Buying Advice nVidia Maxwell

[sunnyimran]

Dear All

I have an old computer with following specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz,
DDR2 Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 8GB in 4 sticks
ASUS P5QL PRO,
VGA Card Model : sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 (!!!!! DIED !!!!)
PSU: CoolMax 500 Watts
DISPLAY: SAMSUNG S24A350H (24 inch LED FLAT PANEL)

This was my third AMD GPU gone bad in last 5 years time. I have plans to replace this PC but not soon. After many peeks here and there I learned nVidia GT and GTX 700 series cards are less Watts demanding and temp wise little cooler than AMD's of same bracket while this is also true that AMD gives more bang for the buck in same amounts but require sufficient Power Supply and cooling solutions.

So this time I wanna give nVidia a try and my choices are very limited:
1- GIGABYTE GV-N740D5OC-2GI GeForce GT 740 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 3 ---years limited warranty ( 1 year free, others charged)
Detailed Specs On Manufacturer's Website

2- GIGABYTE GV-N75TOC-2GI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 ---3 years limited warranty ( 1 year free, others charged)
Detailed Specs On Manufacturer's Website

3- Asus GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti GDDR5 2GB 128-bit PCI Express 3.0 Video Card ---3 year full warranty
Detailed Specs On Manufacturer's Website

Above Asus card is not supporting DirectX 12. Others two are.

My usage:
Occasional light to medium level gaming, HD video collection, management, playback, editing (editing is not frequent). HQ Photo high MP collection management, browsing and minor editing. Mavericks and Windows were working fine on my old GPU AMD 6850. Wanna continue use Windows 10 (with DirectX 12 support) and Mavericks and newer MAC OS releases.

Based on the situation that old rig, can't update PSU, cooling solutions, the choice are limited. My interest is going in GTX 750 Ti. Rest of the things are satisfying but it is Maxwell and I am worried for Mac OS support.

I need suggestions on:
Q.1 GTX 750 Ti ( Maxwell ) support on Mac OS Mavericks and higher?
Q.2 GT 740 Vs GTX 750 Ti
Q.3 Card manufacturer ( EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte) how much it matters for same GPU ? should I be concerned about this who is the manufacturer? now a days exact same GPU is available by multiple manufacturers
Q.4 Alternate Web drivers for nVidia? are they the correct solution? Shortly said: can GTX 750 Ti work with full potential with them or what will be the way then?

waiting!

 

[trs96]

The Asus 750 Ti you've listed has had problems. The VGA 15 pin output is of no use for OS X. The HDMI has not worked very well with OS X. I would avoid that and get the Gigabyte 750 TI or you could get the Asus Strix version of the 750 TI, that would work. The 740 is inferior to the 750 Ti for gaming if that is important to you. Go with the 740 only if your budget limits you to that lower priced card. You will need to install the web drivers for the 750 Ti, whichever one you select. For a 740 it depends on the specific model whether you will need them. The Web drivers will not work with Mavericks so Yosemite and El Capitan are your only choices if you want a discrete Maxwell card.

Go with El Capitan if possible, really no reason to stay with Mavericks now. As of 10.11.5 most of the bugs have been worked out and Apple will release 10.11.6 to fix the few remaining problems.

 

[sunnyimran]

The Asus 750 Ti you've listed has had problems. The VGA 15 pin output is of no use for OS X. The HDMI has not worked very well with OS X. I would avoid that and get the Gigabyte 750 TI or you could get the Asus Strix version of the 750 TI, that would work. The 740 is inferior to the 750 Ti for gaming if that is important to you. Go with the 740 only if your budget limits you to that lower priced card. You will need to install the web drivers for the 750 Ti, whichever one you select. For a 740 it depends on the specific model whether you will need them.

Thanks for your suggestion. I can go with Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti. Just wanna make sure will it work in Mavericks and beyond with full potential?

secondly, what are nVidia web drivers, are they proper solution?

I experimented a lot with my previous AMD 6850 and played a lot with custom frame buffers, personalities etc. and many things I don't even know well about. This could be one reason to brick my 6850.

last thing, I would go with Gigabyte but still want to know what is the difference when same GPU is available with multiple vondors in varying prices?

thanks

 

[Adrian B]

You must use Yosemite or El Capitan with any Maxwell card. It is important to note that Mavericks does not support Maxwell cards through either the included nvidia drivers within OS X or the additional drivers that are available from nvidia directly.
If you need to use Mavericks then consider a used GTX 660 or similar card.

See the graphics forum stickies for further info.
Graphics cards by Technology ~approx equivalent models
http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/b...-2016-hierarchy-chart-by-toms-hardware.81325/

OS X compatible cards - by version of OS X:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/b...versions-of-os-x-using-older-chipsets.141225/

 

[sunnyimran]

You must use Yosemite or El Capitan with any Maxwell card

Does it mean Maxwell GPU's are possible to use with MAC OS beyond Mavericks?
At them moment I am interested in Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti. Looking for deals for GTX 950

 

[Fl0r!an]

Yes, Maxwell needs at least Yosemite + WebDrivers.

 

[Adrian B]

Does it mean Maxwell GPU's are possible to use with MAC OS beyond Mavericks?

Yes, can you upgrade to Yosemite?

At them moment I am interested in Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti. Looking for deals for GTX 950

I think that a GTX950 would be a worthwhile upgrade over the 750Ti

 

[sunnyimran]

Although I personally like the GUI of Mavericks but being an experimental enthusiast I can move to Yosemite and beyond.

Regarding the Graphics card I am bound to two choices given below. Definitely GTX 750 Ti is superior than GT 750 but now problem is in deciding for 4K @ 60Hz operation. I will buy a 4k monitor later. Currently I will use my SAMSUNG 24 inch LED FLAT PANEL on 1920X1080 on the GPU I am going to buy

My only choices are:

1) GIGABYTE GV-N740D5OC-2GI (rev.2.0) GeForce GT 740 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5
2) GIGABYTE GV-N75TOC-2GI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5

choice 1) has only one HDMI Port and specs mention support for 4k resolution as Digital max resolution 4096 X 2160 via one HDMI port. I looked everywhere on net and could not find its supported refresh rate or HDMI port version 1.4 or 2.0?. I am guessing it would be 4096 X 2160 @ 30 Hz only.

choice 2) has two HDMI ports, Supports 4K @ 60Hz Via Dual HDMI 1.2 configuration

Now I am ready to go for choice 2). But worried about 4k operation on it. When buying 4k monitors, would I need to limit my choice to monitors that have dual HDMI support for 4k @ 60Hz ? Would they be hard to find

If I go with option 1) it is inferior than choice 2) and 4k refresh rate is not confirmed.

what you suggest now?

 

[Adrian B]

If you want to use a budget oriented GPU that supports 4k in OS X, then I would personally go with a model that is equipped with DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0 may also work, but as I have not been paying much attention to 4K OS X support yet can I suggest that you get an answer from Fl0rian.

See Storks GTX 750 Ti thread for more information:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/h...new-gigabyte-750-ti-2gb-graphics-card.149962/

 

[sunnyimran]

I have to rethink because of availability of GTX 750 Ti in my region.

What about AMD Radeon R7 360

option-1 from Gigabyte:

option-2 from ASUS

Will R7 360 one of the above work fine with Yosemite and beyond OS X version, with full potential?

If one of them, I would go with ASUS, it has full 3 years warranty and Hardware seems better than Gigabyte, with 2 fans. My mobo is also ASUS

please reply soon. Thanks