Sapphire 7950 Mac Edition now shipping

[Mounhotep]

Can you pls dump both BIOSes (the Mac EFI and the Win GOP UEFI) and upload them here?

ta

[dyttioaoa?]

Can you pls dump both BIOSes (the Mac EFI and the Win GOP UEFI) and upload them here?

ta

ta!

[jamer72]

So, i've noticed something with my official card after using it a while. I see a lot of flicker on very top and bottom edge of screen, like a random flash of lines in it from time to time on desktop

not sure how else to explain it. i'm hoping it's just a driver issue. I have checked to ensure card is staying cool and fan is working, it's not that. However the flicker is really annoying. it's not constant it's periodic.

Hi, I have the same problem with my official card, too. It's very strange because with Windows 7, under Bootcamp, the card works perfect.
I have a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and the problem is randomly and imprevisible under OS X only. I've done a lot of tests under 10.7.5, 10.8.2 and 10.8.3 without a solution. Under 10.7.5 and 10.8.2 I've tried with and without drivers that come in the CD and the problems appears when I load the drivers. On 10.8.3 and the las 10.8.4 beta the problem continues.
I wrote to Sapphire Tech Support explaining for the problem, including video captures and the tech support guy told that my card possibly is defective, and he told me to request a replacement RMA.

[netkas]

Could somebody, who bought sapphire card, write to their tech support and ask question about default screen resolution being much higher than the real screen resolution ?

[fhenry]

So, i've noticed something with my official card after using it a while. I see a lot of flicker on very top and bottom edge of screen, like a random flash of lines in it from time to time on desktop

not sure how else to explain it. i'm hoping it's just a driver issue. I have checked to ensure card is staying cool and fan is working, it's not that. However the flicker is really annoying. it's not constant it's periodic.

Hi, I have the same problem with my official card, too. It's very strange because with Windows 7, under Bootcamp, the card works perfect.
I have a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and the problem is randomly and imprevisible under OS X only. I've done a lot of tests under 10.7.5, 10.8.2 and 10.8.3 without a solution. Under 10.7.5 and 10.8.2 I've tried with and without drivers that come in the CD and the problems appears when I load the drivers. On 10.8.3 and the las 10.8.4 beta the problem continues.
I wrote to Sapphire Tech Support explaining for the problem, including video captures and the tech support guy told that my card possibly is defective, and he told me to request a replacement RMA.

may be a chance to have good driver and get it working on mp 1,1 under 10,7,5 !

[netkas]

Yeah, possible.

Need to write tech support, that one have to use Lion with 32-bit kernel due to some of his hardware having only 32-bit kexts/drivers.

[mysticalos]

Could somebody, who bought sapphire card, write to their tech support and ask question about default screen resolution being much higher than the real screen resolution ?

i plan to, among other things. it's obnoxious. i'm still trying to collect feedback of other issues.

I'd actually like to talk to anyone else who has a real sapphire if they are having any of these issues? http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8568957929 . I have blizzard looking into it possibly being on their end. they've even forwarded it to ati to see if it's at driver end. I have a hulking suspicion though it's the card itself.

another behavior i notice with the sapphire card is flickers on top and bottom from time to time. happens maybe once in a while and only once. i'll see a split second black line flicker through top and bottom of screen then not again for maybe 30 min. hard to really explain it or capture it. was easier to capture the corrupt textures in WoW which from what i can analyze has nothing to do with heat or tearing. It seems the texture just gets botched up in vram and forcing a reload (such as changing texture resolution in wow) wipes out the bad graphic and replaces it with good. perhaps bad vram? or just something wonky with driver. who knows. my issue is that i can't find other users with an official card to bring a larger complaint to sapphire about the issues.

[blacksheep]

Could somebody, who bought sapphire card, write to their tech support and ask question about default screen resolution being much higher than the real screen resolution ?

i plan to

Please do. And add this:

Need to write tech support, that one have to use Lion with 32-bit kernel due to some of his hardware having only 32-bit kexts/drivers.

Maybe someday they will fix 32-bit drivers... maybe...

[mysticalos]

Could somebody, who bought sapphire card, write to their tech support and ask question about default screen resolution being much higher than the real screen resolution ?

i plan to, among other things. it's obnoxious. i'm still trying to collect feedback of other issues.

