"best" graphics card for Catalina with special requirements

[RobbieTobbie]

Hello,

I´m looking for a new graphics card to be natively supported by macOS Catalina. Of course I read through a lot of posts and I think an Radeon RTX 580 would be the right one in terms of performance for my needs. At the moment, I´m running a NVIDIA GT640 but that is a little dated , even for the occasional game.
Due to the fact that my hackintosh consists of a Lenovo ThinkCentre M83MT (i7 4770, so still ok to play a bit) with a Lenovo-special motherboard, I have 1 must and 1 nice to have requirement for the card:

1) MUST: in order to keep the front panel connectors like USB, card reader and mic/headphone jacks working the card must not be longer than max. 225mm!
2) NICE TO HAVE: would be great if the card could work without separate power connecter (6 or 8 pin). The built-in power supply doesn´t offer them... Of course I could put in another power supply but that would require an additional adapter for the mainboard connectors, too (again a proprietary solution of Lenovo...).

I´m happy for every suggestion...

Best regards
Frank

 

[Going Bald]

Not sure you will find an RX 580 that is without 6/8 pin connector.
Sapphire, Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS all make an RX 550 / 560 unpowered GPU.
Take a look at the Sapphire Pulse RX 560:

https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/pulse-rx-560-4g-g5-16-cu-1

 

[RobbieTobbie]

Hi,

thanks for the reply, I checked the card you linked and it looks quite good (just need a to find a place where to get it, seems to be out of stock everywhere). I´m just a bit confused as the sapphire site states "no additional power supply needed" but the card seems to have a 6pin connector and an online gaming magazine said "when connected to an external power supply, it offers room for overclocking".
Since I´m not into overclocking, would the card run at normal performance when I just plug it in the PCIe slot or would it be like handbrake pulled?

 

[scottkendall]

Hi,

thanks for the reply, I checked the card you linked and it looks quite good (just need a to find a place where to get it, seems to be out of stock everywhere). I´m just a bit confused as the sapphire site states "no additional power supply needed" but the card seems to have a 6pin connector and an online gaming magazine said "when connected to an external power supply, it offers room for overclocking".
Since I´m not into overclocking, would the card run at normal performance when I just plug it in the PCIe slot or would it be like handbrake pulled?

Some RX560 are powered others are not I am not sure what designates that they are not powered. The RX560 I had did not have a power terminal on the Card. However, it did have sodder points where the connecter would have gone. I did find this comment while trying to find the card that does not have a power requirement..

"Yes, but this photo is from O4G-Gaming version, which does have 6-pin. Yours is O4g-EVO-Gaming version."

Based on that comment you need to find the EVO version at least for the Asus.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Some RX560 are powered others are not I am not sure what designates that they are not powered. The RX560 I had did not have a power terminal on the Card. However, it did have sodder points where the connecter would have gone. I did find this comment while trying to find the card that does not have a power requirement..

"Yes, but this photo is from O4G-Gaming version, which does have 6-pin. Yours is O4g-EVO-Gaming version."

Based on that comment you need to find the EVO version at least for the Asus.

Good point. Mine was the same. The difference between the powered and non-powered Gigabyte model was that the powered was version 1, whereas the slot-only powered was version 2.

 

[scottkendall]

Gigabyte model was that the powered was version 1, whereas the slot-only powered was version 2.

I miss the days of being able to walk into Frys and look at the video cards and find the one that was best suited for my needs. Now it a bunch of searching the internet and guessing based on information found.

 

[RobbieTobbie]

I miss the days of being able to walk into Frys and look at the video cards and find the one that was best suited for my needs. Now it a bunch of searching the internet and guessing based on information found.

me too - I´m totally at a loss nowadays hardware-wise.

This said, thanks to all the suggestions and hints. I´m going to search an EVO version, then...

 

[asphix]

I miss the days of being able to walk into Frys and look at the video cards and find the one that was best suited for my needs. Now it a bunch of searching the internet and guessing based on information found.

So do I... Sometimes too many options is not the best.

 

[zackcentury]

RX 460 and 560 are great choices, but both have become harder to find. I'm running the HP OEM 910486-002 "Han Solo" RX 460 and it works just like any other AMD card. 2gb only, and the heatsink is small, but if you don't demand much it's a fine choice. I got mine for $60 about a year ago, you might find some leftover stock at HP parts suppliers.