 2.53GHz unibody mbp just a couple of months ago (glad that I did) and it was perfect except one annoying thing, the flickering when the brightness was set at 1-3 notches.

I always keep it around 1-3 notches of brightness to conserve battery life and it looked like the pulsation of the backlighting was trying to mimic the beat of the music I was playing on itunes!~

The shocking part is that the flickering issue is still around, the 15" 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz models are still has this issues. Apple Support forum has a huge thread still on going about this.

 

really? I have a 2.53 model and the screen never flickers at all in any way... maybe its the auto-brightness thing? I always hate that and turn it off

 

you are lucky

 

It was a defect. May be you could tell your buyer to go ask for a replacement. After all, this machine is quite expensive and even though he bought it second hand, he will be able to have it exchanged as the warranty is tied to the machine and not to the owner.(It's more efficient)

 

Actually I've exchanged it 3 times and they all exhibited the same flickering in 1-3 notches. Some mbps exhibit more flickering than others.

 

The tearing and flickering are separate issues.

The tearing appears to be due to the card drivers/firmware being too shoddy to play nice with Quartz.

 

I don't understand why Apple has stuck with nVidia. They should of dropped nVidia after the 8600GT fiasco. Nvidia lied to Apple by telling them no MBP 8600GTs were defective. They must be legally bound to them by a contract.

 

stick with? they actually increased their use of nvidia, even going to chipsets...

who else were they going to go with for cheap chipsets with good graphics? ATI? That could cause all new problems.

 

Isn't it better to stick with Nvidia? If it breaks "easily," then most likely you'll need to buy a new Mac after 3 years (if you've also purchased AppleCare) instead of like 5-8 years on average. So what does that mean? More Mac sales for Apple!

 

Is there a problem with mobile ATI chipsets that you are aware of? Indulge me.

 

I can see why they chose Nvidia, after AMD buying ATI. Maybe Apple doesnt want to breach their contract with Intel going to their rivals AMD (chipsets including GPU now).

 

that's actually no the case, if there is any contract such as this, apple is more happy to take advantage of and breach it and have intel sued by competition law(again, and again)

3670 wasn't as competitive and 4k series weren't out was probably one major factor, besides, ATI didn't have an all-in-one chipset companion such as 9400m which had apple's macbook alive once again.

heat dissipation might well be an issue but i don't have any comparison.

a major counter point for nvidia is the cr@p they had with 8600mgt and i still remember an article about 9000 series had similar issues as well. it was only because 65nm fabrication that keep the error low.

one thing i am certain in the near future: we will either have 2GPU that are for Xfire/econ mode and if not, external GPU module will become abundant. both should exists on mid/high(2GPU) and low(and extreme high end) from external graphics.

ps. since my next upgrade will be 2years from now it is too early for me to comment if i were to stick with N or A. i am siding with A atm though.

 

I'm pretty convinced it's a driver issue, if not a combination of Apple's poor engineering and possibly even poorer NVidia drivers. I don't know what the firmware update did - downclock it further? I dunno, but it hasn't helped... or what it fixed didn't fix my issues.

It would be nice if NVidia got their act together - their ability to crud up a good part of the user experience of any OS they're writing for is at times legendary. I know in a few cases, 100% of the BSOD's and general functional issues encountered in the test machines we had for Vista during '07 was down to the NVidia drivers.

But of course, among the general users as well as the tech press, with Apple hardware it's naturally an NVidia issue, while with Vista it 's a Microsoft problem

Talked to Applecare, they're making understanding noises but not doing a lot. I guess there's probably not a lot they can do. I hope it's sorted out soon...

 

Apple doesn't make GPU drivers AFAIK,but MS made Vista...

 

He was talking about issues caused by NVidia being blamed on Microsoft.

There's also an interesting thing - although both the 9400M and 9600M have the capability of working in tandem, I do recall Apple chose not to allow this from the hardware side. Also, where's the promised no-logout switching?

 

promised?I don't remember it being promised,but I hope that hSLI and switching will come with SL.

 

I'm pretty sure that around launch day talks with officials did report that. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure. I'm also pretty sure not even 10.6 will allow Hybrid SLI as the hardware for it isn't there.

 

nVidia confirmed that mbp has the ability of hybrid sli...

 

The same NVidia that said that you could switch cards in Windows?