Graphics corruption on Mac G5, Nvidia 6800 Ultra

Thanks Thili !

Yeah this whole system is stupid hot really - the G5 processors sizzle away at anything up to 80'C or so on-chip, but apparently that's perfectly normal *shrug*

But, 9 hard drives 4 optical disks your rigs even crazier than I thought lol

Well I spoke to Apple, (well at least a seemingly offshore callcentre *sigh*) at length, and have a replacement 6800 Ultra on the way - which will at least prove/disprove any hardware element of this equation. Power supply shouldn't be an issue as I have the stock 650 watt in there already.

Starting to get obsessed with this thing now - sorry for the constant bumping, but will post any findings in case it helps anyone else...

Well...replacement 6800 Ultra card from Apple fitted, - same problems persist - exactly the same card behaviour, and temperatures, so this corruption would appear not to be a hardware issue after all (actually gonna keep my original card as its a newer rev than the one Apple sent me, ROM 2119 vs. 210.

As the PC peeps are flagging a few related probs with this card it appears to be not entirely down to the latest Apple supplied drivers either......

Interestingly the only card I've used which shows none of these problems whatsoever is my old ATI Radeon 8500. All the Nvidia ones (two 6800's and to a lesser extent an FX5200) seem to go berserk in this way

Well, the bug is logged in the bug queue anyway...I've done as much elimination and fault finding as I can now I think...over to you Linden Labs....

Just to update on this issue...

Just released Mac OS X 10.3.8 includes improvements to graphics, specifically updates for Nvidia drivers and OpenGL

This didn't help solve the problem either, still completely messed up.....

*sigh*

Hi Dee,
I have the system and the same problem. I was about to mention the new 10.3.8 update but I guess that didn't work. Sorry, no help here.

Hi Aren

Ahhh, I'm not alone after all ! What's your system configuration, out of interest ?

By the way, an unrelated tip about the 10.3.8 update; if you have a driver installed for the MacAlly iShock II gamepad, an incompatibility will flood your system.log file with errors till it fills the boot disk, consuming about 95% of CPU capacity as it does so. I finally identified this when I had a system.log of about 27 Gb in size ! (and I thought it was just SL lagging, lol) The present workaround is to remove the iShock driver from Startup items.

I'd love to chat to you about the graphics corruption if we run into each other in-world !

Take care

I've got the new dual 2.5GHz, the 6800 Ultra, 4GB of RAM, and the 30" monitor. It's for work - I don't own it Sometimes I get to get to use it for SL when everything is backed up.

Thanks Aren, so an identical system to mine apart from that I have 2Gb RAM and 19" LG monitor

We have a proven repeatable problem then.....

Wow, SL on a 30" monitor, that must be great, mmmmm, envy

This bug seems to have disappeared from the bug queue with the new searchable formatting just introduced, I must IM Uncle Linden about that....

well I just noticed video corruption with a different video card.

Powerbook (one of the new ones) with Nvidia ...

GeForce FX Go5200

It occurs to me that I might be overdriving it by running two displays at the same time though. Here is a pic of what I see...

Hi Mac

Yep, looks similar, though to a less severe degree... and appearance mode is certainly always the worst case for this effect.

I also saw it when I temporarily shoved a 5200FX in my G5 (though obviously not the Go version)

So now it's seen on the 6800, 4Ti, 5200 and Go5200 - always Nvidia is the common factor.....

Do you also get corruption on camera panning/zooming in regular usage, as well as appearance mode ?

Thanks for adding your post !

Dee, I have the exact same problem on my dual-867 G4 with Geforce 4Ti. But not on my Powerbook. Usually I just click the sky or ground to get rid of it, but if it happens when in Appearance edit that doesn't work. Very annoying.

Please update if you find a fix! I'll do the same.

Hi Lora

That's it exactly !

I'm continually clicking away to clear the problem during the whole of my time spent in SL, and yes appearance mode is 'unclearable' as you say. It makes building or editing a real nightmare !

Again an Nvidia card...

I've gone to great lengths to try and locate a fix, but to no avail - I'm hoping the solution lies with Linden Labs, Nividia or Apple or some combination thereof. I'm hoping it gets dealt with soon anyway...

Will keep in touch - thanks !

It must be the nVidia card and/or drivers. I am running a Big Dual Mac with the ATI Radeon 9800 Special Edition (256 VRAM)... and have few probs, if any.

Have there been new drivers released that are perhap conflicting with SL?

Good luck.....

Well, I think I've solved my problem.... just in case this applies to anyone else:

When posting my previous message I went into the System Profiler to get the model number for the graphics card and this is what I saw:

--------

GeForce FX Go5200:

  Type:	display
  Bus:	AGP
  Display Type:	CRT
  VRAM (Total):	64 MB
  Vendor:	nVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:	0x0329
  Revision ID:	0x00b1
  ROM Revision:	2122

Display:

  Type:	display
  Display Type:	LCD
  VRAM (In Use):	32 MB

L15:

  Type:	display
  Display Type:	CRT
  VRAM (In Use):	32 MB
  Resolution:	1024 x 768 @ 70 Hz
  Depth:	32-bit Color
  Main Display:	Yes
  Mirror Status:	Master Mirror
  Online:	Yes
  Mirror:	On

---------

What I didn't notice the first time is that as I have an external display plugged into my Powerbook both the external displays are driven at the same time, and the video memory is split right down the middle to service both of them. On a hunch, I decided to disable one of my displays (by simply closing the cover on the Powerbook it devotes its full attention to the external display) and went back into SL. Problem solved. I had no video corruption at all. I was in SL for an hour or two after that and never had any problems.

