I have a Mac Studio (M2 Ultra), two LG monitors, and I recently upgraded to Sketchup 2025. All had been working fine until this morning, when I updated to MacOS Sequoia 15.4. I opened Sketchup, my screens started flickering, and then my Mac crashed. This happened at least 10 times. I disconnected 1 of the 2 monitors, and that helped. But I need 2 monitors.
I opened a model in Sketchup 2023, with both monitors hooked up, and it didn’t crash, so it has to be a 2025/Sequoia 15.4 compatibility issue. Anyone else having the same problem, and is there a fix?
if you turn off the new engine (preferences / graphics) does it still crash ?
I assume there are no bugsplats since the mac is crashing. do you get mac os crash reports upon restart ?
— that wouldn’t be the first time a fresh new mac os update breaks something. looking at you sonoma 14.3
2023 didn’t have the new graphics engine. Try turning that off to see if it works better. I’m upgrading to 15.4 tonight, although I don’t use 2 monitors…
Ah, that’s the T6020 chip.. AI tells me Vectorworks 2025 users have also seen this. We’ll ping Apple as well. " a low-level system crash related to macOS 15 and its changes to Metal and graphics memory handling, potentially triggered by issues with GPU acceleration or display switching."
I was operating my monitors at 3360x1890 for legibility. Switching scaling resolution on my monitors to 3840x2160 made the crashes stop. Switching back to 3360x1890 from 3840x2160 made it crash again. The additional load of the scaling (non-default 4k resolution) creates a serious bug. I’ll keep my monitors resolution as 3840x2160 until this is sorted out.
apparently it could have something to do with scaling ?
As far as I understand it (could be wrong):
Apple adjusted GPU switching behavior in macOS 15, introduced a new “Surface Sync” model for Metal-based window rendering. Some applications expect one GPU pipeline, but macOS now dynamically reassigns GPU resources between multiple displays. This can cause crashes if an app isn’t optimized for the new GPU switching behavior. Also, Apple now syncs window movement with the display’s refresh cycle, which can cause instability if different refresh rates or connection types are used.
I was not switching between a “scaled” and “non-scaled” screen, but heard that can trigger a pipeline switch in the GPU or Incorrect Metal surface synchronization, leading to an application crash.
When I set a scaled resolution (3360x1890) instead of native 4K (3840x2160), macOS renders everything at a higher resolution internally (maybe 6720x3780), then scales it down to fit 3360x1890.
Apple’s Metal rendering engine optimizes for native resolution first. When running at a scaled resolution, macOS uses a different GPU pipeline for UI rendering. Non-native resolutions (like 3360x1890) now go through a more complex GPU scaling process. MacOS offloads some display tasks to the GPU, which can cause crashes when applications expect direct framebuffer access.
@maya3 can you tell us the resolution of your screens ? and eventually try what that person did on the other forum, switching to a more standard resolution ?
Among other things, Apple asks “what external display vendor & models are you using?”
Any dongles or anything between ports ?
Thanks for the resolution - that won’t hurt.
We’ve let Apple know.
Hi. I’m using two 27" LG HDR 4k monitors (6400x3600) model 27BL85U, no dongles, just a straight USB-C to USB-C connection.
So the resolution the issue after all. Yesterday it was crashing no matter what I did to the resolution. But today I started with the default resolution (1980x1080) and kept moving up in small increments. All was fine until I got to 3360x1890, when it crashed again. Seems to be working fine at 3200x1800, at least for now. Not ideal for me, but better than only one screen.
The highest I could set my lalptop to was 2056x1329, and then I plugged in an external LG via HDMI at 3840x2160. I opened models on both and did animation… so your total screen res is still larger than mine, and you’re M2 while I’m still M1. Thanks for adjusting this - we’ll leave the issue in, but confirm this configuration worked prior to 15.4?