I'd actually like to talk to anyone else who has a real sapphire if they are having any of these issues? http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8568957929 . I have blizzard looking into it possibly being on their end. they've even forwarded it to ati to see if it's at driver end. I have a hulking suspicion though it's the card itself.

another behavior i notice with the sapphire card is flickers on top and bottom from time to time. happens maybe once in a while and only once. i'll see a split second black line flicker through top and bottom of screen then not again for maybe 30 min. hard to really explain it or capture it. was easier to capture the corrupt textures in WoW which from what i can analyze has nothing to do with heat or tearing. It seems the texture just gets botched up in vram and forcing a reload (such as changing texture resolution in wow) wipes out the bad graphic and replaces it with good. perhaps bad vram? or just something wonky with driver. who knows. my issue is that i can't find other users with an official card to bring a larger complaint to sapphire about the issues.

so, sapphire support isn't very useful. they pretty much told me that their card is designed for mac pro 2010 only and since i'm using it in a 2008 they can't give any support cause it's unsupported config. i tried explaining that any 2008 or higher has appropriate EFI, PCI express 2, and software support without modding but i don't think that matters much. clearly this is why the native resolution is a mess and i'm having other problems with it. :\ I'm just going to argue with them until they take the thing back and just use my 5870 until the bitter end of this machine.

[blacksheep]

Tell them, that you've just bought 4,1 and it's still that same. 4,1 is lowest model listed in system requirements on their website.

[mysticalos]

Tell them, that you've just bought 4,1 and it's still that same. 4,1 is lowest model listed in system requirements on their website.

i finally got them to RMA it cause i do think I have a dud, i mean

http://mysticalos.com/images/MoP/distorted_video/

when i get a new one i'll see if it has any changes in process, such as maybe a new rom version (doubt it but hey you never know)

[luh]

Any differences between the Sapphire Mac Edition and the Sapphire normal edition? Would it have the same behaviour? I'm thinking about getting one for my MacPro3,1 ...

[JohnFZ]

Any differences between the Sapphire Mac Edition and the Sapphire normal edition? Would it have the same behaviour? I'm thinking about getting one for my MacPro3,1 ...

Probably the EFI is the difference (other than the custom white case).

[jackvancs]

Could somebody, who bought sapphire card, write to their tech support and ask question about default screen resolution being much higher than the real screen resolution ?

i plan to, among other things. it's obnoxious. i'm still trying to collect feedback of other issues.

I'd actually like to talk to anyone else who has a real sapphire if they are having any of these issues? http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8568957929 . I have blizzard looking into it possibly being on their end. they've even forwarded it to ati to see if it's at driver end. I have a hulking suspicion though it's the card itself.

another behavior i notice with the sapphire card is flickers on top and bottom from time to time. happens maybe once in a while and only once. i'll see a split second black line flicker through top and bottom of screen then not again for maybe 30 min. hard to really explain it or capture it. was easier to capture the corrupt textures in WoW which from what i can analyze has nothing to do with heat or tearing. It seems the texture just gets botched up in vram and forcing a reload (such as changing texture resolution in wow) wipes out the bad graphic and replaces it with good. perhaps bad vram? or just something wonky with driver. who knows. my issue is that i can't find other users with an official card to bring a larger complaint to sapphire about the issues.

I am on my second of these cards (Sapphire 7950 3GB Mac Edition) and both have had the issues you describe on my Mac Pro 5,1. It's annoying to say the least, especially for a $500 card. I haven't decided whether to keep this second one and hope there's a firmware or software fix or return it and go back to the 5770 the came with it, which by the way, has no such problems. I've got a ticket in with Sapphire tech support and will post here if I hear anything important.

[mysticalos]

I eventually gave up. I'm hoping for a new computer soon anyways. It acts up only in WoW and occasionally flickers on desktop with lines through top and bottom of screen or maybe a full screen flash of garble for a very brief second. The issue is super rare on desktop and I may observe it once or twice a day. In wow I avoid problem by turning texture resolution down. The issue only happens with high resolution textures based on my testing. It doesn't seem ATI, blizzard, or sapphire want to deal with this problem