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Is it worth

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Joined
Oct 16, 2012
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Motherboard
AsRock Z77 extreme6
CPU
i7-3770
Graphics
PowerColor HD 7970
Mac
  1. 0
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. 0
Hey there,

I'm surfing the web for a while and have red a lot of stuff about hankintosh and the compatible hardware. I have the following hardware and I'm wondering if it is worth to give OS X a try, bacause of my "unsupported graphics card".


  • ASRock Z77 extreme6
  • Intel i7-3770
  • 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LP DDR3-1600
  • PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 V3
  • 128 GB Samsung 830 SSD

I think I have to use the Intel HD 4000 instead of the HD 7970 but the Intel is really not the best graphics card and I want to use OS X for photography purpose (Photoshop, Lightroom..).

Any ideas / suggestions? Thank you in advance!
 
I would suggest that you install osx with the hardware that you have and see if you like it. For me the main reasons for going the osx route is the movement between full screen apps with the magic mouse using gestures. I like the integration with my iPhone and iPad, and the software that I had problems with on the pc work much better with osx. For photo editing the magic trackpad seems like a natural with it's panning and zooming. The only down side to osx is that the gaming industry generally shuns the mac, and it's somewhat justified. Can always dual boot to play Crysis. I use VMware to do my windows homework and watch the online videos for my programming class. The ability to switch between full screen apps with a swipe across the mouse is genius. Having the genuine Apple keyboard, mouse and or trackpad really bring out the beauty of the Apple operating system.

I'm very happy with my hack. I might have bought a Mac desktop, but they only have the very limited iMac, and the overpriced server oriented Mac Pro. Apple simply ignores the performance home computer market. It's worth all the time I've invested. The only feature I don't have working is desktop airplay, iTunes airplay works fine. I am using a discreet gaphics card, so the intel HD isn't available. Not a big deal for me, I don't use my computer on the couch. I even have my genuine Apple bluetooth keyboard working in Chameleon boot loader. It's pretty sweet runnning at 4.2gigahertz in it's Raven case. At idle the machine is close to silent, with a very classy whoosh sound, no whining. It's the desktop Apple should make. It's great listening to iTunes, keeping up with my text messages and email while practicing using Active Directory in Server 2012 as a Virtual Machine with 2 more Windows 7 client Virtual Machines. I'm sure that I could do the same with Windows, but switching between the different screens wouldn't be as fluid, having to use the alt tab combo and cycling through. I use my iPad as a remote control, my hack is the media server in the apartment, I can direct the output to the various Apple tv boxes. Since I'm using wireless for everything that I can, I only have a power, video, and audio cords.
 
system will work, but the 7970 wont.

install using the hd4000.
if you want more powerful graphics than the hd4000, replace your 7970 with an nvidia 6xx card.
 
I think I have to use the Intel HD 4000 instead of the HD 7970 but the Intel is really not the best graphics card and I want to use OS X for photography purpose (Photoshop, Lightroom..).
I have an HD4000 CustoMac driving Lightroom with no complaints. Haven't actually fired up Photoshop on it yet, but given my positive experience with the HD4000 on Mac minis I can see no reason to worry (unless you're maybe going to be doing funky 3D things in Photoshop and need top 3D performance). For most photographers I think the HD4000 is more than adequate.
 
Thank you all for the quick and detailed answer. I think I will test OS X with my onboard Intel HD 4000 and check if the performance is high enough for me. Anyway it's a pitty that I have to sell my HD 7970. I bought it only in July 2012 and I dithered between the HD 7970 and the Geforce 670/660 but in the end i had choosen the 7970...
Maybe I will buy a second-hand 660 / 660 Ti. I think that would be a good decision.
 
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