A variety of graphics issues have been reported from some buyers of the new MacBook Pro models, ranging from strange transparency glitches on app windows to corrupt textures and tearing, as seen above. You can see a summary of the main complaints in our previous coverage of this issue.
The problem does not appear consistently for every new MacBook Pro user, leading some people to believe it is a hardware issue. A MacRumors forum member allegedly got a reply from Craig Federighi suggesting this was not the case. Federighi says that all of these graphics glitches have been fixed in the macOS 10.12.2 beta seeds …
The graphics issues have been seen on numerous configurations of the 2016 MacBook Pros, although there seems to be somewhat of a consensus that notebooks with dedicated graphics (the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar) are most likely to see problems.
However, we have heard from owners of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, with or without Touch Bar, have also been experiencing similar visual glitches. A full-machine restart usually makes the problem go away temporarily.
macOS 10.12.2 is currently being tested by developers and members of the public beta program; it appears to be nearing the end of the beta cycle with seed 6 posted on Friday. This suggests the update will be released for all users soon, likely before the holidays. According to the Craig Federighi message, this update will resolve the graphics bugs which should come as good news to those affected.
Here’s the full email response from the Apple SVP, screenshotted by the MacRumors poster:
The email has not been verified but there is little motivation for it be faked. This should allay fears that new 2016 MacBook Pro owners would have to go back to the Apple Store and swap out their hardware for another model due to some inherent issue with the graphics components.
Thanks for the note! We believe we have addressed all of these graphics issues in the latest beat of Sierra 10.12.2 (available at beta.apple.com).
I hope that you enjoy your new MacBook Pro — it’s a fantastic machine!
— craig
That being said, some people who have been affected by the graphics issues seem to still be seeing the problems on the latest beta seed. Here’s one video example of weird visual discoloration issues seen on a MacBook Pro running the latest beta build.
We will have to wait and see for more reports if Apple has managed to address all the GPU issues with the 10.12.2 release but at least it seems like the company believes the problem can be fixed in software, even if all the edge-cases haven’t been addressed just yet.
We’d love to hear from you if you are experiencing graphics issues with the new MacBook Pro and if updating to the latest beta seed fixed those problems — let us know in the comments.
