Yep it is the same in 6 and 7... sometimes it is all black or even red. weird.

I know the graphics card works on other computers with the same specs so I thought I might have the settings wrong,...

I attached a screen grab...

The perspective view is the view with smooth shade turned on.

Freshly installed Maya 8.5 on a brand new Intel Mac. For some reason Smooth Shade doesn't work whenever I enable it. It is like it can't read or understand my video card. It can't decide how it wants...