Hey Folks -
Wish I had seen this thread before taking the plunge into 10.13.4. Wanted to document my setup/config in case it helps someone.
Board: Z77-DS3H (F9 firmware) Video: GeForce GTX 660Ti (2048 MB)
Upgraded from Sierra - couldn't for the life of me get the system to retain the older file system. So here I sit on APFS (which changes up how you access the EFI partition slightly - mild heart attack there till used DiskUtil to list drives instead of Clover Configurator, as I could see a damn thing with the default/old config settings. I digress...)
After the upgrade - everything was a big game of tetris. So I spent all night reading/configuring so that now I have a pretty decent system (not perfect, but close enough.)
My setup has Auto for the onboard video and for which is recognized first. I only use the 660 with one monitor. If I try any of the suggestions of picking a particular video card, or forcing Enable, I either can't get any video or my desktop comes up and my screen is the secondary screen (assumption is that the system is 'seeing' the internal video card and making that the primary.) So in the end left both BIOS settings to auto.
What helped a lot was an earlier post about color profiles - that led me to look into my display settings. As a lark, I decided to change my display settings from 60hz to 50hz - boom! MOST of the artifacts went away. So I'm sitting at 50hz & 1080p.
However, I was still getting artifacts in google maps and Surviving Mars. If I put the machine to sleep and then wake it up, that artifacts went away for a little bit. So I kept plugging at it.
List of other changes and their effects:
- I tried the Intel inject - no difference seen so I removed it.
- Changed my boot options from: -v dart=0 kext-dev-mode=1 to: -v kext-dev-mode=1. Not sure what exactly this did - but it seemed like artifacts were less.
- Change my SMBIOS from 13,1 to 14,2. No artifacts in most apps.
So my machines works great in everything - even google maps (full screen with satellite view.) Photoshop/Luminar all work without artifacts. Played youtube videos full screen for hours and no issues.
The only place where I see artifacts now is in Surviving Mars. I have to play the game as a Windowed game at a pretty small size (maybe half the screen?) I have most settings in the game set to High and still hitting 50fps. If I try changing the game window size or any of the detail settings, there is a chance for the entire game window to go completely crazy. I simply put the machine into sleep mode and wake it up and the window comes back clear.
Hopes the above helps. I'm planning on buying a new video card this year - but thanks to all of contributors, I can put off the purchase as I can live with my current settings.
Thanks all!
) and isn't affected about this glitching?
