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What do you think is the source of the graphics issues on Mac Pro (Late 2013) ?

  • Hardware

    Votes: 68 52.7%
  • Software

    Votes: 28 21.7%
  • Hardware & Software

    Votes: 32 24.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • Total voters
    129

jeyf

macrumors 68020
Jan 20, 2009
2,173
1,044
I owned a 2013 MBP and than bought an early butterfly 2017 MBP, all of these were utter junk.
i am burned up on apple

on the 2013 MPB, its been a long time ago but some thoughts:
-there was a software fix that kept the GPU pointed in one mode. Never seen this completely work.
-there were some youtube video's where peeps were soldering capacitors onto the mother bd
 

th0masp

macrumors 6502a
Mar 16, 2015
829
492
MBP and MP are two entirely different kinds of machines. :D

Btw. gfxcardstatus seems to be what you are talking about (for the MBP?). Works fine over here. ?
 

Cryptosmasher

macrumors newbie
May 14, 2016
25
12
Hello all - Mojave has been 100% rock solid on my d300 for the last 3 months - wanted to check in and see if any of the catalina updates fixed the GPU crashes or if I should resign to Mojave forever - thanks
 

uller6

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2010
1,041
1,682
I gave up and sold my D300 machine right before the pandemic started. I picked up a base iMac Pro instead, and I'm happy as a clam now. So far, the iMac Pro on Catalina is more stable than my nMP ever was.
 
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SamPotts

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2010
278
59
Sydney, Australia
10.15.4 was solid for me.

10.15.5 developer beta 1 and 2 were solid, beta 3 crashed every few hours (with the usual GPU issue). I reverted to beta 2 and just yesterday installed public beta 3 (essentially developer beta 4) which has been ok so far but I've not used the machine a whole lot as it's the weekend.
 

MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Sep 15, 2015
2,880
2,363
Portland, Ore.
I had graphical glitches on mine for the first time today. The display was intermittently cutting out (blinking off and then back on). I restarted the Mac and that fixed it. So it appears to be a software bug. It's on 10.15.5 beta 4.
 
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lekudos

macrumors newbie
May 11, 2020
2
1
I sold one of these a few months ago because of the timeout issue. The buyer mentioned that he suspected the fault is due to an intermittent fault in the internal power supply module. The clue is a very quiet but audible high-pitched noise. He has now ordered a replacement power module which he hopes will solve the intermittent kernel panics once and for all.
Hope this helps some of you folks.
 
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MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Sep 15, 2015
2,880
2,363
Portland, Ore.
I sold one of these a few months ago because of the timeout issue. The buyer mentioned that he suspected the fault is due to an intermittent fault in the internal power supply module. The clue is a very quiet but audible high-pitched noise. He has now ordered a replacement power module which he hopes will solve the intermittent kernel panics once and for all.
Hope this helps some of you folks.

That's the Catalina-specific panic right? I had it once and I made the setting change discussed here and I haven't had it since. #215
 
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curtiskline

macrumors newbie
May 14, 2020
2
2
I have a very expensive 2017 MBP with keyboard issues, screen blotching, and sound driver problems. It makes me angry to think about how much I spent on that piece of crap, and I am unwilling to shell out another $2,500+ for a new MBP. Especially since the one person I know with the new one has hardware problems.

Since COVID, I do most of my work at my desk at home so I thought "I don't really need a laptop" and "I can get a powerful 2013 MP for around $1,000, and that would be fun". Plus I have an old 2015 MBP that works flawlessly - it's just too slow and I can't upgrade the RAM.

I didn't find this 76-page thread of GPU problems until after I bought my "fun" 2013 MP.

I initially installed Catalina, and the computer froze up nightly. So I formatted and installed High Sierra. Exactly the same issues, plus some random hangs where audio was still functional in a Zoom call, but the rest of the computer was frozen. Force restart was the only way to regain control. I thought for awhile that the issue was my two 4k displays being connected to the same TB bus. Makes sense, right? No such luck - changing that has no positive effect.

