Radeon HD 6000M series

The following mobile GPU cards or chipsets from the Radeon HD 6000M series were developed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and incorporated by Apple into iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac minis in 2011:

Mobile GPUs

 * Radeon HD 6490M — Early 2011 MacBook Pro
 * Radeon HD 6630M — Mid 2011 Mac mini
 * Radeon HD 6750M — Mid 2011 iMac, Early and Late 2011 MacBook Pro
 * Radeon HD 6770M — Mid 2011 iMac, Late 2011 MacBook Pro
 * Radeon HD 6970M — Mid 2011 iMac

GPU failures
All of the AMD Radeon HD 6000M series chipsets were found to be prone to failure across all of the Mac models that they were incorporated into, including iMacs and Mac minis that were released in 2011. This issue appeared to be related to heat generated by the discrete GPU and was especially exacerbated by the compact form factor and limited ventilation of the 2011 MacBook Pros. Apple removed AMD GPUs from all of the respective 2012 models in the following year, and did not offer AMD GPUs in its iMac models again until 2014 and MacBook Pro models until 2015.

Lawsuits
The issues became known as "Radeongate" and led to s being filed against Apple after software updates had allegedly the GPUs to limit their failure rate. A lawsuit alleging a logic board defect was dismissed. Another lawsuit alleged that a switch to a -free, which consisted of and , resulted in a tendency to crack under rapid thermal changes, along with a phenomenon in which microscopic "s" began to form around the solder, eventually ing the GPU.

Apple repair program
On February 20, 2015, Apple initiated a program to repair affected MacBook Pros sold between February 2011 and February 2013 at no charge until February 27, 2016. The program was extended for 2011 models and expired on May 20, 2017.

Aftermarket fixes
After Apple discontinued the repair program, workarounds included users or independent service providers disabling the discrete AMD GPU and using the built-in GPU within the Intel Core processor. Manually switching to the built-in Intel GPU with a utility such as gfxCardStatus can also help extend the life of the discrete AMD GPU.

Articles

 * AMD launches Radeon HD 6000M series, endows them with HD3D and EyeSpeed skills by Vlad Savov at Engadget (2011-01-04)
 * 2011 MacBook Graphics Card - Out of box solution - MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Late 2011 by oldturkey03 at iFixit (2018-04-13)