Graphics and performance future proofing

[Slickademo]

I started out with a Radeon HD 7970 on my first Hackintosh and later got a second one. Seemed to be plug and play and they worked great. I later upgraded to a Nvidia 980 Ti and used web drivers and that card has been working good as well.

Now I have a new Hackintosh and I'm still using my 980 Ti. I am on High Sierra and want to upgrade to Mojave and see there's no web drivers for Mojave yet. It wont kill me to hold off and wait although I love the dark mode.

I have been reading through forums and compatibility stuff and I am thinking about making the switch back to AMD. Are a lot of other people in the same boat as me? I actually tried to add a second 980 Ti and my machine wouldn't even boot into OSX. I was thinking about going from my 980 Ti to a dual RX 580 setup. Would I see a performance gain from a dual 580 setup? Wouldn't that work more smoothly with macos?

I use 5 Monitors in my studio. I do music production and video editing. I just want a smooth experience that has good performance. I don't need the biggest baddest GPU. Bottom line I am wondering is if native AMD cards will perform better compared to Nvidia with web drivers?

 

[greenhobby]

Bottom line I am wondering is if native AMD cards will perform better compared to Nvidia with web drivers?

The operative words are "perform better". Since I only have one RX580 installed, I can't comment on a dual setup being faster. In terms of actual GPU benchmarks and the like, the RX580 won't do what the top of the line Nvidia cards will do or top of the line AMD cards. BUT, for my use (2 4K monitors) streaming HD videos on both monitors is liquid smooth. I recently played Borderlands 2 and the card was barely breathing. I do mostly video/movie editing and photoshop editing and I've not noticed ANY slowdown in what I do from using my previous cards (EVGA 1080 Classified and nVidia 970 SSO). I can't imagine you would either. I would suggest though that you get one RX580 and see what it does and if you like, then spend the money for another RX580.

One of the best things is (as you said) is the cards are natively supported by Apple and you can upgrade to latest and greatest versions when they are released.

Good luck -gh

 

[Slickademo]

I was reading that the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse is a known card that is completely compatible with macos. I was looking at the Sapphire Nitro. Looks like the same card just with a higher clock rate and more power consumption etc. Do most of the RX580 cards work?

 

[greenhobby]

I have the Sapphire Pulse RX580, but there are a few others recommended here:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/buyersgu...the-ultimate-buyers-guide/#AMD_Graphics_Cards

 

[Slickademo]

I'm hesitant to buy the better and cheaper Nitro card. Ugggghhhhhh seems the pulse is the popular one to pick. I'd rather be safe than sorry I guess.

 

[greenhobby]

Yeah, that was exactly my take as well. After messing around with the nVidia web drivers for years, I wanted compatibility. I think based on the recommendations on the link I posted, other AMD cards will work as well, but most are def more $$.

 

[Gigamaxx]

I'm hesitant to buy the better and cheaper Nitro card. Ugggghhhhhh seems the pulse is the popular one to pick. I'd rather be safe than sorry I guess.

My XFX RX 480 has worked well since the Sierra beta software. Apple supports RX 470-580 models they “recommend” Pulse models which are only available in the 570-580 versions. The early Pulse models had the most compatible apple bios but the new ones don’t seem to be the same. Newer ones require ATI inject and selecting Orinoco to get that framebuffer loaded. The first Pulse models didn’t require it. You can use a different brand and inject the framebuffer as well.
All brands will work as well as the Pulse models, in fact there are users with the Pulse models that have issues that are the same as any other brand. It’s really about your system cpu, motherboard and bios settings that will determine which system ID will work for best you. Sometimes changing a system definition will make all the difference in the world and it’s not always the one closest to your CPU mobo combo.
Black screen using iMac 18.1-3 can sometimes be solved by using iMac 14.2, iMac 17.1 with a skylake can be fixed by using 14.2 or 18.3 etc... sometimes using Mac Pro 5.1 or 6.1 can fix it. Buying a Pulse is no guaranty to have 100% success there may be other config issues you need to change.
BTW, my XFX RX 480 has worked with MacBook, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro definitions so maybe I just got lucky. I have watched and participated in the RX card in OS for a couple of years and I am glad to say that all brands are now supported and work well. If you get the highest clocking card your benchmarks will be better and apps will run quicker.
I have run dual RX 480 cards and it works in some rendering apps in open ClL but with open GL there is a bit of a loss due to 8 pcie lanes and only one card being recognized.

 

[Slickademo]

My XFX RX 480 has worked well since the Sierra beta software. Apple supports RX 470-580 models they “recommend” Pulse models which are only available in the 570-580 versions. The early Pulse models had the most compatible Apple BIOS but the new ones don’t seem to be the same. Newer ones require ATI inject and selecting Orinoco to get that framebuffer loaded. The first Pulse models didn’t require it. You can use a different brand and inject the framebuffer as well.

All brands will work as well as the Pulse models, in fact there are users with the Pulse models that have issues that are the same as any other brand. It’s really about your system CPU, motherboard and bios settings that will determine which system ID will work for best you. Sometimes changing a system definition will make all the difference in the world and it’s not always the one closest to your CPU mobo combo.

Black screen using iMac 18.1-3 can sometimes be solved by using iMac 14.2, iMac 17.1 with a Skylake can be fixed by using 14.2 or 18.3 etc... sometimes using Mac Pro 5.1 or 6.1 can fix it. Buying a Pulse is no guaranty to have 100% success there may be other config issues you need to change.
BTW, my XFX RX 480 has worked with MacBook, Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro definitions so maybe I just got lucky. I have watched and participated in the RX card in OS for a couple of years and I am glad to say that all brands are now supported and work well. If you get the highest clocking card your benchmarks will be better and apps will run quicker.

I have run dual RX 480 cards and it works in some rendering apps in open ClL but with open GL there is a bit of a loss due to 8 pcie lanes and only one card being recognized.

So what you're saying is I could use the Nitro card? Is Ati inject through MultiBeast or Clover? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to the more technical stuff. I can always get my hackintosh up and running but I have trouble getting it to reach it's potential and make everything work as it should. I want whatever is going to be easy to install. I saw a youtube video that looked like someone put a Sapphire Nitro RX 580 in their Mac Pro. I'm sure the dual pulse setup is enough power for my needs, for some odd reason the Nitro cards are cheaper. I can get a pair of Nito cards, brand new off eBay for under $500.

 

[Gigamaxx]

So what you're saying is I could use the Nitro card? Is Ati inject through MultiBeast or Clover? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to the more technical stuff. I can always get my hackintosh up and running but I have trouble getting it to reach it's potential and make everything work as it should. I want whatever is going to be easy to install. I saw a youtube video that looked like someone put a Sapphire Nitro RX 580 in their Mac Pro. I'm sure the dual pulse setup is enough power for my needs, for some odd reason the Nitro cards are cheaper. I can get a pair of Nito cards, brand new off eBay for under $500.

Check the links here at Tonymac86 for Newegg they are like $220ea or so. The edits are done in Clover if you need them. When you get the cards just post your EFI and someone can edit it for you and explain the changes, they are very minor settings adjustments and if needed kexts to the .../CLOVER/kexts/Other/ folder.

 

[greenhobby]

Newer ones require ATI inject and selecting Orinoco to get that framebuffer loaded

It might depend on the motherboard/CPU you are using, but I did not have to do anything with ATI inject or anything else when I switched from nVidia to the Sapphire Pulse RX580. For reference, my id is 18,3. It just works. -gh