So, now I'm wondering if anyone else here is operating with two displays. My guess is that either SL, or the OS itself is making use of the knowledge that I have 64M video ram, but is unaware that half of it is unavailable (for any particular display).

Hmmm, thats an interesting observation Mac, maybe it will offer a pointer to those in the know... Hope you did solve your problem !

I am only using one display, with 256Mb VRAM on the card. I have tried reducing the VRAM usage by SL in preferences to see if it made a difference, but, none for me.

Elror, the drivers have been updated within OS X, but I have had the problem for the last few versions of OS X, since I bought the system. If anything, I understand from net-talk that the 6800 drivers are currently just modified versions of the 5200 ones and we have to wait for OS X 10.4 in the summer to get some specifically engineered ones for that card. But then the problem is occuring with other Nvidia cards too, so it's not specifically the 6800 drivers at fault it seems. I did put an old ATI card in temporarily and it removed the problem, so it does seem to be Nvidia-specific at least.

There seems to be quite a few of us now suffering with this problem on one card or another, and particularly as more G5/6800/SL combinations come on the scene I suspect there will be more.....

....and I briefly logged into the 1.6 preview for long enough to ascertain that that update isn't going to solve it

Beginning to seriously wonder about giving up on Nvidia and switching back to ATI ..... anyone tried the X800 XT with SL yet ?

I'm sorry to hear that your issues with the card have not cleared up. Very frustrating.

Thanks for maintaining this thread, Dee. I am considering getting a G5 sometime this year, and your trials and tribulations have been instructive. I am currently on a G4 with a Radeon 9000, which is fine for what it is (SL performance is decent for an old computer), but one thing I really like about having an ATI card is the accompanying control panel. I don't think nVidia has anything similar for the Mac; the ATI control panel allows you to do some application-specific fine-tuning to the card's settings, rotate the display, stuff like that. Very useful.

If I do get a G5 this year, the X800 XT may well be the card I go with. I too would be very interested to hear about anybody's SL experiences using it.

Hiya Pol

Yes, you're using pretty much the equivalent of my previous system, and you will notice a huge jump in performance when you go G5. The graphics card is critical though as even my G5 ran SL slowly with an FX5200 in it, whereas whatever other problems I have with the 6800 Ultra, it is certainly a fast GPU.

I was always an ATI user before and only 'switched' to Nvidia because I kept hearing how much better their cards were with SL. On the Mac side at least, I now beg to differ with that consensus of opinion after being stuck with this horrible problem for 5 months now with no solution in sight and having spent hours trying to isolate the problem to date.

I may hold out for 'Tiger' and new graphics drivers, which may or may not work of course, as Second Life is the ONLY app where I see problems, but I'm just getting really, really tired of dealing with it now, as almost every action I take in SL is affected by the problem, building is a struggle, movement is disorientating, appearance mode has become nigh-on impossible to use and I'm now also getting problems with texture bake corruption of clothes when I move the cam whilst changing, which seems to be related in some way, although SL is taking a minute or two to change and re-render each item of clothing just recently for me, so that may just be down to the usual asset server dragginess.

If I can sell the Nvidia 6800 on eBay, I see an ATI X800 in my future I think, but it's just more expense I can't really afford

Whoops, sorry for the slight rant about the problem as I'm trying to remain positive and analytical over this and I now know I'm not the only one suffering - my genuine thanks to everybody for sharing their experiences and hopefully raising the profile of the issue with Linden Labs ( ??? ) - but you can imagine how frustrating it's getting, and I'm feeling a bit jaded this morning, lol

Yep, the availability of the control panel is a good point in the X800's favour and it is also single width of course, so no loss of a PCI slot there. Of course one thing is knowing how people have got on with the X800 on a Mac rather than a PC, as this Nvidia problem does appear to be Mac-specific.

Best of luck with getting hold of your G5 Pol, you'll love it

I have noticed actually, that there is a flickering pixellating distortion in the interaction between the SL window (but only when logged in and actively streaming) and any other tiled window on the Mac OS X desktop. Only SL shows this.

Could this be related ? It seems a coincidence - suggesting an issue with OpenGL / Quartz Extreme video acceleration perhaps ?

Also activating any of the 'Expose' features when SL is to the fore just causes a flicker and distortion rather than proper window movement, again maybe suggesting a possible incompatibility as above.

Another clue on the trail perhaps, or a red herring, I don't know...just thought I'd add it to the list of observations....

Just a note to say I finally pulled the Nvidia 6800 Ultra card and replaced it with a new ATI X800 XT 256Mb GPU.

No more problems.....I'm happy, though this doesn't of course solve the problem for anyone else

(and I now have an expensive monster of an Nvidia card to dispose of to recoup some of the cost of the ATI *chuckles*)

Nvidia, Mac and SL just do not appear to make a good combination at the moment.

The ATI gives me just the same performance, is quieter, appears to run cooler, and doesn't block a PCI slot. Not one graphics artifact or hint of odd behaviour. Perfect !

To be able to see SL again clearly, use appearance mode properly and change clothes without corrupting them when I nudge the camera - after sooooo long....aaah bliss

I hope someone fixes this problem with SL and Mac Nvidia cards for the sake of everyone else though....

That's terrific news, Dee. I had a feeling that the X800 would be a good SL/Mac card.

On a related note, MacOSRumors has a tidbit about the upcoming (minor) OS update:

Hope springs eternal.

hello

Help Anyone
Respond Please

I Need Help

is anyone else not able to log on

I can log on but all of SL looks like a desolate wasteland due to textures taking an eon to load. at first i thought my friend who owns land had packed up and moved or returned everything on thier land, but about 15-20 minutes later buildings started coming into focas as i knew they should because i was running into invisable walls everywhere