AMD Radeon R9 Series vs. nvidia Maxwell

[jackreese]

I want to put together a desktop system with the most compatible components, not only so the install is less complicated but so that I have full functionality. I've been doing a lot of research here and on other boards and sites. I've found that many people have issues with the Nvidia Maxwell architecture GPUs, like the GTX 750 for example.

I researched all the desktop GPUs that Apple used in the last few years and found that they have never used a Maxwell card in any of their systems. However, this year in current models they are using the Radeon R9 M290X. Unfortunately this is a laptop card, but the R9 desktop series has the same architecture, like the R9 285. I was wondering if anyone has tried this card with any success?

 

[Fl0r!an]

AMD R9 drivers are built right into OSX, so most of them will work OOB (e.g. R9 280/280X, not sure about 285). Chameleon/Chimera bootloaders don't like them however (I think you have to use some tricks to get them working), but using Clover everything is super easy.

On the other side, OSX doesn't offer any Maxwell drivers, so you'll have to use the Nvidia Web drivers. Problem is, that every Apple update might kill them, so I would see this as a less stable solution (at least until Apple includes these drivers in OSX.
Older (non-Maxwell) cards should be without trouble.

Also consider that AMD has the best value for money when talking about upper mainstream cards (e.g. R9 280) while Nvidia is leading in the high end range (GTX 970 and above).

 

[jackreese]

Thanks. I was hoping you would say the Radeon R9 was natively supported.

On the other side, OSX doesn't offer any Maxwell drivers, so you'll have to use the Nvidia Web drivers.

But the OSX drivers on Nvidias website are all for non-Maxwell cards, like the Kepler. Apple never used a Maxwell card. Yet people are trying to install Maxwell cards, like the GTX 750, with much difficulty, even this website recommends Maxwell cards in in their "Buyers Guide". That I don't get.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Maxwell cards are definitely supported by the latest Nvidia Web Drivers. 960, 970, 980, Titan X all work with these drivers.
Only drawback is that these drivers might get destroyed with every OS X update and you'd have to wait for Nvidia to release new drivers before doing an update.

For this reason (well, and because of the price ) I've chosen a R9 instead of a Maxwell card.

 

[jackreese]

If you look at the supported products tab on Nvidias website for the 10.10.3 drivers they list GTX 680, GTX 285 and some older cards. Non of these are Maxwell, they are Kepler. They also list the Mac models that these drivers apply to, non of which are Maxwell. As I said Apple never used a Maxwell card in any of there models.

So these drivers may work ok with maxwell cards, but given all the little glitches and trouble getting these to work at all it is clear that these drivers where not written for Maxwell cards.

 

[Kazbah]

You have to search for ...

Option 1: Manually find drivers for my NVIDIA products.

Help

Product Type:	Quadro
Product Series:	Quadro Series
Product:	K5000 for Mac
Operating System:	Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.3
Download Type:	Quadro ODE Graphics Driver
Language:	English (US) <- whichever

 

[jackreese]

The Quadro K5000 is also a Kepler architecture GPU. The point I am trying to make is that Apple never used Maxwell architecture GPUs, AND Nvidia never (to my knowledge) wrote any drivers for the Maxwell cards for OS X.

Now, I'm no driver developer but it seems to me that those kepler drivers are not going to work very well with your Maxwell GPU. Therefore it might not be such a good choice to use the the Maxwell GPU, and not good advice given in the buyer's guide on this site, when you would probably have an easier install with Radeon R9 or the Geforce GTX 680.

 

[Fl0r!an]

They only list cards which ever had an official "Mac Edition" as supported. Yet these drivers are definitely written to support Maxwell-based cards. Kepler drivers (as included in OS X) won't give you any more than a black screen on a Maxwell cards, the latest Nvidia Web Drivers are working just fine.

I'm quite sure that they don't list Maxwell as officially supported just because they don't want to be made responsible if anything breaks in their beta drivers. I bet that they're totally aware that 100% of OS X Maxwell users either have a hackintosh or some flashed card in a classic MacPro, so they are offering them "inofficial" drivers to gain some customers.

For the resons mentioned above I'd still go with AMD R9 however.

 

[jackreese]

Yet these drivers are definitely written to support Maxwell-based cards.

OK, I assumed that they would have listed it if it was supported, but your argument makes sense. So, those drivers will allow the GTX 750 to work completely in OS X 10.10.3? That card is attractive because it is so cheap right now.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Yes, GTX 750 will work with Web Drivers. This card isn't very fast though, but that depends of course on what you need.