Contribute
Register

Hackintosh 2022 and beyond - Is there any point now?

Joined
Oct 2, 2011
Messages
73
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX DDR4
CPU
i9-13900KF
Graphics
RX 6600
Mac
  1. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Just throwing this out there. Is there any point in making a hackintosh now that Apple are using the M1 & 2 chips? Or is it still a viable option?
 
Is there any point in making a hackintosh now that Apple are using the M1 & 2 chips? Or is it still a viable option?
If you need a really powerful dGPU for whatever reason, nothing in the M1 or M2 Macs can hold a candle to the fastest supported AMD RDNA 2 card. I'd also say that those using primarily Apple video editing programs like Final Cut would probably be best off buying a Mac from Apple today. It's all about the hardware and software integration. An M1 Max or Ultra Mac Studio is an excellent Final Cut machine.

The other main advantage of a hackintosh is that you can dual boot with Windows (on bare metal) if you do some higher end AAA gaming. The AMD cards work fine for that as well.
 
Last edited:
I do it for the pure joy of hacking. And I enjoy building case mods, so paying for brand new M1/M2 computers is way beyond my budget. I don't game, and I am not using any of my builds for production, so I can get by with minimal hardware at super discount prices. I have also started to build upon my original Mac collection and doing some retro computing. If Apple were to discontinue Intel support tomorrow, I would still be building Hackintoshes for another ten years to come, and probably beyond.
 
if you don't aim for the state-of-the-art.
A new Z690 or 790 system with an i9 CPU, DDR5 ram and an AMD 6900XT is going to cost a pretty penny. Probably much more than the Mac Studio M1 Max and close to the Ultra version. In that scenario I'd opt for the Mac Studio instead and save a lot of money and electricity in the process !
 
I still think it is very viable cost and performance-wise vs M1/M2 and like what @phunguss has said I will continue to do so also even if support for Intel is reduced (because it is so versatile ie. you can dual boot with proper x64 Windows and macOS). If you wanted to build one now, I'd pick one with either Z490I or Z490 Aorus Ultra & a Core i5 or i7 10700K chip. Coupled with a RX6600 card now for about $250 you can build a full system for under $1,000 bucks that matches the performance of a M1 Max Mac Studio that costs over $2,000.
 
If you need a really powerful dGPU for whatever reason, nothing in the M1 or M2 Macs can hold a candle to the fastest supported AMD RDNA 2 card. I'd also say that those using primarily Apple video editing programs like Final Cut would probably be best off buying a Mac from Apple today. It's all about the hardware and software integration. An M1 Max or Ultra Mac Studio is an excellent Final Cut machine.

The other main advantage of a hackintosh is that you can dual boot with Windows (on bare metal) if you do some higher end AAA gaming. The AMD cards work fine for that as well.
ok so you are saying I should go with a Mac Studio in that case as I edit a lot of 4K video for my work?
 
To me, the cost is still a powerful incentive for hackintoshing, if you don't aim for the state-of-the-art.
It’s nowadays questionable. CPUs are slightly more expensive, motherboards are significantly more expensive, DDR5 RAMs are much more expensive, and GPUs are still f*cking expensive. The sinking cost of Hackintosh is higher than ever and Apple silicon Macs are unexpectedly economical choices.
 
I still think it is very viable cost and performance-wise vs M1/M2 and like what @phunguss has said I will continue to do so also even if support for Intel is reduced (because it is so versatile ie. you can dual boot with proper x64 Windows and macOS). If you wanted to build one now, I'd pick one with either Z490I or Z490 Aorus Ultra & a Core i5 or i7 10700K chip. Coupled with a RX6600 card now for about $250 you can build a full system for under $1,000 bucks that matches the performance of a M1 Max Mac Studio that costs over $2,000.
And nobody mentions the cost of maintenance! What brought me to hackintosh in the first place was my dead GC in a 2008 iMac that I couldn't change myself (here in Europe) and had to go to a certified Apple repair shop where I spent 10 times what I would have spent for a basic PC GC...
Yes, the cost is different now, that's why I wrote "if you don't aim for the state-of-the-art".
In the OP case, I trust @trs96 for what he wrote about a high-end production machine.
I agree with @phunguss and @Middleman and I add that you'll be able to use also used PC parts (or convert existing HP and DELL machines) for a long time, if you don't care for the latest MacOS version and you accept the (tiny) risk of decreased security.
 
And nobody mentions the cost of maintenance! What brought me to hackintosh in the first place was my dead GC in a 2008 iMac that I couldn't change myself (here in Europe) and had to go to a certified Apple repair shop where I spent 10 times what I would have spent for a basic PC GC...
Yes, the cost is different now, that's why I wrote "if you don't aim for the state-of-the-art".
In the OP case, I trust @trs96 for what he wrote about a high-end production machine.
I agree with @phunguss and @Middleman and I add that you'll be able to use also used PC parts (or convert existing HP and DELL machines) for a long time, if you don't care for the latest MacOS version and you accept the (tiny) risk of decreased security.

Agreed. This has happened to my 27" 2013 iMac just recently. The GPU has failed - and the SSD part of the Fusion drive. Apple don't make anything cheap or easy.
 
Back
Top