Graphics Choppy and Laggy in Big Sur

[verancl]

So I've been able to get Big Sur successfully installed and running on my machine but the graphics are pretty choppy and opening/closing programs will lag for a second or two. I also have 3 monitors connected but only 1 works.

I'm using a Nvidia GTX 1080 and I know Apple has dropped support for the Nvidia Web Drivers after High Sierra so I won't get full graphic processing support but are there any workarounds that I can at least have the graphics run smoothly and my multi-monitor support back?


OS: Big Sur (11.2.3)
Bootloader: Clover - 5131 (Can use OpenCore 0.6.7 if I need to)
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Hero VII - Z97 | Bios Rev: 3503
CPU: Intel i7-4790K - Haswell
RAM: 32gb DDR3-2133 Corsair Dominator Platinum
GPU: ASUS Strix Nvidia GTX 1080
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo

 

[Jamesbond007]

So I've been able to get Big Sur successfully installed and running on my machine but the graphics are pretty choppy and opening/closing programs will lag for a second or two. I also have 3 monitors connected but only 1 works.

I'm using a Nvidia GTX 1080 and I know Apple has dropped support for the Nvidia Web Drivers after High Sierra so I won't get full graphic processing support but are there any workarounds that I can at least have the graphics run smoothly and my multi-monitor support back?


OS: Big Sur (11.2.3)
Bootloader: Clover - 5131 (Can use OpenCore 0.6.7 if I need to)
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Hero VII - Z97 | Bios Rev: 3503
CPU: Intel i7-4790K - Haswell
RAM: 32gb DDR3-2133 Corsair Dominator Platinum
GPU: ASUS Strix Nvidia GTX 1080
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo


View attachment 512132

Short answer is : No.

As the GTX 1080 is not supported on MacOS Big Sur due to lack of Nvidia drivers, the only way of getting back smooth graphics is to (1) replace your graphics card with a supported card like the RX 580 or RX 5700 XT (which is going to be difficult during this cryptocurrency boom), or (2) remove the card and use CPU integrated graphics.

Seeing that Nvidia has not released any new drivers since the release of MacOS Mojave, don't ever hope to see Nvidia driver support ever again in MacOS.

If you want to keep using the 1080 (perhaps to run Windows), then you have to switch to using CPU integrated graphics and find a way to disable the card while in MacOS, which is not an ideal solution as the card may still interfere with the working of the OS.

 

[verancl]

Yeah I dual boot Windows (for gaming) and macOS (for app development) so I'd prefer to keep the 1080 in play. Do you know of any way that I can force macOS to use CPU for graphics processing but have my displays still connected to my GTX 1080?

 

[aceboy69]

Yeah I dual boot Windows (for gaming) and macOS (for app development) so I'd prefer to keep the 1080 in play. Do you know of any way that I can force macOS to use CPU for graphics processing but have my displays still connected to my GTX 1080

I don't believe this is possible unless there is some clever way - there is a setting in the BIOS but I think if it detects a card in, then it will always use this. (I have almost exact same issues but with Catalina as well.)

 

[Jamesbond007]

Yeah I dual boot Windows (for gaming) and macOS (for app development) so I'd prefer to keep the 1080 in play. Do you know of any way that I can force macOS to use CPU for graphics processing but have my displays still connected to my GTX 1080?

I am not aware of such a possibility. To get smooth graphics in MacOS you have to use CPU integrated graphics to drive the display, which means you have to connect the monitor to a graphics output port on the motherboard.

And you still have to find a way to disable the Nvidia card in MacOS in such a case.