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Viewsonic: the Mac's nemesis.

Pakaku

Pakaku

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 29, 2009
3,307
5,030
Bought a 2008 3.2 GHz dual core Mac Pro, that came with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT graphics card, and I upgraded that to a GT 120 card.

I've been using an LED Viewsonic monitor with it since buying it, and everything had been going fine up until this morning. Last night I had been using Vista and doing some high-res gaming, and no problems until today. Now when I try booting up in OS X, it doesn't get quite past the Apple icon before black wipes down the screen, so nothing gets displayed.

I've tried every single combination I can think of (except buying a DVI-Displayport adapter). I've tried different monitors with the GT 120, and they work. I've tried reverting to the old 8800 and trying out different DVI ports, and still nothing with just the Viewsonic. When I dual-monitor, the Mac can detect both monitors plugged in, but nothing gets displayed. What I haven't tried yet is using it with another Mac, but then again I don't exactly have another Mac to test it on.

The funny thing is that the Viewsonic had been working perfectly up until this point. Could it be that intense gaming burned out my monitor? That might not be the case since it can still be used in Vista. Should I call up whoever I bought the monitor from and ask them for a replacement, or is there some sort of fix?
 
You may need to try a VGA cable.

Or switching resolutions on the Viewsonic.

BTW...the GT120 is NOT an upgrade from an 8800GT, quite the opposite. Newer name, lower specs.
 
Reset your PRAM. There might be an incorrect refresh rate set for the display which it loads when the OS comes up or something else...
 
The Rominator said:
You may need to try a VGA cable.

Or switching resolutions on the Viewsonic.

BTW...the GT120 is NOT an upgrade from an 8800GT, quite the opposite. Newer name, lower specs.
Click to expand...

Not an upgrade? I guess I've been had. :\ How much of a difference back is the GT 120?

Luckily, my Mac came with a VGA-DVI adapter, but it still doesn't detect the monitor. A DVI connection does work on the lowest resolution, but I'm sure we can all agree a Pro can do much better...

And resetting the PRAM didn't help, either. Maybe it's just the monitor...
 
Pakaku said:
Not an upgrade? I guess I've been had. :\ How much of a difference back is the GT 120?

Luckily, my Mac came with a VGA-DVI adapter, but it still doesn't detect the monitor. A DVI connection does work on the lowest resolution, but I'm sure we can all agree a Pro can do much better...
Click to expand...


Sounds like Apple's over-eager salesmen gave you a ride to the cleaners.

Don't cry, it certainly is a SHINIER video card:

http://www.barefeats.com/opencl.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal14.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html

It typically scores around 33% of the 8800GTs fps except in COD4 where it spurts up to 40%.
 
Pakaku said:
Bought a 2008 3.2 GHz dual core Mac Pro, that came with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT graphics card, and I upgraded that to a GT 120 card. ...
Click to expand...

...did you get both cards with the purchase or was your GT120 an upgrade price and they kept the original card?

How long ago did you purchase it, are you with in the 14 day return period?

Return the GT120 if you can...
 
Genghis Khan said:
Don't think I've ever seen a dual core Mac Pro... :p
Click to expand...

The 8-core Mac Pro has two cores with four processors, so it's a dual core. :p

The Rominator said:
Sounds like Apple's over-eager salesmen gave you a ride to the cleaners.

Don't cry, it certainly is a SHINIER video card:

http://www.barefeats.com/opencl.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal14.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html

It typically scores around 33% of the 8800GTs fps except in COD4 where it spurts up to 40%.
Click to expand...

Shinier and quieter, too. So my already fast games on a Gt 120 will be even better on the 8800? Sweet.
 
It could be your RAM

I had a similar problem with my ACD

It was diagnosed over the phone as RAM. I had to just keep switching out modules until it stopped. . . . Yes, I had added third-party RAM.
 
Pakaku said:
Could it be that intense gaming burned out my monitor?
Click to expand...

Ok, I really hate when I see people write stuff like this. That doesn't make any sense at all. All it does is display an image. It doesn't matter what that image is or whether it's a moving image or not... it's the same thing. Thats like saying "do you think I might damage my chair if I put a magazine on it instead of sitting on it?"

And there is no such thing as intense gaming with a GT120. You might actually try learning about something before you buy it. Never go off of sales pitches. Especially something so mind-numbingly easy to compare like graphics cards.
 
