Is my graphics card going bad?

[ryanide]

I keep seeing these weird multi-color single pixel lines across my windows and my system is crashing alot (rather it becomes completely frozen and non-responsive). I don't know if this is a video card problem, or memory issue, or just something in the system OS.

It does seem that it happens quite often while running Handbrake. I'm still getting these lines with a fresh OS install, so I'm thinking my original video card is on the way out...

Will replacing it with actually improve performance?

Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.7f10

ATI Radeon X1900 XT:
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x7249
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A52027-202
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.202
Displays:
Cinema HD Display:

 

[Hellhammer]

Run hardware test off the install disk. As it's a Mac Pro, you can just get a new GPU

 

[666sheep]

Yes, it's your card. Don't bother with hardware test - symptoms are clear.
It's going bad or it's overheating. Handbrake is very CPU demanding app, heavy CPU usage = more heat generated.

What you can do:

1. clean dust off the card and its heatsink/fan
2. change card's cooler to this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/319267/ - if card is not damaged it will help,
3. don't bother with 1&2 and get new graphics card

 

[OGDaniel]

Yes, it's your card. Don't bother with hardware test - symptoms are clear.
It's going bad or it's overheating. Handbrake is very CPU demanding app, heavy CPU usage = more heat generated.

What you can do:

1. clean dust off the card and its heatsink/fan
2. change card's cooler to this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/319267/ - if card is not damaged it will help,
3. don't bother with 1&2 and get new graphics card

Correct. After a fresh OS install, it has to be the graphics card.

 

[ryanide]

no hardware errors found

Run hardware test off the install disk. As it's a Mac Pro, you can just get a new GPU

Also noticed that my Hard Drive tests all indicate Temperature Changes towards the fail side. Should I be worried that my system is running too hot?

 

[rfrankl]

I had the same problem. It was the graphic card. I turned up the fans using SMC Fan Control and that helped keep it alive, but it eventually completely died down the road.

 

[vizfxman]

I had the same problem. It was the graphic card. I turned up the fans using SMC Fan Control and that helped keep it alive, but it eventually completely died down the road.

Agreed 100%.

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 and had the same exact issues. First I adjusted the fan settings, which helped, and eventually I replaced my X1900.

 

[kbonnel]

I seem to remember the x1900 having this problem due to dust and such building up reducing cooling. (NOTE: I am not sure if this was just the Apple released ones, or if the 3rd party ones also had issues. I would assume they would if they were following the same OEM heat spreader / fan layout and such)

K