ATI or NVidia?

[krachbumms]

Hi!

It seems I need to upgrade my graphics cards for XCode 9, currently have a ATI 6870.

I am really puzzled that there are only NVidia cards on the recommended buying list.
They seem to work only with special drivers and the forum is full of people who run
into issues every time there is an OS upgrade.
Why not buy an ATI card? (and which one if so)

Thank you,
Markus

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

The reason nVidia cards are the recommended ones is because nVidia produce a driver package which allows them to run on hacks with few issues; they also support the latest cards. Apple used nVidia cards a lot until the introduction of the 5K retina iMacs, so there is also a fair amount of support natively in OSX.

AMD on the other hand have no such package; you are therefore restricted to the cards that are supported natively by OSX. There are not many supported. Also, AMD cards have other issues such as needing a 'helper' GPU (Usually built in graphics from your CPU but can also be a supported nVidia card).

Overall, nVidia are the better supported cards at this time. That *may* change with the introduction of the upcoming iMac Pro's and new Mac Pro's due next year, but nobody knows for sure right now.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

The reason some people run into issues is because they apply the latest OSX updates before waiting for nVidia to release a compatible driver.

 

[krachbumms]

Thank you for the thorough answer. Much appreciated!