HACKER Q&A
📣 _bxg1

MacBook Pro 16-inch, temporarily dead pixels?


I got my MBP 16 last night. In general it's great, but twice now in only a few hours of use I've noticed some distressing graphical artifacts (for something this expensive).

Each time it's been a tiny rectangle of a handful of pixels at a random place on the screen that just turn some random color (bright purple the first time, bright green the second time). The first time was on Firefox and the second was on Apple Music, so it's not specific to the app. As soon as I scroll or otherwise cause the screen to update, they go away.

My guess is it's a GPU thing, not a screen thing. Has anyone else seen this? And do you think I should be worried? Could it represent a hardware defect in the GPU, or just a software problem (driver perhaps?) that could get patched out later if it becomes significant/widely-noticed?


  👤 gvrnmntdept Accepted Answer ✓
I have the same problem with my new MacBook Pro 16-inch. It's definitely a defective GPU. Try disabling Automatic graphics switching in System Preferences to reproduce this issue.

👤 _bxg1
Update: ended up taking it in. Since it was only a day old they're just letting me exchange it instead of trying to go through the whole repair process.

👤 chmaynard
I see this frequently on my 2019 15" MacBook Pro display. I can't capture these artifacts in a screenshot, and I can't replicate the problem (so far).

👤 kevinherron
Pretty sure this is software.

Saw the same artifacts/glitches on my 2016 and 2018 15” models.

See them occasionally in Safari on my 16” now, usually up near the top window border.


👤 deepaksurti
Most likely points to a GPU problem. I think since it's not even a day, you must return it and get a replacement.

👤 gen_greyface
Yeah I've experienced it too, generally after unlocking it, but only for a few minutes then they go away.

👤 t-writescode
Take a video of it happening and take it to the Apple store?

👤 antoinevg
Same thing on my 2018 MBP 13"