Is this graphic card failure or something else?
I have a first gen quad-core MacPro. 2.66GHz, 5gigs of RAM, nVIDEA 8800GT 512. In the past I've had some video card issues (a design flaw in the first gens i think) that have led to several free replacements from Apple. After the second ATI card fried I went with the 8800 GT and never looked back.
Recently, It's been making a strange - sort of high pitched whining sound when a 3D application would start dishing out transparency effects or be displaying a lot of models on the screen at once. It was only during real time 3D games, and didn't effect my Final Cut Pro or Logic usage. A few weeks ago, for the first time since the early otts, I experienced a kernel panic - the screen became littered with tiny bits and I had to force restart the machine.
Yesterday I opened up the machine, cleaned the inside a little, removed the 8800GT and took a look at it. It's a pretty closed-case graphics card, so I couldn't see much - but there weren't any signs of dust build up or anything else preventing the fan from operating in a normal way. I put it all back together and started her up and everything was fine.
Later that night I woke it up and started surfing reddit, when the same kernel panic i had experienced earlier in the month happened again. This time, however, when i force restarted the broken bits and blocks were obscuring the startup screen as well - and it locked up before ever reaching the desktop. If I let it sit for 15 or so minutes, I can make it to the desktop as if everything's ok - but then 3-5 minutes of it running it locks up with the bits all over the screen again.
Is my graphics card failing? Or is this something more serious? Below are screenshots of the artifacts on the boot screen and as they appear on the desktop after a few minutes of normal use. As I do video/music for my livelihood, this is like a delivery boy with a broken car. I'm ******. Please let me know if you have any ideas.
Boot screen: http://imgur.com/Plj1i.jpg
Desktop: http://imgur.com/GkChH.jpg
Recently, It's been making a strange - sort of high pitched whining sound when a 3D application would start dishing out transparency effects or be displaying a lot of models on the screen at once. It was only during real time 3D games, and didn't effect my Final Cut Pro or Logic usage. A few weeks ago, for the first time since the early otts, I experienced a kernel panic - the screen became littered with tiny bits and I had to force restart the machine.
Yesterday I opened up the machine, cleaned the inside a little, removed the 8800GT and took a look at it. It's a pretty closed-case graphics card, so I couldn't see much - but there weren't any signs of dust build up or anything else preventing the fan from operating in a normal way. I put it all back together and started her up and everything was fine.
Later that night I woke it up and started surfing reddit, when the same kernel panic i had experienced earlier in the month happened again. This time, however, when i force restarted the broken bits and blocks were obscuring the startup screen as well - and it locked up before ever reaching the desktop. If I let it sit for 15 or so minutes, I can make it to the desktop as if everything's ok - but then 3-5 minutes of it running it locks up with the bits all over the screen again.
Is my graphics card failing? Or is this something more serious? Below are screenshots of the artifacts on the boot screen and as they appear on the desktop after a few minutes of normal use. As I do video/music for my livelihood, this is like a delivery boy with a broken car. I'm ******. Please let me know if you have any ideas.
Boot screen: http://imgur.com/Plj1i.jpg
Desktop: http://imgur.com/GkChH.jpg
1st gen Quad Core MacPro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
