MP 7,1 Is this a video card going bad issue?

[basehead617]

I've got a Mac Pro 7,1 with the base video card (Radeon Pro 580X) which I got when the 7,1 was released. I've had no issues at all with it except starting in the past year, I've started to occasionally (and MORE occasionally, recently) see diagonal strips of black squares appear when watching YouTube videos. I don't do other video stuff anywhere else so I'm not sure if it happens in video software or something, but I've never seen it happen on the screen other than watching videos. They appear in the very top 20% or so of the screen only, and more often in the upper right quadrant. They are there for about a frame or two so it's not that easy to see sometimes, but I have an example below that's particularly extreme. Even though they have a sort of transparent look here, when seen at the moment it happens they appear black.

Does this point to a videocard going bad or what are all the possibilities here? I have had many computers and videocards over the years and never seen such a thing. Also, if it's the video card, would this be included in AppleCare+ ?

BTW, I've always been on whatever the latest non-beta macOS is, so this is not the original install or anything likely to be an old software bug.

 

[mattspace]

I've got a Mac Pro 7,1 with the base video card (Radeon Pro 580X) which I got when the 7,1 was released. I've had no issues at all with it except starting in the past year, I've started to occasionally (and MORE occasionally, recently) see diagonal strips of black squares appear when watching YouTube videos. I don't do other video stuff anywhere else so I'm not sure if it happens in video software or something, but I've never seen it happen on the screen other than watching videos. They appear in the very top 20% or so of the screen only, and more often in the upper right quadrant. They are there for about a frame or two so it's not that easy to see sometimes, but I have an example below that's particularly extreme. Even though they have a sort of transparent look here, when seen at the moment it happens they appear black.

Does this point to a videocard going bad or what are all the possibilities here? I have had many computers and videocards over the years and never seen such a thing. Also, if it's the video card, would this be included in AppleCare+ ?

BTW, I've always been on whatever the latest non-beta macOS is, so this is not the original install or anything likely to be an old software bug.


View attachment 2401459

• Only Youtube?
• What browser?
  • Does it happen in multiple browsers, or only one?
  • Try a plugin like Vinegar or Stop The Madness to force a native HTML5 video player instead of the youtube one, and see if that cures it.
• Is your display connected to the card, or a thunderbolt port?
• The arrow of reliability of macOS is not necessarily newer=less bugs - a troubleshooting step would be to boot back to an older version of the system, and see if the same videos provoke the same issues.

You have to break down the problem into smaller variables, and then work through it with elimination testing. That's what Apple would make you do if you call them (if you get someone who knows how to troubleshoot).

 

[Wando64]

That's what Apple would make you do if you call them (if you get someone who knows how to troubleshoot).

⬆️ This.

In addition, if nothing else works, they will have you reinstall the OS from scratch without restore, and check if the problem persists.
Only then they would consider the possibility of this being a symptom of a hardware problem.