Broken text on new Mac Pro w/ nVidia 8800GT video card

[jeffreyk]

I have searched around the web -- and the forum here -- to see if I could get an answer for my query but I don't think I've looked in the right place/asked the right question for an answer so I thought I'd bring it up here:

I have a new Quad Core 2.8-GHz Mac Pro (with 10GB memory) that's just about 3 weeks in my possession now and everything is working great except it seems every now and then (every 4-5 days) text gets cut in half, sometimes doubles, on various forums/websites including this one and the pics flash for a bit and then render just fine. I'm only using Safari with my nVidia 8800GT video card at 1920x1200 resolution with my 4-5 year old Dell 24-inch 2405WFP monitor. I have a Dell 3007WFP-HC 30-inch monitor on order (it will get here in a couple of days) so I'll be running full 2560x1600 resolution with my graphics card.

When I restart my Mac Pro the problem goes away or if I highlight the text and rollover it with the mouse the text renders just fine although other sections of the page the text gets cut in half again or doubles.

From what I've found on the web thus far, it may be the individual website in Safari that's causing the problem (not the card -- I really hope) but I thought I'd ask here to hopefully get a definitive answer. I've also looked on the nVidia website for video card updates/driver downloads and all that's listed is the Windows platform.

Thanks!

 

[Ptyger]

As far as I can tell, this is a prominent problem on MacBook Pros as well. The threads I've read on this forum in regards to this issue (sorry, I don't have the threads immediately to hand to link) state that the problem has something to do with the way the text is rendered through the Quartz layer in Safari (correct me if I'm wrong, please ). The issue was apparently fixed when 10.5.5 was released, and then became an issue again with 10.5.6.

I've experienced this same issue on my early '08 MBP with the 8600M GT and perhaps the problem could be the rendering issue on nvidia cards. I can say from my own experience that I only experience the problem in Safari, so if I open up the same site in Firefox, it vanishes, though may remain present if I continue to browse in Safari.

The only solution that I've heard so far is to wait and see if Apple releases another update that corrects the issue. Hope this helps.

 

[jeffreyk]

Oh yeah, that helps, definitely. I certainly appreciate your help.

I've only read a "basic" explanation on the subject elsewhere (pretty much the basic gist of what you described) so your input really fleshes it out a lot more for me than what I've read previously. I didn't realize this was effecting the MBP so it's good to know that it just isn't a minor issue. Not to say the breaking up of text is a "minor" issue, but there could be alot worse things that could be the cause of this matter.

It's annoying, of course, but seeing it's not a huge defect of the video card, it's certainly tolerable until another update is made to fix the issue.

Thanks again for your help.