'Best' graphics card for Mavericks and up?

[Wcool93]

'Future-proof' graphics card for Mavericks and up?

Hi there,

I recently sold my HD6950 (as it didn't work, which I knew but didn't wanted to have a hackintosh back then on my desktop, I do have my laptop) and would like to know what brand is a bit 'future-proof'. With this, I mean that usually nVidia cards worked OOB and AMD always needs to be patched. Is this still the case? I basically don't want too much hassle, I know there is always SOME, but you know, not like booting with IGFX and switching over to discrete over and over again (that was only way for my HD6950 to work).

I'm making a decision on a new card. It's basically down to the GTX 780 Ti or the latest AMD one (I believe it is the R9 290X).

I just would like to know which one is the best to get for now and future OS X versions? Experience in the past tell me to not get an AMD one. I've been reading like 2 weeks almost non-stop and am really confused.

Basically I need much graphics power for games (the latest in Windows), but also for editing (after effects, photoshop... just to name a few).

If anybody could help me out with this decision I'd be really glad

Thanks!

P.S. Money is not an issue (but please don't recommend a Titan, that's a little over the budget lol ).

edit: I read just in another topic that 10.10 implements R9 290X support. If this is also available in e.g. 10.11, then it would get interesting.

By the way, what are the general experience with gfx drivers in os x. If a new card is added with full support, does it stay that way for several years?

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

I would recommend anything using a GK104 processor from nvidia. This chip has been around for a couple of years now but OS X compatibility is outstanding, and the performance satisfying. The GTX 660 TI, 670, 680, 760, and 770 video cards all use a variation of the GK104 processor I believe. The 600 series are hard to find new, but the 760 and 770 are still widely available.

I myself have a pair of super clocked GTX 680's in my hackintosh and they work great. SLI isn't a a thing on Macs but CUDA and OpenCL both work well. And when I boot into Windows I can take full advantage of SLI acceleration for the latest games.

 

[Wcool93]

I would recommend anything using a GK104 processor from nvidia. This chip has been around for a couple of years now but OS X compatibility is outstanding, and the performance satisfying. The GTX 660 TI, 670, 680, 760, and 770 video cards all use a variation of the GK104 processor I believe. The 600 series are hard to find new, but the 760 and 770 are still widely available.

I myself have a pair of super clocked GTX 680's in my hackintosh and they work great. SLI isn't a a thing on Macs but CUDA and OpenCL both work well. And when I boot into Windows I can take full advantage of SLI acceleration for the latest games.

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

I am leaning more towards a single GPU though. When I buy a gfx card now I would like to keep it up for another 4 years (min). In this situation, what would be a possible 'winner'?

Thanks!

 

[Wcool93]

I just read that AMD has better OpenCL performance in macs than nvidia, is this true? What performs better then in OS X? Asking this because my eyes catched the gigabyte r9 290x which should be very quiet and I read here too that r9 290x will be fully supported in 10.10 because of the firepro series in the mac pro.

Which one to get for raw processing power? Like FCPX and such. I also read that Adobe is slowly moving to OpenCL, in that case, CUDA will be shrinking alot and has to the OpenCL route, right (some day).

I can't get to make a choice. I keep switching from the green to the red camp and back again. It's also not necessary right now. I think that I can hold off to end of july.

Would you then advice to sit back and wait?

thanks for your thoughts!

edit: I then am planning to get this one: GIGABYTE GV-R929XOC-4GD (if all dreams come true). Is this a good card, btw?

 

[Wcool93]

bump?

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

I wish I could tell you about AMD graphics and Hackintoshes, but I went nvidia two years ago and haven't looked back since. I know that right now AMD cards are not recommended in the buyer's guide.

All that said...I have been tracking this site for a few years now: www.netkas.org. Apparently the R290X cards are working out-of-box on OS X Yosemite. So there's hope.

 

[Wcool93]

I wish I could tell you about AMD graphics and Hackintoshes, but I went nvidia two years ago and haven't looked back since. I know that right now AMD cards are not recommended in the buyer's guide.

All that said...I have been tracking this site for a few years now: www.netkas.org. Apparently the R290X cards are working out-of-box on OS X Yosemite. So there's hope.

Thanks for getting back to me. I want to thank you for giving your advice to me, but I've decided that if the support for 10.10 on the R9 serie stays, I will go for the R9 290X (it works OOB, so why not).

If the FirePro cards come out of the same chip architecture (hawaii) and are compatible with OS X, if they aren't already, then the choice is for me clear.

I will get this card then, because it has UEFI VBIOS (boots nice together with Clover I hope): http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?pid=2090&lid=1

Thanks for your effort, much appreciated!