Apple Initiates Video Card Replacement Program for Radeon HD 6970M Equipped Mid-2011 27” iMacs
by Ryan Smith on August 17, 2013 6:30 PM ESTIn a somewhat baffling piece of news this weekend, word comes that Apple has initiated an internal replacement program for the video cards on some of their mid-2011 27” iMacs. Specifically, Apple is running into issues with the AMD’s Radeon HD 6970M that’s used on the upgraded Mid-2011 27” iMac. In a notice being circulated to Apple support staff, Apple provides a brief description of the issue:
Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black. iMac computers with affected video cards were sold between May 2011 and October 2012.
Jumping right into the heart of the matter, what makes this issue so stupefying from a GPU review’s perspective is that this is the first indication we’ve seen of there being an issue with this AMD GPU. The Radeon HD 6970M is of course one of the mobile variants of the Barts GPU, otherwise known in AMD’s mobile lineup as Blackcomb. Barts in turn is part of AMD’s second generation 40nm silicon, released in late 2010 well after TSMC got the kinks out of their 40nm process. As a mature product released on a mature node, at first glance there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the Barts GPU to be having longevity issues.
Meanwhile as far as implementations go, the 2011 iMacs use MXM cards, which means unlike some other Apple products the video card isn’t being soldered on directly or otherwise being assembled by Apple, greatly limiting Apple’s role in the implementation of the product. MXM allows Apple to simply order and install finished video cards from suppliers, and is also why they are able to fix the affected machines so easily, since the video card is directly replaceable. At the same time however Apple is far from the only OEM using 6970M MXM cards, which means that if the root cause of the issue is a bad video card – no matter the specific component – then any other 6970Ms may also be affected.
2011 iMac With MXM Video Card. Image Courtesy iFixit
Anyhow, we’ll avoid speculating too much here since there’s not nearly enough information available to properly identify the cause of the issue. But given just how rarely we see large scale video card longevity issues, this is somewhat worrying; solid state parts simply don’t fail that often. After all, it took a fairly serious GPU underfill issue to cause NVIDIA’s 65nm GPU failures (Bumpgate). We don’t expect the root cause of this failure to be nearly as drastic given the already-mature status of AMD’s 40nm production process, but it will still be interesting to see what that cause is, assuming we ever find out.
In any case, for affected iMac owners 9to5Mac has the full details of the replacement program, including the models and serial numbers covered. Apple will be covering the cost of the replacement for 3 years, regardless of warranty, though as is the case with most programs of this nature they are only replacing failed video cards.
Source: 9to5Mac
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ol1bit - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
oh my...MadMan007 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
I love it when people apply double standards to Apple.Meaker10 - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
There have been a lot of 6970M and 6990M card failures occurring actually. This is across all models like clevo and alienware.Naxan - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
I have an HP with a radeon 7690m tx with a I7 2670qm processor. From nearly day one I have been having the same video display problems.; lines through the screen, text appearing garbled like code (ie. ÿÀÿþ^Ïíø¾ûyá6x‰ñ#‰eÂRŸÿÑàø), display driver failures, bluescreen because of display driver failure. HP support was pretty worthless, but now I realize the problem.I think this is a much more widespread issue than people realize and given more investigation I'm betting that AMD will find it is affecting many more devices than previously realized.
Bob Todd - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
Yes, I'm sure the problem you are having with a 7690m is the exact same problem Apple ran into with the 6970m. After all, it's all the same part numbers just jumbled up! Or you know, you could just have some faulty hardware that isn't related to this at all. I wouldn't assume any issues with Blackcomb are the same as you are seeing on a Whistler part. Why on earth didn't you return or exchange your laptop?Spunjji - Monday, August 19, 2013 - link
Where's a moderator when you need one to kick the FUD to the kerb? :|Laststop311 - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
I have 2x 6970m's that were only used 4 months in my alienware m18xr1. I replaced them with gtx 680m's in sli. Also added a triple pipe upgraded heatsink based on the r2 extreme cpu heatsink Anyone with issues that wants a cheap replacement. $175 each will include the heatsink assembly as well incase you can use it. daovermindbrood AATT hotmail(dot)comAssimilator87 - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
So what are they being replaced with?Ryan Smith - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
The technical notice doesn't say. But the only practical answer is a new 6970M.Simon42 - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
These things feel like they're always running over 50C when you touch them (and sensors confirm it IIRC). Cramming such powerful hardware into such a tight package is asking for trouble, no matter how clever they get with cooling and using the whole aluminium body as a heatsink. When I worked in a computer store, 2 out of 3 Macs in for repairs were iMacs. But of course, they'll blame AMD if they can get away with it...