pastrychef's testing machine - HP Elite 8300 SFF - i7-3770 - GT 630

[Lonelytanker]

I have an 8300 and RX560 but no 4k monitors to try with, sorry. I am successfully running 2x 2k (1440p) monitors with no issue.

A quick google throws up this card with potentially 4 DP outputs? Although not sure on availability.

Are you aware it IS possible to upgrade the PSU in a CMT, and then you have a much wider choice of cards, given you can use additional power. It involves buying or building an adaptor to convert ATX socket > HP proprietary socket, and drilling a couple of different mounting holes in the case. Some people get concerned about PSU work but I have used the adaptor successfully in testing. Not using it long term as sourced an RX560 that works for me, and didn't have the time or inclination to drill case holes!

Thanks for the link to the card. I found a place that carries it for $240 -- which is about double I wanted to spend at the moment. I'll research the adapter and PSU upgrade. That might be my best bet. Thanks for the suggestion. My current setup is working well, but I'd like to move to Catalina at some point and need a graphics card that works OOTB to do it.

Update: Just found this Visiontek card being sold through Dell. Powered only by the PCIe bus. Price is a little more reasonable. I'll keep watching it to see if the price drops at all in the future.

VisionTek Radeon Rx 560 4GB GDDR5 4M 4K, 4 Mini Displayports, AMD Eyefinity, 7.1 Surround Sound, PCI Express, Low-Profile GPU, ATX & SFF Graphics Card - 901278 | Dell USA

Whether you want to power a convenience store display, a multi-monitor display wall in a public venue, feed four individual monitors to separate rooms in your business office environment, the RX 560 4M is ready to present your desired message or content from a single PC.

www.dell.com

 

[phrozenpenguin]

Thanks for the link to the card. I found a place that carries it for $240 -- which is about double I wanted to spend at the moment. I'll research the adapter and PSU upgrade. That might be my best bet. Thanks for the suggestion. My current setup is working well, but I'd like to move to Catalina at some point and need a graphics card that works OOTB to do it.

Update: Just found this Visiontek card being sold through Dell. Powered only by the PCIe bus. Price is a little more reasonable. I'll keep watching it to see if the price drops at all in the future.

VisionTek Radeon Rx 560 4GB GDDR5 4M 4K, 4 Mini Displayports, AMD Eyefinity, 7.1 Surround Sound, PCI Express, Low-Profile GPU, ATX & SFF Graphics Card - 901278 | Dell USA

Whether you want to power a convenience store display, a multi-monitor display wall in a public venue, feed four individual monitors to separate rooms in your business office environment, the RX 560 4M is ready to present your desired message or content from a single PC.

www.dell.com

Nice. That card is interesting; I didn't realise RX560 supported 4xDP. Also interesting as its a LP card that wouldn't need a CMT.

This is the PSU thread that might be of interest: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/hp-8300-complete-overhaul-psu-and-gpu-upgrades.274842/

 

[Lonelytanker]

Nice. That card is interesting; I didn't realise RX560 supported 4xDP. Also interesting as its a LP card that wouldn't need a CMT.

This is the PSU thread that might be of interest: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/hp-8300-complete-overhaul-psu-and-gpu-upgrades.274842/

Thanks for the link to that thread. Looks interesting. I'll have to decide if it makes more sense to spend extra on a new PSU plus an RX580 or go with the RX560 with 4 DP that doesn't need a PSU change. Decisions, decisions, lol

 

[Lonelytanker]

Nice. That card is interesting; I didn't realise RX560 supported 4xDP. Also interesting as its a LP card that wouldn't need a CMT.

This is the PSU thread that might be of interest: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/hp-8300-complete-overhaul-psu-and-gpu-upgrades.274842/

I decided to take the plunge and try the PSU upgrade, so I would be able to upgrade graphics cards more easily now and in the future. