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I wanted to see how my new 13" Retina MacBook Pro performed on GPU stress, so I downloaded some GPU benchmark apps. In one of the apps, I set the resolution to the same as my screen, and I putted antialiasing to the max...

Then, when I launched it, my computer became (not surprisingly) unresponsive, I did managed to force quit the app though, at which time OS X triggered me an error panel, telling me that there was a graphic error (and I could signal it), but it didn't blocked anything. A little bit later, after I ran another benchmark, a small black line appeared briefly on the screen (something like 0.5 seconds) and then disappeared.

Is it a normal behavior after a high GPU load ? Or should I worry about it ? Is it dangerous for the CPU to go to its limits ? (my GPU is an Intel Iris one).

Thank you.

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I've seen that error a few time on mine since updating to Yosemite. I've taken it in to get checked out and apple didn't find anything when running their tests. One thing I've done to keep it from popping up as much is to do a NVRAM reset. You can do this by restarting before bootup hold command + option P + R till you hear a second startup chime then release. This clears out some video memory and some other minor settings like volume etc.

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  • I got this error only once, and I think it might be normal for a GPU (actually it's an integrated, Intel Iris GPU) to crash if it is pushed to its limits, but what I am wondering is if it could mean that I damaged my GPU ? Is it possible to damage your GPU/CPU with just an app ? – Trevör Dec 15 '14 at 15:39
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    I don't want to say it's impossible but I have pushed mine to the max many times rendering 3d video in AE and I use and never had any problems other than the computer locks up or the app might crash. Usually there is core programs that monitor and protect the hardware from overheating to the point of physically damaging the components. Now if there is another unknown issue it's possible the computer could overheat to that point, but you can monitor that with something like iStat – Trozdol Dec 15 '14 at 15:44

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