In Search of the Best Hackintosh Graphics Card

[Sombra]

Mac Pro (MacPro5,1)
Intel Core i7 @ 3370 MHz
8 GB - DDR3 @ 1602 MHz
ATI Radeon HD 5770

NovaBench Score: 1516
2011-02-21 00:04:08 -0800
Mac OS X 10.6.6
Intel Core i7 @ 3370 MHz
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770

8192 MB System RAM (Score: 161)
- RAM Speed: 5160 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 685)
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 282884448
- Integer Operations/Second: 549779200
- MD5 Hashes Calculated/Second: 997799

Graphics Tests (Score: 644)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 1194

Hardware Tests (Score: 26)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 232 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 98 MB/s

 

[lukarak]

Something's not right here. I have the same setup, and with 4.1 and AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext edit i get 2700 FPS. The upside is that it reverts to lower power mode when not under load.

try smbios 3.1, i get 2710 running 3.1 smbios and 3.6ghz.. its stable.

That's what i'm trying to say, i get 2700 with 4.1
With 3.1 the card doesn't go to low power mode when in 2D. But you only get 1800 with 4.1, which means you probably didn't edit the GPU power kext properly.

 

[thadrumr]

Here is my score. I am running an old 7800gt that a friend gave me for the mean time til I can get the money for a HD 5770 Radeon. I was running a Quadro NVS 290 but the 7800gt does better in games. The NVS 290 is the same GPU core as an 8400gs. The processor is an i5 750 Overclocked as is my ram to ddr3 1600mhz.


NovaBench Score: 838
2011-02-23 09:00:29 -0500
Mac OS X 10.6.6
Intel Core i5 @ 3200 MHz
Graphics Card: GeForce 7800 GT

4096 MB System RAM (Score: 121)
- RAM Speed: 5386 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 482)
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 155056672
- Integer Operations/Second: 309985408
- MD5 Hashes Calculated/Second: 1125172

Graphics Tests (Score: 201)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 411

Hardware Tests (Score: 34)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 595 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 66 MB/s

 

[NDBoost]

Something's not right here. I have the same setup, and with 4.1 and AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext edit i get 2700 FPS. The upside is that it reverts to lower power mode when not under load.

try smbios 3.1, i get 2710 running 3.1 smbios and 3.6ghz.. its stable.

That's what i'm trying to say, i get 2700 with 4.1
With 3.1 the card doesn't go to low power mode when in 2D. But you only get 1800 with 4.1, which means you probably didn't edit the GPU power kext properly.

i didnt edit anything. I installed multibeast, and nvidia drivers.

 

[vjkevlar]

Hello Gentlemen.

Im somewhat confused. I thought we no longer needed to use a Graphic Kext when using the newest Chamelion, and still get Full acceleration?

Also, is true that the 4xx series (and earlier) is the only series working in OSx with full acceleration?

Thanks! I'll post my Geekbench next post.

Kevlar

 

[lukarak]

i didnt edit anything. I installed multibeast, and nvidia drivers.

Try editing your AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext (the info.plist in package contents)
You scroll to <key>MacPro4,1</key>
and change the second line after that to <key>Vendor10deDevice06c0</key>

Then install the 4.1 smbios and see if the card runs cooler and quieter in 2d mode. It should still do 2700 in NovaBench

 

[rushko]

GTX 260 is great solution for OS X as far as I am concerned, it' twice faster than my old GTS 250 and it runs with no problems. The outputs are working, no freezing when I attach LCD TV via HDMI out and no other probleems I've expirienced with GTS 250.

 

[vjkevlar]

NovaBench Score: 2179
2011-02-24 23:56:49 -0500
Mac OS X 10.6.5
Intel Core i7 (930) @ 2800 MHz
Graphics Card: Unknown nVidia card (BFG 285 oc)

6144 MB System RAM (Score: 139)
- RAM Speed: 4164 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 551)
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 230143488
- Integer Operations/Second: 431685056
- MD5 Hashes Calculated/Second: 812254

Graphics Tests (Score: 1468)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 2544

Hardware Tests (Score: 21)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 111 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 134 MB/s

In installed via iBoot and Retail snow updated to 10.6.5

Pretty good numbers right?

K

 

[vpetrovic]

Hi
I'm planning to change my Gainward GTS450 GS with ATI, because I hate suddenly freezing of my system.
Which ATI or maybe again nVidia, is the best solution considering my other components?
Is it a good time to changing GPU?
Thanks

 

[brightico]

Hi
I'm planning to change my Gainward GTS450 GS with ATI, because I hate suddenly freezing of my system.
Which ATI or maybe again nVidia, is the best solution considering my other components?
Is it a good time to changing GPU?
Thanks

I personally don't like ATI because most of their cards do not work properly in MAYA. I always had Viewport and draw distance issues with them. I think Macintosh is making a big mistake by moving to them.

IMO, get the $99 GTX260 deal going on at Tiger Direct! It's also the Core 216 version and it's overclocked which puts the card on par with the older standard GTX280. I've had no issues at all with mine, installation was absolutely flawless as I just slapped it in the motherboard attached the power supply and turned the computer on.

Go back through this thread and look at the GPU scores of other cards compared to mine and other GTX260 users. Remember I'm only running this card with an E5400 CPU.

IMO, unless you really give a crap about DX11, for a hackintosh it's the easiest and simplest solution if you have a big enough case and PSU to support it. To each his own though, I use a Zotac Amp! GTX460 in my Windows 7 machine and don't plan on changing it anytime soon.

Notable Specifications
BFG GeForce GTX 260 896MD GDDR3 Overclocked Ed.

Memory Interface: 448-bit

Stream Processors: 216

Memory Bandwidth: 111.9GB/sec.

APIs: DirectX 10/OpenGL 2.1/CUDA

Multi-GPU Support: 3-Way SLI[/code]