So today I installed Mojave just because it seems like some people here have had good luck with it. I am not too hopeful.

I've been looking at new Minis, but I can't see driving two 4k displays with that built-in graphics card.

There's so much Mac hardware with problems that I no longer feel confident in buying any of it....

Curtis
 
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MCal27

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2010
40
15
Stoke on Trent. UK
A 2018 Mini will actually run two 4k screens off it’s builtin graphics... However if your pushing around alot of pixels then it’s not a great combo. I added a Sonnet Breakaway Puck egpu and am happily running two 4k 28” screens off that.
 

curtiskline

macrumors newbie
May 14, 2020
2
2
A 2018 Mini will actually run two 4k screens off it’s builtin graphics... However if your pushing around alot of pixels then it’s not a great combo. I added a Sonnet Breakaway Puck egpu and am happily running two 4k 28” screens off that.

Thanks! Good to have first-hand experience on that.
 
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MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Sep 15, 2015
2,880
2,363
Portland, Ore.
Catalina has run flawlessly on my Mac Pros with D500 & D700 graphics. There seems to be a bug with the driver for D300 graphics. (The D500 & D700 use the same Tahiti driver. The D300 uses a separate Pitcairn driver.) On my D300 machine I enabled Do Not Disturb for "When the screen is locked" under Notifications and disabled Power Nap under Energy Saver in System Preferences and I didn't have any freezes or panics again, but I didn't keep the machine long enough to know if that truly fixed it. Hopefully Apple will take care of it, but it's hard to say. It appears there's a bug with the graphics driver for several other Macs too including the 2019 Mac Pro. It looks like some major issues started with the introduction of the Navi driver. They made a lot of changes to the other drivers at that time including consolidating some of the older ones.
 
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guanacux

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2020
1
0
I have been dealing with this issue for over 2 years now. I've actually let the MacPro (Late 2013) collect dust for almost a year and today I gave it another tried. Did a factory reset, now running Catalina but there is no hope. I actually need to connect multiple external displays for my purpose. I feel so frustrated. Is there any hope in taking it to the Apple Store or I'm wasting my time?

UPDATE: I just downgraded to Mojave...It seems to be working. Let's hope it stays stable with multiple outputs, tried to break it with 3 outputs Play with it for 45 min and it works well.....will try 5 (which is what I need) and report back.
 
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richmlow

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2002
379
273
I have a 2013 Mac Pro (see signature below) and have macOS Mojave 10.14.6 installed on it. So far, no GPU freezing/lockup problems. Fortunately, the computer has been rock-solid.

Since I need to run some 32-bit programs, I plan to keep Mojave as the operating system for it.

As for macOS Catalina, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's probably going to be the last macOS with a "macintosh" feel to it. But, I'm not going to put it on the 2013 Mac Pro. I do have macOS Catalina on other machines (2019 MacBook Pro 13" and 2018 Mac mini) and it seems to work OK.

As for the upcoming macOS Big Sur, my first impressions are that it looks childish....a gradual merging of iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Even though Apple keeps saying that they are going to keep them separate, I don't believe it.

I would recommend that you try keeping Mojave on your 2013 Mac Pro and see what happens.

Good luck!


richmlow


I have been dealing with this issue for over 2 years now. I've actually let the MacPro (Late 2013) collect dust for almost a year and today I gave it another tried. Did a factory reset, now running Catalina but there is no hope. I actually need to connect multiple external displays for my purpose. I feel so frustrated. Is there any hope in taking it to the Apple Store or I'm wasting my time?

UPDATE: I just downgraded to Mojave...It seems to be working. Let's hope it stays stable with multiple outputs, tried to break it with 3 outputs Play with it for 45 min and it works well.....will try 5 (which is what I need) and report back.
 
Last edited:
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