Mac Pro 5,1 OS 10.6.8 random pixelation

[donmerlin]

I've got a Mac Pro 5,1 with 32GB RAM, and a Radeon HD 5770 GPU with 1GB VRAM. I'm running 10.6.8. I had two displays on this card for awhile, but a few months ago, I started getting random pixels in random windows. They come in random colors, and are mostly solid, but not completely (and they differ in shading randomly as well). If I restart the Mac, the problem goes away for a day or two, but then comes back. Consistently. Recently, it stopped supporting two displays, so I had to disconnect one.

I'm looking at a couple of things. One is that I'm not hearing a fan in my Mac Pro, and wondering if things are overheating. This room is so noisy, I'm not 100% sure. Are the fans typically quiet?

Second, I'm looking to buy a new GPU, and wondering what the best recommendation is for my system.

Thanks!

 

[ClassObject]

Start with the OS.

 

[bax2003]

Probably 5770 problems, and problems like that are not connected to overheating. They are usually coused by problems on PCB itself close to the GPU (graphics chip).

 

[heisenburg]

I've got a Mac Pro 5,1 with 32GB RAM, and a Radeon HD 5770 GPU with 1GB VRAM. I'm running 10.6.8. I had two displays on this card for awhile, but a few months ago, I started getting random pixels in random windows. They come in random colors, and are mostly solid, but not completely (and they differ in shading randomly as well). If I restart the Mac, the problem goes away for a day or two, but then comes back. Consistently. Recently, it stopped supporting two displays, so I had to disconnect one.

I'm looking at a couple of things. One is that I'm not hearing a fan in my Mac Pro, and wondering if things are overheating. This room is so noisy, I'm not 100% sure. Are the fans typically quiet?

Second, I'm looking to buy a new GPU, and wondering what the best recommendation is for my system.

Thanks!

I would recommend taking the side off your Mac and powering it on to see if the fan is spinning on your video card. It also wouldn't hurt to blow the video card out with compressed air, you wouldn't believe how much dust can build up in those video cards!

 

[spoonie1972]

agree with above. don't use a vacuum cleaner - get a can of air.

also, get "SMC Fan Control" to see how fast all your fans are spinning (istat pro should also do this, but you can speed things up with SMC-FC if things are getting too hot for your liking; i always had the ram-tray fan at a minimum of 1,000rpm).

YMMV.