When to switch video card?

Quick question. I've just bought a MBP 2.4 late 2008 with the dual video chips.
I spend most of my days in Word, Excel, Visio/Omnigraffle etc. and don't play games. I tend to run Windows in Parallels or VMW depending on the app I need.
Given this, I assume then there's little benefit to me switching to the higher performance card other than helping to keep my hands warm?
Thanks

Hi Stefan:
A question for you: I have a brand new Macbook Pro (late 2008 model). For some reason, when I have it set to the higher performance video card, certain websites that seem to use a lot of Flash, have problems displaying (the screen flashes randomly in a "building block" fashion), but when I change to the lower performance card the problems disappear. Is this normal, is it some sort of defect and is there anything I can do (firmware update, etc), to fix it?
Thanks much!
B.

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Macbook Pro Unibody 2008 freezes when switching video cards

I hava a Macbook Pro unibody late 2008 running Snow Leopard and I have noticed that whenever I switch from one video card to another the system completely freezes after a while. It does not happen while doing something specific or intensive. It seems to be completely random. I have searched in forums and found out that other users are experiencing the same issue but I have found no solution yet. Does anyone know of some way to fix this?

Try resetting your computer's SMC:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
If that doesn't resolve the issue, you may want to download and install AppleJack, a free, open-source utility that runs in Single User Mode and that has sorted out occasional problems with sleep, failure to shut down, etc. on my machines.
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

Switching video cards crashes to black screen

Owner of a MPB 6.2 from new, with an intel HD Graphics and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, intel Core i5. OSX 10.6.8
Initially I had the screen going black with a few pixel white line on the top left part of the screen during the hot months of the summer, and I though it was just a little glich due to temperatures and due to connecting or disconnecting the power supply. But in the last couple of days, it has happen everytime, I connected/disconnected the power supply. I do not think the power supply is at fault, but as I connect or disconnet the PS it forces a graphic card switch and it goes black.
I use gfx CardStatus, so I know when it switches from the Intel to the NVIDIA et vis et versa.
Also with no PS connected, when I switch manually using gfx, forcing the MBP to run from only one graphic card, it just bring the screen to black with that little hazy little white line running half way through from the top left coner of the screen. The computer carries on working normally as I have noticed while streaming and it is just the screen going black.
The only way to bring back the screen display, is to do a force shutdown and a reboot, hoping that the card is not going to switch while doing important stuff.
In any case it is very annoying, scary, and a design fault of somesort from the factory.
I do not have any apple care, out of warrenty, and only in the last couple of days I can reproduce it systematically at every switch of card.
Is there any replacement scheme put in place for this fault? or what is the solution if any?
Many thanks in advance as usually.

Hello and welcome..
(yes I have many loaded)
Make sure there's enough space...
Connect your iPad to your computer. Launch iTunes. Select the Summary tab. Look at the bottom of the window for available storage space.
Carolyn

Mountain Lion change color profile when use discrete video card

MacBookPro mid 2010. Update Samsung SSD 830.
Mountain Lion 10.8.2 just installed (new installation).
Reset PRAM and SMC. Done. No result.
Try with GfxCardStatus. No result.
When the system uses the discrete video card changes the color profile.
I'm not the only one with this problem.
Someone managed to solve the problem (really)?
I DO NOT ACCEPT COMMENTS OR ANSWERS USELESS.
Sorry, but slightly altering after losing three hours in forums where no one ever answered ...
Thanks.
Stefano.

Let's see...
Sounds like you're running into an expected issue if you make an alias to removeable media. The same thing would happen if you made the alias to a folder on a DVD-R disc or CD-R. If you eject the original, you disable the alias.
If you copy the entire SD card volume to your drive, the PRIVATE package should copy across. Then, as a folder on your hard drive rather than a volume on removeable media, you could make an alias to the STREAM package for quicker access later.
I'm pretty sure that Handbrake, like Prmeiere Pro, can see the MTS files directly. That is, it's not dependant on the other folders in the PRIVATE directory sturcture. As such, you could copy the contents of the STREAM package to another folder on your drive. Just be mindful of the default MTS file names if you're using more than one SD card (you don't want to accidentally copy 00001.MTS from one card over 00001.MTS from another card).
As long as Handbrake sees MTS directly, you could even rename the MTS files after you've copied them.
On a side note, I almost always archive my SD cards with the data structure intact. More often than not, that file structure is important to corretly access the video stored within that structure. If something unexpected happens while working with the MTS files, it is good to have the original file structure to go back to. Although, SD cards are getting to be so low cost that sometimes I just label the SD card and store it for archiving.
-Warren

Constant loud piercing beep upon startup when GeForce88000 GT video card installed.

I purchased a 2008 2.8 GHz Mac Pro that has a Quadro FX 1800 Windows video card and Windows 7 installed .
OSX not re-installed yet (I'm trying to get there).
So I installed a GeForce88000 GT video card, which is listed as compatible with this machine for Mac OS, and immediately upon power up, and I mean before I can even pull my finger back out after pushing the button in, the beep starts (and never stops).
This occured when I had both cards installed and when I only had the Mac GeForce88000 GT installed (in that customary first slot).
When I had both cards installed, Windows booted up normally, there was just this unglodly screeeching beep providing a certan "vibe" for the proceedings.
Windows still verifies all 16 GB of RAM.
I tried to search for other posts regarding this issue but came up empty.