The Rominator said:
Sounds like Apple's over-eager salesmen gave you a ride to the cleaners.

Don't cry, it certainly is a SHINIER video card:

http://www.barefeats.com/opencl.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal14.html

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html

It typically scores around 33% of the 8800GTs fps except in COD4 where it spurts up to 40%.
Click to expand...

Those benchmarks are so flawed. The Geforce 8800GT gets nearly double the framerates of the 3870, when in fact the card performs only about 15% faster. Then again, those benchmarks are done under OS X, where performance is always far worse than when running the same game under windows.

Abidubi said:
Especially something so mind-numbingly easy to compare like graphics cards.
Click to expand...

Bull.

If this was so easy, why does apple still charge 400 dollars for graphic cards that are worth no more than $100?

The reason is, like I've said before, is because most mac users are graphic card ignorant, and apple can and will continue getting away with charging ridiculous prices, and of course, fooling its customers. The only thing they 'honestly' advertise, is OS X.
 
ungraphic said:
The reason is, like I've said before, is because most mac users are graphic card ignorant, and apple can and will continue getting away with charging ridiculous prices, and of course, fooling its customers. The only thing they 'honestly' advertise, is OS X.
Click to expand...

Well, that, and economies of scale. . . .
 
ungraphic said:
Bull.

If this was so easy, why does apple still charge 400 dollars for graphic cards that are worth no more than $100?

The reason is, like I've said before, is because most mac users are graphic card ignorant, and apple can and will continue getting away with charging ridiculous prices, and of course, fooling its customers. The only thing they 'honestly' advertise, is OS X.
Click to expand...

No.. it's because you don't have a choice and most people don't want to deal with the hassle of flashing whether they know how or not.

It was very very easy for me to compare the GT120 to the 4870 before I bought the computer, and hence how I made the easy choice to get the 4870 for the slight price increase. Apple charging more than the equivalent PC card didn't make it any harder for me to see the performance difference between those 2 cards.

Apple charges $400 for a $150 graphics card because A) They can since there is 0 competition B) They add on the "we made drivers and ROMs for OSX that have been tested to work" tax and C) because it's the fastest available card for anyone running a Mac... just like how the top of the line PC graphics cards are always in the $300-$500 range.

Are you going to tell me that the cost to make a PC 4870 is now 40% of what it cost to produce one 2 years ago? It has nothing to do with the hardware, price is supply and demand. When nobody wants that card anymore, the price drops. There are about 100 times as many PC customers than there are Mac customers when it comes to high end gaming graphics cards. That means there are tons of companies that step forward to get into that market making a large supply and competition on top of that.


Here is an idea for you. You want cheaper graphics card? Start your own company, buy the licences to make ATI or Nvidia cards, write your own OSX drivers and ROMs. There is nothing at all stopping you and you can sell them at whatever price you want, but I bet you that you wont be selling them anywhere near the PC prices.

$100,000 spent writing code, testing and on licences divided by 50,000 sold cards is much much less than being divided by 2500 sold cards.

And guess what, EVGA decided to do what I sugested above and guess what... they sell the cards for more than the PC prices :eek:

Mac 285: $450 http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1080-TR&family=Geforce 200 Series Family
PC 285: $349 http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1180-AR&family=Geforce 200 Series Family

And Apple has nothing to do at all with that card, or it's prices. No competition = high prices

You have no idea about how the world works. So long as people want it, apple sells it, and there is no competition... apple can charge whatever they want. Unless people stop wanting macintoshes (iMac, Pro or book) they will keep wanting faster graphics cards.
 
Pakaku said:
Bought a 2008 3.2 GHz dual core Mac Pro, that came with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT graphics card, and I upgraded that to a GT 120 card.
Click to expand...

Pakaku said:
The 8-core Mac Pro has two cores with four processors, so it's a dual core. :p

Shinier and quieter, too. So my already fast games on a Gt 120 will be even better on the 8800? Sweet.
Click to expand...

It is a little surprising to read that despite buying one of the rarest MPs, you are unaware of the difference between a CPU and a core, nor the difference between a 8800GT and a GT120.

Such a great resource here, shame not to make use of it to research possible upgrade options and to diagnose faults earlier. Congrats on the machine though!

Abidubi said:
Apple charges $400 for a $150 graphics card ... C) because it's the fastest available card for anyone running a Mac...
Click to expand...

