Cupertino (CA) – Apple took an unusually hard shot at Nvidia’s credibility yesterday: Apple said that it found that GeForce GPUs used in some Macbook Pro systems are failing, while Nvidia “assured” the company that the supply to Apple was not affected by what appears to be a GPU packaging issue.

Apple quietly confirmed the GPU failures in a post on its support pages, which seems to have been first reported by Gizmodo. The post’s phrasing is very unusual and puts the blame for the failures as well as their late discovery on Nvidia. There is lots of room for interpretation what Apple tries to say, but the sharp wording at least suggests that Nvidia had no idea which of its GPUs are affected by the packaging problems. On the other end of the spectrum, Apple may also say, in a very careful way, that Nvidia simply lied about the extent of its chip packaging problem.

From the Apple website:

“In July 2008, Nvidia publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, Nvidia assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected.”
    
We previously reported that the GPU packaging problem, widely believed to be caused by a cracking solder bumps, may be much more extensive than was admitted by Nvidia. High lead was used in more than 70 million Nvidia GPUs overall and more than 15 million mobile GPUs. However, the problem of fatigue cracking appears to be limited to a relatively low percentage of notebook GPUs – and only Nvidia knows how high that percentage is. Nvidia recently put aside $200 million to cover notebook repairs, which suggests that somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million notebooks were affected – if the general estimate of $200-$300 repair cost estimate is right.        

Two lawsuits (here and here) alleging that Nvidia has not been truthful about the packaging issue have been filed so far. Both lawsuits are seeking class action status.

Apple said that buyers of Macbook Pro 15” and 17” models with Nvidia’s 8600M GT GPU may see “distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen” or “no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on.” The affected notebooks were manufactured between May 2007 and September 2008.

The company said that “if the Nvidia graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.”

Nvidia’s stock followed the general market trend this morning and was down more than 5% to $6.56. Nvidia’s market capitalization has dropped to about $3.66 billion – down from about $10 billion when the GPU issue was made public.

First?

Oct 10, 2008 13:06     

last reported by Gizmodo
Lucky report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -5

Dishonest

Oct 11, 2008 03:58     

Nvidia dishonest about GPU's failures, Apple dishonest about toxic material in Mac Pro, the others (big companies) are dishonest about something else...
asd report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Well, can't really blame Apple.

Oct 11, 2008 22:10     

Well you can't really blame Apple, they are a very good OS, but there is way too little company supporting them, mainly because Apple's history have so many failures, that is why their design style is more Digital HD media life orientated.
somebody report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

about time!

Oct 12, 2008 02:33     

I'm excited for apples findings! I bought the 15" MacBook pro in June 2007 and have been noticing increasingly sluggish/gitchly graphics during game play. Until recently it was still working ok. After a 15 hour gaming spree of crysisI rebooted the macbook for the last time. It turned on with a black screen on the builtin and external! Glad this will finally get taken care of! Happy times. I one last thing. If you are having the same problem. Make sure you call the apple store ahead of your arrival to "scheadule an appointment" they like to pretent like they are a doctors office that does NOT allow walk-ins. Hope this helps save you a trip and time! Good luck everyone

keith report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Apple screwed up

Oct 12, 2008 02:45     

Apple screwed up by putting the GPU they authorized and choosed for the notebooks. Is Apple pointing fingers at one of their venders for the few hardware items they use in all their products? hmmmm....you don't really configure an Apple...it is what it is. Quasar
Quasar report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Nvidia

Oct 13, 2008 03:41     

Nvidia has been dishonest for years is it a real surprise their getting caught again. Cheating and keeping secrets for buyers to make their sales better. Wile us hard working American's are being suckered to buy slow pore quality defective product's.
joe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

heheh, way to go apple

Oct 13, 2008 12:02     

when one company makes (approves) hardware, and then makes software for their approved (or manufactured) hardware, then it is THE company to be blamed. If any user had an option and the option turns out bad, it is user's fault. This is clearly apple's.
huh report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0