Don't care what Nvidia says.
It needs aux power.
All performance PCIe cards need aux power.........
The following photograph shows a comparison to two other cards. The GeForce 8800 GT (left) is about the same size, and also uses a single-slot cooler. The previous generation Radeon X1900 XT (right) is somewhat longer due to its fixing frame. (Note that the cooler on the X1900XT is not the original one, but as the original it's a two-slot cooler). All of these cards need auxiliary power, the power connectors are on the bottom right on each card.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/graphics/ati_3870_mac_pc_review/radeonhd3870_review.h tml
Don't have a cable? Get one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mac-Apple-6-pin-Power-Cable-7800-GT-GTX-8800GT-GTX-285-/ 280414703219?pt=US_Power_Cables_Connectors&hash=item414a04ce73#ht_1326wt_840

Are there any issues when installing two video cards in the same pc?

Hello
I am using Premiere CS5 with a quadro 4000 card. I have two Eizo's monitors attached to the quadro 4000 via the display port. Everything is working fine. I need to connect a plasma screen to my pc (3 monitors total) for viewing red files. I could use the red rocket to export video to the plasma screen but it would be nice if I didn't have to install another driver other than the quadro 4000 nvideo driver. My question is, will having 2 video cards installed in my pc cause any problems? If it will, I will have to use the red rocket for the third monitor. Thanks
Bill Martz

Only three obvious drawbacks, provided you have a free PCI-1 16x slot available;
1. You may need a much more powerful PSU.
2. You need to improve your cooling significantly.
3. You need to buy an extra card.

Cannot switch video cards

Searching as best I could, the only relevant question I could find was this: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1823910&start=0&tstart=0
My problem, however, is slightly different. On the Energy Saver pane, I have the choice between 'Better battery life' and 'Higher performance'. And I can click the latter, at which point a dialogue comes down saying "Please log out for this change to take effect." I do so. When logged back in, however, I open System Preferences again, look at the Energy Saver pane, and although the "Higher performance" box is checked, it says next to it "You need to log out for this change to take effect". However many times I log in or out and check the box, that always happens. And the Systems Profiler shows only the "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M" (in the "Graphics/Displays" section"), when I believe the correct card should be "9600M GT". In fact, I thought that both cards should show up all the time.
Any ideas?

Rebooting I have tried (no difference to logging out). But I had never heard of the Apple Hardware Test - thanks for that, I'll hunt down the install disks and try that tomorrow morning.

Problem after switching video cards

Using Arch on a x86_64, i had everything set up and working with GNOME and Compiz-Fusion, the cube, wobble windows, a custom theme with emerald, etc. Then i did a little hardware upgrade (added a gig of ram, took out my ati radeon x800 gt and replaced it with a nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB card. I uninstalled the radeon drivers, w/e i installed from the ATI wiki page, then followed the nvidia wiki page.
When i startx, the desktop loads just fine, but when i open a window (ie Trash, Firefox) there is no bar across the top (to minimize, maximize, move window, close).
I disabled fusion-icon from running on startup, brought back my xserver, opened a XTerminal (which has that default blue bar on the top) and ran fusion-icon. Error messages were:
compiz (cube) - Warn: Failed to load slidE: freedesktop
compiz (cube) - Warn: Failed to load slidE: freedesktop
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
compiz (cube) - Warn: No GLXFBConfig for depth32
and of course, no more bars on my windows. Anybody run into this/know how to fix it?
One more thing, heres my xorg.conf
http://rafb.net/p/4IvrpH98.html

i used 1280x1024 for my windows instance on that machine. I think thats my max res as well, i use some Westinghouse L1928NV 19", yeah and thats the max res.
Why would that effect my having no bars on my window? It worked with the old card, this card is newer, supports a higher res than my old one, that shouldbe be the issue.

ITunes charged £1.58 to my new credit card when i switched to it.

When i switched credit card numbers, iTunes charged £1.58 to my account. I have text alerts... weird!

Probably normal. See:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3702
Regards.

Exsessive buffering when watching internet video?

I am a pc user switching to mac...
I want to watch videos over the web, but have found that difficult. The main problem is constant buffering. It will play 2 seconds of video and then buffer, making it unwatchable. This is both connect via Ethernet or wireless, using a high speed cable modem.
1) Any ideas what to do?
2) How does switching video cards affect this issue? I cannot see any difference in resolution between the two for videos, but I think I should.
3) How can you tell if your internet connection is wireless or over Ethernet? I realize you could turn wireless off or unplug, but I figure there is an easier way.
4) I assume different webs use different video formats. Does this affect the issue of buffering?
Thanks
Bob

BobInIndy1 wrote:
In general, I don't know the format that a web site uses. Is there a way to tell?
Here is a good example I ran into today. It buffers so much it is unwatchable.
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/resellers/index.html
Out of curiosity, what is the speed of your Internet connection?
For example, I had problems with buffering on a variety of operating systems when I had a 640K DSL link that have largely gone away with a move to a 8M cable modem connection.

