NVIDIA Reports GPU Failures in Significant Quantities of Laptops

NVIDIA reported that there is a problem with some older graphics chips that shipped in a "significant quantities" of laptop PCs. NVIDIA has provided no details as to which laptop models are affected, but plans to release a software driver in the near future to help address it.

To tackle the problem, the company is releasing a software driver that will cause system fans to start operating sooner and reduce the "thermal stress" on the chips. The driver has been provided to laptop makers directly, said Derek Perez, an Nvidia spokesman.

These products have reportedly been failing at "higher than normal rates" and the company expects to pay $150-$200 million in repair, return and replacement costs in Q2 due to this issue.

NVIDIA currently provides the graphics chipsets for the MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, without any further details, it's unknown if any Apple notebooks are affected. If affected, we should expect a driver update from Apple.