I'm testing as many MacBooks as possible. Here are the results.
I just wanted to just say thank you so much for sharing your findings. I know it takes a lot of time to test and report back with such great detail. This is extremely helpful. I can’t figure out what is going on with me, but it is nice to know that I’m not alone in this.
rpozarickij I am so glad you said that! My company found one identical to my personal (which works great but I am not supposed to use) after two failed attempts with new models - pro and air. The only difference between the laptop they sent me vs my personal is that it is running Sonoma. My personal is on Ventura. I have them side-by-side and there is a difference. I talked to Apple Store in Denver and they said that the OS shouldn’t matter, and that I was the only one that has reported any vision issues at all to them. They weren’t denying I had issues, I don’t mean to suggest that, but they were confused as well. They suggested I see an optometrist. I did that, and no issues. I thought I was going insane over here.
NewDwarf Wonderful!! I've actually run across that kernel and wasn't able to install before. I'm going to get my 2019 MBP back and try the above exactly as you write.
Question (sorry if this is obvious) - I though the MBP 15'' 2019 used both graphics cards, switching automatically as needed. Do I need to "disable" the Intel card entirely as I think you're recommending (and if so how?) or follow steps 1 and 2 above, that will disable the dithering on both cards, and I should be good to go?
Thanks again. If this can work you're a life-saver!!
- Edited
MAS-76 The graphics cards are controlled by the commands
// Always use the integrated graphics card
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0
// Always use the discrete graphics card
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 1
// Automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics card (this is your laptop's default setting)
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 2
From my experience, the best option for my eyes is sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 1
You can verify that the Radeon card is the primary card by Apple logo -> About this Mac
You should see something like:
BTW, you can apply both options to have dithering to be disabled permanently for both graphics cards.
Thankyou NewDwarf!!! can't wait to try this
I have two Vega 20 15" 2019 MBP identical as far as I can tell, one gives me symptoms, one is fine,
The one that is fine has never been past Catalina 10.15.6 and I won't update it for fear the update to the firmware will give symptoms.
The one that gives me symptoms I bought refurbished so although it's on the same OS it has much later firmware.
I really hope what you've detailed above is the answer for me.
massively appreciate the detailed explanation, I'll try this tomorrow afternoon.
Btw for the discrete graphics are the instructions to be done whilst in recovery mode?
Here's the output
175 0 0xffffff7f848c7000 0x2000 0x2000 com.amulethotkey.driver.ahkinject (1.1.1d1) C89AB321-97E6-3C86-ACBA-6498B6DCC100 <5 3>
I didn't get a pop up, but after restarting the security preferences popped up and asked if Amulet Hotkey can make changes
I'm not sure if this has worked, seems to have all loaded correctly? but the computer still feels symptomatic.
does the readout look like it's been successful do you think? really appreciate your help
GBowler And the second thing I would like to ask to do is
Reboot your laptop
Run the command
log show --process 0 -last 15m | grep ahkinjectCheck if the output of the previous command has similar output, the kernel extension works fine:
2023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: attempting to disable dithering on AMDFramebuffer2023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: found a service2023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: successfully set attribute on connection 02023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: found a service2023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: successfully set attribute on connection 02023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: found a service2023-01-22 0x278 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (ahkinject) AHKinject: successfully set attribute on connection 0
thankyou I'll have to do this first thing tomorrow as the laptops at my office,
The about this Mac page has the Radeon card above the intel btw.
but yes I'll do this first thing and post back, thanks!!
GBowler I have been investigating reports of eye strain on MacBooks being triggered by a firmware/OS update. I also bought a few tools to dump and flash different firmware versions on MacBooks (specifically testing the MacBooks I have, which are mid 2015 15-inch Pro models, both with and without the discrete AMD GPU). So far I cannot pin down the issue, but there have been several reports like yours and I plan to keep investigating. A GPU VBIOS update seems the most plausible.
I wonder if you can compare your non-symptomatic MacBook to the symptomatic one and report back further differences? The devices have identical configurations and exact OS versions? You reported already the different firmware versions; I am also curious about any GPU differences in the System Information app (especially ROM revision, gmux version, EFI driver version, etc.), SMC/BridgeOS version, the specific EFI firmware versions, etc. Anything you can observe/report may be insightful. I would love to pin down the specific update causing the issue, and whether it may be reversible.
Also see this MacRumors post about one user's eye strain which began with a specific subversion of macOS Catalina.
