Radeon 4870 in 2009 Mac Pro - Defective? [Archive]

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tomhayes

Mar 22, 2009, 01:55 PM

Received my 2009 Mac Pro 2.66 Quad on Thursday and everything has been perfect... until today.

I am noticing "corruption" and weird lines on my screen. This is the same type of corruption that I had on a Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900 XT in the past. Apple swapped that X1900 XT for a new one and my problems disappeared.

I am using an Apple Cinema Display 30" (1st gen, bought the month they came out) via DVI, and a Princeton VL 193 via DisplayPort->DVI adaptor. The corruption has only showed up on the 30" so far.

Here are some photographs, with the default OS X background, running iTunes, and Dragthing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3375642019/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3375641391/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3376458302/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3376456964/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3376456234/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3376455386/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29134471@N00/3376454496/sizes/l/

The corruption goes away if I set my resolution differently and then set it back to the 30" native resolution. Again, this was the exact problem I had with my first X1900 Xt.

Its not present in screenshots taken while the corruption is visible.

Anyone else have this issue ?

Tallest Skil

Mar 22, 2009, 01:58 PM

2.66 quad as in the Nehalem 3500 series or 2.66 quad as in the 2006 model Mac Pro?

tomhayes

Mar 22, 2009, 02:02 PM

2.66 quad as in the Nehalem 3500 series or 2.66 quad as in the 2006 model Mac Pro?

2009 Nehalem Mac Pro Quad 2.66 (the cheapest one.).

More details: I had not been using the computer for an hour or so. No heavy image processing had taken place that may have made the system warm.

RemarkabLee

Mar 22, 2009, 02:03 PM

Has anyone posted similar findings on the Apple forums? I'm guessing if the problem is software/drivers related, others may have the same issue. If it's a one off hardware problem it'll probably be a rare case.

SLR2009

Mar 22, 2009, 03:09 PM

RobP

Mar 22, 2009, 06:16 PM

I'll be receiving the same Mac Pro on the 27th of March (same video card). It will be hooked up to a 24" LED Cinema Display. I'll let you guys know if I have similar issues with mine.

Just a thought but if this is your second Mac Pro that this happened to then mabey it's your monitor. Do you have a spare monitor that you could hook up to it?

I've got the same Mac Pro (2.66Ghz Quad) with an ATI 4870 hooked up to a 24" LED Cinema display. Had no problems whatsoever with mine (touches wood) and have had it for about a week.

RobP

barefeats

Mar 22, 2009, 06:27 PM

What is the color depth setting on the Displays preference panel?

I have the 4870 running on a 2.93 8-core with no funny effects. I've also run it in the 2008 3.2 and 2007 3.0 for testing purposes with no funnies.

What port is the 30" connected to?