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MacBook Pro bug is most common on the 15-inch Radeon 460 model, survey says

Jon Martindale
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A surprising number of MacBook Pro 2016 users seem to be having difficulties with the graphics chips inside their new laptops. Although the data comes from a survey rather than any official reports — so it should be taken with a pinch of salt — as many as 40 percent of those quizzed have reported problems.

The report comes from a questionnaire posted up by 9to5Mac, asking its readers whether they experienced graphical glitches or problems with their new MacBook Pro 2016 model and if so, which version was it?

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As pointed out by the authors of the survey, there are various factors that must be considered when evaluating these results. Beyond the fact that people could be lying for the fun of it, there are also likely to be people in there who found the survey after searching for help with graphical issues. People without graphical issues are also less likely to pay attention to such stories in general, so chances are the numbers being reported are overrepresented.

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That said, the numbers of complaints are still rather large for a computer that isn’t exactly fitted with cutting-edge, top-of-the-line graphics. However, it is perhaps telling that the 15-inch MacBook Pro with the Radeon Pro 460 graphics processor (GPU) is the one with the most complaints. Other affected machines include the 13-inch model with Touch Bar, as well as the 15-inch with Radeon Pro 450, though their incident rates are much lower at 22 and 13 percent reporting, respectively.

Graphics card in brand new MBP 2016 freaking out (new UPDATE)

While the numbers are not the most scientific, there is no denying there are graphical problems with some of the new MacBook Pros. Reportedly, the issues arise most commonly during the use of Adobe and Apple Photo software, though it is not clear if that is because of driver issues, a problem with Mac OS X itself, or some faulty hardware.

If you are wondering yourself if your system may have similar problems, look out for crashes and lock up using Adobe software like Photoshop and Premier. There are also some reports of on-screen artifacts during crashes.

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Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale
Computing Coordinator
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
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