GPU for a 5K monitor (Dell UP2715K)

[Fl0r!an]

Oh well, following this topic not only on this forum but also on other hackintosh forums, running the UP2715K in actual 5K is everything else, but not a walk in the park.

The experiences with this monitor on a hackintosh are pretty inconsistent. For some it works OOB, others have to tinker with SMBIOS, kext hacks and power cycling and even then nothing works.

What makes it more difficult, that this inconsistency also happens across the same chips, e.g. some 970 cards show 5k, whereas other 970 cards always show two monitors.

Issues with a UP2715K driven by a classic MacPro and any "Maxwell" GPU are little to none, so I think the trouble we're talking about is not caused by OS X or the NVIDIA WebDrivers, but Hackintosh specific configuration problems. As our Graphics section shows this also affects "classic" displays with non-HiDPI resolutions.

Additionally, macOS Sierra has changed somethings, some of which are not completely understood yet, so I recommended staying on El Capitan for now (especially on an "exotic" setup like 5K).

 

[iLLucionist]

I'm interested in this as well. I could sure use a UP2715K for lightroom and am deciding on what for GPU to go with my build, thinking about the 970. Would the 970 work with that monitor?

 

[alaman64]

I have a UP2715k and it works pretty good in el-capitain. Only issue I have is that when I boot it has a problem syncing left and right side of screen. But that is fixed with a power cycle. Sleep is fine, so not such a big deal as I don't reboot that often.

So on a second drive i installed sierra to see how it would work, it doesn't. It boots to a black screen, the only way I was able to get it to boot was to remove one of the display port cables, this let me boot and log in. Once logged in I cycled the power on the monitor and 5k worked.

 

[grtdemo]

Hi,

Thank you for the information, and good news! I've still not received my monitor, the post office lost it... They will send me another one in the next days...

Regards.

 

[Fl0r!an]

@alaman64: Try adding "nv_spanmodepolicy=1" to the NVRAM instead of the boot arguments.

 

[XQC]

Crossposting from my other thread for other users seeking advice:

I bought an used GTX 970 (this one) for the time being, tested fresh and vanilla installs of 10.11.6 and 10.12 with Clover and it works *almost* out of the box with 5k.
SMBIOS iMac 14,2
nv_spanmodepolicy=1 kext-dev-mode=1

Only requirement: The monitor has to be off until OSX boots to the login screen. Powering the monitor on after complete boot shows correct 5k resolution.
If the monitor stays on during the boot process, OSX will recognize two separate screens.

I noticed that with 10.12, once the monitor goes to sleep, it doesn't wake up again, but the system is responsive. No such problem with 10.11. So I'll stay on 10.11 until Sierra has its bugs ironed out.

 

[urbZZ]

Hi Guys,

I also want to do a Hackintosh Build, but it has to be 5K.

As I understand from all I've read here so far is: The UP2715k will work flawless in El-capitain, when the right settings are applied. But it won't work well under Sierra so far. Is that correct?

What I did not find an answer to: What's the "best" Grafics Card to use with that Monitor. "Best" in the sense that it delivers enough power for real smooth Desktop use, with OOB-Compability. Is there such thing? Can someone provide a link from the buyers guide?

Thanks,
urbZZ

 

[LostVector]

Are we sure that there aren't issues under Sierra with 5K monitors on the classic Mac Pro? There are a lot of recent comments on this blog post by macvidcards suggesting otherwise. Link -> http://www.macvidcards.com/blog/the-5k-report

I just hackintosh'd a GA-Z170x-Designare ... everything is working quite well except for this 5K stuff. I have two GTX 980 Ti's and I absolutely cannot get it to tile the two displays simultaneously. nv_spanmodepolicy in nvram, boot-args, messing with the display overrides ... nothing seems to work. They always come up as separate monitors. Loving the setup otherwise, but the low resolution makes me feel like I jumped back two years. I hope there is a real fix coming soon. If anyone actually has this working, please share how!!!

 

[grtdemo]

Hello,

Good news, I have El Captain (10.11.6) running with 5K resolution on the DELL UP2715K . I have finally bought a new build :
- Gigabyte GA-H170N-Wifi
- Intel i7-6700
- Samsung SSD EVO 850 Pro
- Gigabyte GTX 960 (4Gb)
- 16Gb memory (Corsair)

The setup wasn't very difficult, normal BIOS configuration, Multybeast, NVIDIA web driver and set nada_drv=1, nv_spanmodepolicy=1.

I Have 2 issues with the monitor:
1) I need to start macOS with the monitor off (the computer reboot constantly otherwise)
2) I have no audio on the monitor

The fact that I have to boot with the monitor turned off is not really a problem, but the missing audio is. I probably need a specific configuration to have audio trougth Display Port, but could not find it at this time.

Regards.

 

[Troidl]

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15" with the R9 m370x and a Dell UP2715K.
And I have a eGPU (GTX 980 TI) under macOS Sierra 10.12.1 and it works fine.

And yes I have to start the Mac without the Dell 5K and start the display when it boots up.

Best regards