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MacBook (Nvidia) video flicker or "tearing" on scroll/video

My new MacBook has an annoying issue. Especially after sleep, the GPU goes a bit mental and has issues with high bandwidth data - eg. fast scrolling or video (eg. YouTube) playback. It seems basically that it just can't ship the bits to the display fast enough because if you scroll slow enough there is no flickering.

After sleep/wake it is really bad—to the point that it distracts. It is in multiple applications (Safari, Xcode) so I assume it is a video driver issue. Some 'net reports for MacBook Pro users say that it is not an issue if you choose the faster GPU on that laptop (the GeForce 9600M GT) suggesting that it is a driver/chipset issue with the Nvidia GeForce 9400M.

I found one tip that improved the situation, when you get the problem you can force some sort of vido reset by pressing Control-Shift-Eject (you might need to hit a key or wiggle the mouse to wake the screen back up again).

It doesn't completely eliminate it, but at least in normal non-video use you don't notice it so much.

Since a reset of some sort improves it, I assume it is something to do with the way the chipset is brought up after sleep so hopefully either a driver or firmware update should be able to either resolve it or if it is a chipset issue at least work around it.

06:25 AM, 25 Jan 2009 by Mark Aufflick Permalink | Comments (2)

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