This is not exactly true as many of today's upper-level PC cards you mentioned also work on the Mac (Pro), albeit with some manual work/customisation required. Obviously this is a different story for all the other machines in the Apple range due to the limitation in upgrading their graphics cards.
 
dsiew81 said:
It is a little surprising to read that despite buying one of the rarest MPs, you are unaware of the difference between a CPU and a core, nor the difference between a 8800GT and a GT120.

Such a great resource here, shame not to make use of it to research possible upgrade options and to diagnose faults earlier. Congrats on the machine though!
Click to expand...

Buying the GT 120 with the Mac Pro was an honest mistake of mine, and I'm planning on returning it if I can, if not I'm sure I can find someone willing to buy it off of me, since the card is almost brand new.

But my question about the monitor not working still hasn't been answered yet... Looks like this whole thing turned into a graphics card debate instead. I haven't swapped out any RAM yet, though I should buy some more soon.
 
See how you go returning the GT120, else it is still a handy card to have around if you ever need to troubleshoot (thought you also have your 8800GT). You can keep using it and drive more displays if that's applicable.

In any case, have you tested your monitor with another machine? Could there be an issue with the display itself, despite it having worked fine up until now?
 
Pakaku said:
Bought a 2008 3.2 GHz dual core Mac Pro, that came with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT graphics card, and I upgraded that to a GT 120 card.

I've been using an LED Viewsonic monitor with it since buying it, and everything had been going fine up until this morning. Last night I had been using Vista and doing some high-res gaming, and no problems until today. Now when I try booting up in OS X, it doesn't get quite past the Apple icon before black wipes down the screen, so nothing gets displayed.

I've tried every single combination I can think of (except buying a DVI-Displayport adapter). I've tried different monitors with the GT 120, and they work. I've tried reverting to the old 8800 and trying out different DVI ports, and still nothing with just the Viewsonic. When I dual-monitor, the Mac can detect both monitors plugged in, but nothing gets displayed. What I haven't tried yet is using it with another Mac, but then again I don't exactly have another Mac to test it on.

The funny thing is that the Viewsonic had been working perfectly up until this point. Could it be that intense gaming burned out my monitor? That might not be the case since it can still be used in Vista. Should I call up whoever I bought the monitor from and ask them for a replacement, or is there some sort of fix?
Click to expand...

LOL upgraded to a gt 120? Your joking right?
 
Ace134blue said:
LOL upgraded to a gt 120? Your joking right?
Click to expand...

Already went over this. :)

dsiew81 said:
See how you go returning the GT120, else it is still a handy card to have around if you ever need to troubleshoot (thought you also have your 8800GT). You can keep using it and drive more displays if that's applicable.

In any case, have you tested your monitor with another machine? Could there be an issue with the display itself, despite it having worked fine up until now?
Click to expand...

I've been able to use the monitor with my Vista partition, like I said, so there shouldn't be any problem with the monitor itself. I still don't have another machine (Mac or PC) to test it out on, though. OS X sounds really fishy right now...

Would an 8800 GT and a GT 120 be compatible with each other? I thought you weren't supposed to combine different graphics cards.
 
Interesting

After playing in Vista again, I booted up into OS X, and the monitor is working again. Weird, but at least the problem is solved for now...
 
Pakaku said:
After playing in Vista again, I booted up into OS X, and the monitor is working again. Weird, but at least the problem is solved for now...
Click to expand...

Indeed, perhaps something odd got written into the NVRAM or whatever it's called. Unsure if that could even happen. On an unrelated note, repair permissions etc.
 
What model is this monitor? I have a few Viewsonics and I tried them on my computer and they all worked fine.

Pakaku said:
Would an 8800 GT and a GT 120 be compatible with each other? I thought you weren't supposed to combine different graphics cards.
Click to expand...

That's no issue; you can even mix a 4870 with the GT120.
 
Pakaku said:
Already went over this. :)



I've been able to use the monitor with my Vista partition, like I said, so there shouldn't be any problem with the monitor itself. I still don't have another machine (Mac or PC) to test it out on, though. OS X sounds really fishy right now...

Would an 8800 GT and a GT 120 be compatible with each other? I thought you weren't supposed to combine different graphics cards.
Click to expand...

Sorry didnt read above posts:D , just had to laugh.
 
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