Help please - Broken Ati Radeon 5870HD??

[pullman]

I think I've got some problems with the video card in my Mac Pro 3,1.

Yesterday I took delivery of a new 24" Eizo monitor which I connected to the 5870 (Mac edition) over Mini DisplayPorts. I also had my old 23" Apple Cinema Display connected over DVI.

No problems until this morning when I edited a 300MB TIFF in Photoshop CS6. When I zoomed in to 100% both screens went black, but the computer was still running.

I replicated this a few times after hard resetting the Mac. Each time the screens have blacked out the video will work again upon reboot.

Then I ran Apple Hardware Test's standard test program.

It begins with Memory and after a few minutes of that the screen went black. I only had the Cinema Display connected then but it still blacked out. This happened on two test runs.

Does anyone know if AHT tests video directly after memory?

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance
Philip

 

[h9826790]

I think I've got some problems with the video card in my Mac Pro 3,1.

Yesterday I took delivery of a new 24" Eizo monitor which I connected to the 5870 (Mac edition) over Mini DisplayPorts. I also had my old 23" Apple Cinema Display connected over DVI.

No problems until this morning when I edited a 300MB TIFF in Photoshop CS6. When I zoomed in to 100% both screens went black, but the computer was still running.

I replicated this a few times after hard resetting the Mac. Each time the screens have blacked out the video will work again upon reboot.

Then I ran Apple Hardware Test's standard test program.

It begins with Memory and after a few minutes of that the screen went black. I only had the Cinema Display connected then but it still blacked out. This happened on two test runs.

Does anyone know if AHT tests video directly after memory?

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance
Philip

There is no way a 3,1's AHT can properly test the 5870.

AHT is very very model specific, and when it was written for the 3,1, that Apple (or flashed) 5870 not even exist. Definitely no support / code / test for it.

Even you can finish the test, 99% there will be an error message because AHT unable to understand the 5870's info.

 

[pullman]

Ok thanks, that makes sense.

Any idea how else can I test the card?

Thanks for your help
Philip

There is no way a 3,1's AHT can properly test the 5870.

AHT is very very model specific, and when it was written for the 3,1, that Apple (or flashed) 5870 not even exist. Definitely no support / code / test for it.

Even you can finish the test, 99% there will be an error message because AHT unable to understand the 5870's info.

 

[t8er8]

I think I've got some problems with the video card in my Mac Pro 3,1.

Yesterday I took delivery of a new 24" Eizo monitor which I connected to the 5870 (Mac edition) over Mini DisplayPorts. I also had my old 23" Apple Cinema Display connected over DVI.

No problems until this morning when I edited a 300MB TIFF in Photoshop CS6. When I zoomed in to 100% both screens went black, but the computer was still running.

I replicated this a few times after hard resetting the Mac. Each time the screens have blacked out the video will work again upon reboot.

Then I ran Apple Hardware Test's standard test program.

It begins with Memory and after a few minutes of that the screen went black. I only had the Cinema Display connected then but it still blacked out. This happened on two test runs.

Does anyone know if AHT tests video directly after memory?

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance
Philip

Similar thing happened to my unflashed 5770 back in my old 3,1. I figured out the gpu was dying and before i could get a replacement, the computer wouldn’t post video even after rebooting. These cards are well known for dying faster than your average gpu because they run really hot and draw quite a bit of power. I cant confirm this is your exact issue, all I can do is guess

 

[pullman]

Thank you for chiming in, it does help.

Now that I pulled out the Eizo's Mini DisplayPort connector from the video card the plug broke. The fit was very very tight from the beginning. I had to carefully push quite hard to get it in to the video card. But when I now pulled it out the front-most metal sleeve part remained stuck in the video card.

Perhaps it's been a cable thing? I am now running with only the Cinema Display. Zooming in on that one image to 100% does not cause a blackout, nor will the Eizo blackout if that one is connected over DVI.

Getting a bit lost here...

Similar thing happened to my unflashed 5770 back in my old 3,1. I figured out the gpu was dying and before i could get a replacement, the computer wouldn’t post video even after rebooting. These cards are well known for dying faster than your average gpu because they run really hot and draw quite a bit of power. I cant confirm this is your exact issue, all I can do is guess

[doublepost=1538480356][/doublepost]I know that I can run PC cards and that I will lose boot screen unless they're flashed.

Which card should I look for that is similar-powered to the 5870? I don't game and the heaviest video use would be Photoshop CS6. It is important for me to be able to run both screens simultaneously at native resolution (which is full HD).

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.
Philip

 

[ActionableMango]

Which card should I look for that is similar-powered to the 5870? I don't game and the heaviest video use would be Photoshop CS6. It is important for me to be able to run both screens simultaneously at native resolution (which is full HD).

For your humble needs:

AMD: HD 7950 (or R9 280)
Nvidia: GTX680

These are the last PC cards that can be self-flashed, fit in the Mac Pro's power envelope, and are equal to or better than your 5870. GTX680 is a little bit easier to flash and instructions are in my signature.

I gotta say though, I don't think I'd pour more money into a 3,1 at this point. It looks like the things you are doing are more CPU and memory bound. You are almost certainly better off upgrading to a 4,1/5,1 than getting a new video card. I know your GPU might be broken, but of course the newer Mac Pro will come with one. 4,1's are flirting with $300 pricing on Craigslist in my area.

 

[pullman]

Thanks for the suggestions, very helpful.

Yes, I agree regarding upgrade. It's on my to do list. Here in Europe I've seen that prices are coming down quite a lot too.

br
Philip

For your humble needs:

AMD: HD 7950 (or R9 280)
Nvidia: GTX680

These are the last PC cards that can be self-flashed, fit in the Mac Pro's power envelope, and are equal to or better than your 5870. GTX680 is a little bit easier to flash and instructions are in my signature.

I gotta say though, I don't think I'd pour more money into a 3,1 at this point. It looks like the things you are doing are more CPU and memory bound. You are almost certainly better off upgrading to a 4,1/5,1 than getting a new video card. I know your GPU might be broken, but of course the newer Mac Pro will come with one. 4,1's are flirting with $300 pricing on Craigslist in my area.