New GTX 960 & upgrade to Yosemite - which first?

[Nomad93]

My current system is GA-Z77x-UD5H with i5 3750K and GeForce GTX 650, running Mavericks 10.9.5 (everything is functional and no problem across the board). For all kinds of reasons I need to upgrade my graphics card and I have selected Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB G1 Gaming (currently listed in Buyer's Guide).

After reading various posts, I understand that GTX 960 is not supported on Mavericks (either natively or with NVidia's alternative drivers) and I need to upgrade to Yosemite - is that correct? If so, does it matter in which sequence I do this:

* upgrade to Yosemite on GTX 650, get everything running, and then change the card and use MultiBeast?

OR

* put in GTX 960 as I initiate the upgrade (using USB prepared as per instructions here), upgrade, and finish up with MultiBeast?

Also, at which point in either do I come with NVidia's alternative drivers (I understand that without them I'll get a pretty lousy video - is that correct?)

Many thanks for any tips you may have.

 

[VioletDragon]

You can update to Yosemite you can just install Yosemite over Mavericks you can also use your old GPU to get everything up and running then install nvidia web drivers and put your new GPU in once you got nvidia web drivers installed you have to add nvda_drv=1 to your chameleon boot.plist in your extra folder or you can install Yosemite with the new Graphics card in but you'll have to boot with nv_disable=1. If your planning on using iMessage ten Clover will be an easier option

Good luck

 

[Nomad93]

You can update to Yosemite you can just install Yosemite over Mavericks you can also use your old GPU to get everything up and running then install nvidia web drivers and put your new GPU in once you got nvidia web drivers installed you have to add nvda_drv=1 to your chameleon boot.plist in your extra folder or you can install Yosemite with the new Graphics card in but you'll have to boot with nv_disable=1. If your planning on using iMessage ten Clover will be an easier option

Good luck

Thanks. Which is these you think is - all things being equal - the least susceptible to problems?

 

[VioletDragon]

You can do Either its up to you. But what id do is use a test drive if you have a spare SSD or Hard Drive if your thinking of changing to Clover id defiantly use a test drive and install Mavericks on then try out Clover with your nvidia 650 Graphics card. when updating to Yosemite using Clover you can just run the Yosemite app from the app store and let it do its thing providing you set it up follow this guide if you want to do a clean install 10.10 Clover Guide if you want to migrate to Clover without doing a clean install then you can just follow Post installation.

 

[Nomad93]

You can do Either its up to you. But what id do is use a test drive if you have a spare SSD or Hard Drive if your thinking of changing to Clover id defiantly use a test drive and install Mavericks on then try out Clover with your nvidia 650 Graphics card. when updating to Yosemite using Clover you can just run the Yosemite app from the app store and let it do its thing providing you set it up follow this guide if you want to do a clean install 10.10 Clover Guide if you want to migrate to Clover without doing a clean install then you can just follow Post installation.

I understand, but I definitely want to upgrade to Yosemite (and not clean install) - I have too much stuff to reinstall and really no time to experiment with clean installs.

 

[VioletDragon]

okay if thats the way just create the Unibeast pen drive and boot then just install Yosemite over Mavericks with your old Graphics card once everything is up and running and installed nvidia web drivers swap your old GPU over for 960 boot with nvda_drv=1 and add that flag to your boot.plist . id recommend doing a time machine before you do anything just to make sure.

 

[Adrian B]

I understand, but I definitely want to upgrade to Yosemite (and not clean install) - I have too much stuff to reinstall and really no time to experiment with clean installs.

You can do a clean installation and then use Migration Assistant to transfer all your files, settings and apps. I did this earlier and moved over 250GB of data between platter drives in ~45 minutes. It was quick and simple.

If you want to just install Yosemite over your Mavericks installation, then remember to follow this part first:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-...-os-x-yosemite-using-unibeast-multibeast.html

 

[Nomad93]

Thanks, all! This is all really helpful!