Installed Catalina but it glitches and barely usable because of Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card?

[caburnicus]

So I was able to dual boot Windows 10 and MACOS Catalina 10.15
However, it's very glitchy and web browsers Chrome especially was basically unusable because the text kept on fading in and out.
I heard that Catalina no longer supports Nvidia graphics cards?

Is that the reason why it glitches constantly because I am running a GTX 1080 manufactured by Inno3D.
So I am guessing Nvidia users are now left in the dark?
Or is there some way overcoming this? Or is there another reason why Catlina glitches?

I am sorry if this is a noob question but thoroughly willing to learn.

Thank you.

 

[trs96]

I heard that Catalina no longer supports Nvidia graphics cards?

Is that the reason why it glitches constantly

Yes it is. See this: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...-of-desktop-cards-with-native-support.283700/

 

[jaymonkey]

Is that the reason why it glitches constantly because I am running a GTX 1080 manufactured by Inno3D.

@caburnicus,

Nvidia stoped releasing Nvidia WebDrivers for MacOS when Mojave was released back in 2018.

MacOS Mojave and Catalina only natively support Kepler based Nvidia GPU's that where used in some old Apple Mac's :-

It is possible to use other Kepler Gen-1 and Gen-2 based Nvidia GPU's that are not on the list, but for long term support it's quite likely that Apple will drop support for all Nvidia GPU's within 1 to 2 years.

If you still want to use your GTX 1080 with MacOS then install MacOS High Sierra which has support for 10 series Nvidia GPU's by downloading and installing Nvidia WebDrivers for MacOS.

If you want to run MacOs Mojave or Catalina on your PC then you can either disable the Nvidia GPU and use the IGPU or replace the GTX 1080 with a supported AMD GPU such as RX 580, Vega 56 or 64 or Radeon VII.

The new Navi based AMD GPU's are also starting to get supported in the latest version of Catalina and those drivers should mature with the release of MacOS 10.15.3 and 10.15.4.

Cheers
Jay

 

[caburnicus]

@caburnicus,

Nvidia stoped releasing Nvidia WebDrivers for MacOS when Mojave was released back in 2018.

MacOS Mojave and Catalina only natively support Kepler based Nvidia GPU's that where used in some old Apple Mac's :-

View attachment 443825
It is possible to use other Kepler Gen-1 and Gen-2 based Nvidia GPU's that are not on the list, but for long term support it's quite likely that Apple will drop support for all Nvidia GPU's within 1 to 2 years.

If you still want to use your GTX 1080 with MacOS then install MacOS High Sierra which has support for 10 series Nvidia GPU's by downloading and installing Nvidia WebDrivers for MacOS.

If you want to run MacOs Mojave or Catalina on your PC then you can either disable the Nvidia GPU and use the IGPU or replace the GTX 1080 with a supported AMD GPU such as RX 580, Vega 56 or 64 or Radeon VII.

The new Navi based AMD GPU's are also starting to get supported in the latest version of Catalina and those drivers should mature with the release of MacOS 10.15.3 and 10.15.4.

Cheers
Jay

Hi @jaymonkey thanks for the response.

Is it worth using MacOS High Sierra? Is there even much support for it these days? Are there still a number of people using this OS?

Do you think someone will be able to get around this issue with Nvidia no longer being supported by Apple? I believe Apple will lose quite a bit of their customer base if they ditch Nvidia. Not a good move by them.

Also I wonder if it is possible to run the Nvidia GTX 1080 on Windows and then Catalina OS with a RX 580? or just have to keep switching cards I guess? Also whats the best graphics card for quality using Catalina? Which would you recommend from cheapest to most expensive but mostly in terms of quality? I am a game designer, so I rely on graphics processing quite a bit.

Thank you again for the speedy response Jay.

 

[jaymonkey]

Is it worth using MacOS High Sierra? Is there even much support for it these days? Are there still a number of people using this OS?

@caburnicus,

There are many users on this forum who like yourself have a Nvidia GPU which they want to utilise and are quite happily running High Sierra with no issues.

The only reason not to use High Sierra is if you have a specific program (or version of) that requires features that are only available in Mojave or Catalina. An example of which would be the latest version of FCPX which has now been optimised to use the Metal 2 API.

In most cases you can just run a version that is one or two revisions older with no issues on High Sierra ...

With the exception of the Metal 2 API, most of the new features in MacOS Mojave and Catalina are mainly gimmicks and user interface changes.

Many professional Video and 3D artists/users are still running High Sierra due to the lack of Nvidia support in Mojave and Catalina and Apple still officially support High Sierra as there are a number of older Mac models that are unable to update to Mojave or Catalina due to other hardware limitations.

Cheers
Jay

 

[caburnicus]

@caburnicus,

There are many users on this forum who like yourself have a Nvidia GPU which they want to utilise and are quite happily running High Sierra with no issues.

The only reason not to use High Sierra is if you have a specific program (or version of) that requires features that are only available in Mojave or Catalina. An example of which would be the latest version of FCPX which has now been optimised to use the Metal 2 API.

In most cases you can just run a version that is one or two revisions older with no issues on High Sierra ...

With the exception of the Metal 2 API, most of the new features in MacOS Mojave and Catalina are mainly gimmicks and user interface changes.

Many professional Video and 3D artists/users are still running High Sierra due to the lack of Nvidia support in Mojave and Catalina and Apple still officially support High Sierra as there are a number of older Mac models that are unable to update to Mojave or Catalina due to other hardware limitations.

Cheers
Jay

Thank you again @jaymonkey
You may have saved me 200 bucks. I was going to go out and buy a RX 580 because they are relatively cheap just under 200 bucks here in Australia and just swap the cards when I change operating system. But if you say it's worth using High Sierra, then I think I will save my penny and take your word and try High Sierra.

Cheers
Caburnicus.

 

[jaymonkey]

I was going to go out and buy a RX 580 because they are relatively cheap just under 200 bucks here in Australia and just swap the cards when I change operating system. But if you say it's worth using High Sierra, then I think I will save my penny and take your word and try High Sierra.

@caburnicus,

It is really down to personal preference, if you don't need any of the new features in Mojave or Catalina and can get by with High Sierra and your exciting Nvidia GPU then its a viable and still supported option.

If you are a developer and need to to compile Apps for Mojave or Catalina with Xcode or you need specific features of Mojave or Catalina (EG: SideCar or a Metal 2 API dependant App) then replacing the Nvidia GPU with a supported AMD GPU will allow you to run the latest versions of MacOS.

If you are unsure I would say give High Sierra a go and see how you get on, you can always make the switch to a AMD GPU further down the road.

Having said that, the retail pricing for AMD RX 580 / RX 590 GPU's is being heavily discounted right now due to them being phased out in favour of the new RX 5500 & RX 5600 Navi based GPU's so now is as good a time as any to make the jump to team red.

Cheers
Jay