Two video cards issue

Any fix for the "Hardware cannot render at the requested size and depth" when having two video cards issue?

Now, the strange thing is: after a few initial issues one of the macs is doing fine. The second one, on the contrary, is a nightmare. Finalcut gives a green screen of death and hangs up suddenly while performing simple operations (like dropping a clip on the timeline).
I'm thinking of trying to replace the two video cards with an older single dual display card, and giving up the fancy lcd monitors (that i bought at vast cost), at least until apple issues an upgrade that adresses the two video card problem. <
If the machines are mechanically equal, it's obviously not the cards. Although you can only be absolutely certain if you swap the cards between machines and see if the green screen issue follows one or both cards.
However, that new LCD display and card combination doesn't have much time in the pipeline so there could be other issues and you're doing the beta testing for all of us. Blaming the reseller is pointless; no one can keep track of all of these issues. We only find out about them only because of reported failures.
You should research the "green screen" here on the forum. I do not recall if there are display or graphics cards issues associated with it. That seems unlikely. IIRC, it appears to be a QT issue.
bogiesan

Photoshop CS6 / Video Cards Question

I am purchasing a new computer and was wondering if anyone had any opinions on whether nVidia or AMD would be better for use with Photoshop CS6. In my previous computers, I've only ever had an integrated video card and they worked okay enough with Photoshop. But now I have the opportunity to purchase a computer with an nVidia/2 Gig Vram or an AMD Radeon/1 gig VRAM video card.
This is very generalized since I know so much depends on the cpu speed, ram, whether or not you have multiple hard drives, etcetera.
I've got a clear idea of what I want for all the other components of the computer, but I have no working knowledge of video cards.
I use Photoshop for photo editing and I also want to eventually use it for High Definition Photography editing.
FYI, I don't do any gaming.
Thanks for any opinions and help!!

I usually recommend ATI over nVidia, just because over the past few years as an OpenGL software developer myself I've seen better driver quality from AMD (ATI), but I don't know that past experience is an indication of current performance... Right now today ATI driver quality has slipped a little, while nVidia's has gotten better.
That said, my most recent purchase was a VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 7850 card. A 7750, at about half the price, probably would have done fine, but I figure the 2 GB onboard RAM makes the 7850 a bit more future-proof.
Something important to think about when choosing a video card is this: Watch how much electrical power they need. Video cards, because they have very fast processors, tend to require a lot of wattage and make a lot of heat, and many computers simply don't have the capacity to provide an extra hundred watts of power to a video card, nor exhaust the heat very well, so adding a power-hungry card could destabilize your system or cause heat problems. Something like the Radeon 7750 has a very low power draw. NVidia has some low power models as well, no doubt, but I'm not as familiar with the models.
Photoshop loves working with a video card that scores 1000 or higher on this chart:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
-Noel

What video cards will the p7-1423w support?

I would like to upgrade my video graphics to something that will support Witcher 2. I picked up a video card but then realized the power consumption is too great for this pc. Any suggestions on what card I can get that will support this type of graphics? (It is a windows 8 machine if that makes any difference.)
Thanks!

Hello Leach69,
There are two things to consider when purchasing a video card. The slots that are available in your computer and the power supply that is already in the computer. If you are looking to play modern games you are going to need a good video card, as you already know. I would suggest that you also consider upgrading your power supply to something that provides more power so that you can use that card that does use more power consumption.
Upgrading the power supply is also going to give you the freedom to do other upgrades in the future if you choose to do so. The power supply that is currently in your computer is only 300w from what I can tell, this means you are going to be extremely limited.
I'd suggest upgrading your power supply to something around a 550w - 600w then you can get just about any video card you want as long as you have the slot for it.
If I have helped you in any way click the Kudos button to say Thanks.
The community works together, click Accept as Solution on the post that solves your issue for other members of the community to benefit from the solution.
- Friendship is magical.

O/C Video Card

When overclocking a video card how hot is it o.k. to let the card get. I want to push the card a bit(Doom3) but don't want to do any permo damage. Was running around 51C last night.

I think about 55 max but keep it below if you can.
read this and see if it can help you:
Overclocking Guide

Adding a video card to a p6507c

I would like to add a second monitor to my pc, but it only has one vga output. I would like to have my current monitor plus hook it up to my tv to be able to stream video. I know I have to upgrade my power source already, but I would like to know if this video card is compatible and whether I would be able to pretty much plug and play a new video card (asided from putting in the installation cd) or if I would have to remove the driver for the current integrated card and then only hook up to the new card. The card I want to add is this one:
PowerColor Go! Green AX5450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131338
I got it for $5 on black friday so if it isn't compatible its not a big deal.
Any help would be awesome.
Thanks!!

Hi,
The video card that you purchased calls for a 350 watt power and your PC only has a 250 watt power supply.
Driver removal? I have never needed to remove a video driver when installing a video card. Some of the older ATI CCC software would bark if the ATI video card was removed but that is not a driver issue.
I suggest that you google "stream video from a PC to a TV" to get some ideas on what hardware is required.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

When to switch video card?

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