Need advice on how to upgrade my OS to Monterey

[ZachEgan]

Hello everyone. I've been using Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6 since 2017 and need to upgrade my OS. I just bought an AMD Radeon RX 6600 GPU so that I can do so. My question is how do I go about upgrading my operating system while installing the new GPU? I know little to nothing about hackintosh. When I first built my machine and needed to troubleshoot it I relied entirely on these forums for guidance so please be patient with me and understand I don't understand much of the terminology. Looking to make this as smooth and simple of a process as possible. Thank you very much in advance!

Here are my specs:
Mac OS: Sierra 10.12.6
CPU: i7-7700K
Current GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3071 MB
Replacement GPU: Sapphire 11310-01-20G Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Graphics Card with 8GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 2
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming
RAM: 32GB 2400 MHz DDR4
PSU: Corsair RMx Series, RM650x, 650W

 

[ZachEgan]

Bump

 

[trs96]

If you want to run monterey then remove your 1060 and use the iGPU to install Catalina first. That way you can map all your USB ports and make sure they work. See the guide by UtterDisbelief for how to do that.

After that, you can make your Monterey USB installer, hopefully with OpenCore and have your 6600 installed. A clean install would be best as you are probably using Clover bootloader right now.

I don't see any guides here but there is one older one on Github that might be helpful to a degree.

GitHub - icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug: Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh"

Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh". Contribute to icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[ZachEgan]

If you want to run monterey then remove your 1060 and use the iGPU to install Catalina first. That way you can map all your USB ports and make sure they work. See the guide by UtterDisbelief for how to do that.

After that, you can make your Monterey USB installer, hopefully with OpenCore and have your 6600 installed. A clean install would be best as you are probably using Clover bootloader right now.

I don't see any guides here but there is one older one on Github that might be helpful to a degree.

GitHub - icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug: Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh"

Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh". Contribute to icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Okay great I’ll look into all this. So when you say clean install you mean I can’t restore a backup right? I’d need to download all my apps from scratch.

 

[trs96]

Okay great I’ll look into all this. So when you say clean install you mean I can’t restore a backup right? I’d need to download all my apps from scratch.

You can make a TM backup and restore that after Monterey is installed. To go from Sierra to Monterey and switch to OC at the same time via in place upgrade is asking a lot. Pretty difficult to do all that and make it work.

 

[ZachEgan]

If you want to run monterey then remove your 1060 and use the iGPU to install Catalina first. That way you can map all your USB ports and make sure they work. See the guide by UtterDisbelief for how to do that.

After that, you can make your Monterey USB installer, hopefully with OpenCore and have your 6600 installed. A clean install would be best as you are probably using Clover bootloader right now.

I don't see any guides here but there is one older one on Github that might be helpful to a degree.

GitHub - icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug: Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh"

Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh". Contribute to icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Could you please link me to the guide by UtterDisbelief?

 

[ZachEgan]

You can make a TM backup and restore that after Monterey is installed. To go from Sierra to Monterey and switch to OC at the same time via in place upgrade is asking a lot. Pretty difficult to do all that and make it work.

If i restore backup it will only restore my data not my original operating system right?

 

[ZachEgan]

If you want to run monterey then remove your 1060 and use the iGPU to install Catalina first. That way you can map all your USB ports and make sure they work. See the guide by UtterDisbelief for how to do that.

After that, you can make your Monterey USB installer, hopefully with OpenCore and have your 6600 installed. A clean install would be best as you are probably using Clover bootloader right now.

I don't see any guides here but there is one older one on Github that might be helpful to a degree.

GitHub - icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug: Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh"

Gigabyte Z270X-UG "Hackintosh". Contribute to icedterminal/ga-z270x-ug development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

after i remove the 1060 do i need to install Catalina via a bootloader USB or can I do it from the app store?

 

[trs96]

after i remove the 1060 do i need to install Catalina via a bootloader USB or can I do it from the app store?

I would download Catalina with gibMacOS. Build the USB installer with your Sierra install. Then shutdown, disconnect the Sierra SSD and install Catalina to a clean new SSD. That way everything is backed up and safe on the Sierra SSD without having to clone it first.

 

[trs96]

If i restore backup it will only restore my data not my original operating system right?

Yes