Several MacBook Pro 2016 units are experiencing some weird graphics-card issues as reported by affected users in a recent post on MacRumors Forums. The majority of the complaints have been traced back to the 15in model and the graphics related issues have been allegedly affecting both dedicated and integrated GPUs.
The wide range of graphics-related performance issues reported so far include random system crashes/freezes, texture tearing and fragmentation, black bars popping on the display, or a red tint covering the entire screen.
Some users have claimed that the issue is mainly associated with the use of Adobe software including Premiere Pro, especially while running the Adobe Media Encoder. It is, however, not yet officially confirmed if the graphics problems are caused by a corrupt firmware or due to a major hardware issue with the onboard GPU.
Apple Store has acknowledged the issue and suggested that it could probably be a hardware problem. Meanwhile, folks at 9To5Mac have successfully reproduced the full-range of graphics issues including red tint, texture tearing and black bars running into unrecoverable crashes on their MacBook Pro 2016.
There is no ruling out the possibility of graphics-driver related issues as some users are facing problems only while using a graphics-intensive app like Adobe Premiere Pro or the Adobe Media Encoder.
Here are the excerpts from a couple of user complaints explaining the graphics-related problems in detail:
When I used the Adobe Media Encoder the graphics card freaked out and computer crashed.
[...]
Mine is doing the exact same thing in Adobe Premier.
[...]
Same thing happened to me. Change the render engine to metal or software only. I've been working with adobe but no fix yet.
Some other users are experiencing issues while using Apple's native Photos app wherein the imaging conversion service seems to be the root cause of the problem as evident in the kernel panic logs.
I was letting Photos do its thing syncing 13k images, and all of a sudden the whole system locked up and was flashing violently with red/green hues and a sort of checkerboard pattern.
[...]
Do you have iCloud Photo Library activated? For me the panics occur when the upload process runs and "ImageConversionService" maxes out the GPU.
[...]
All the .gpurestart and kernel panic logs in Console point to an interaction between "com.apple.photos.ImageConversionService" and the discrete video card.
Check out the graphics card issues in action, in the user video posted below:
Do let us know in the comments section below, if you are facing any similar issues on your MacBook Pro and the probable workarounds you might have tried to fix them.
[Source: MacRumor Forums]
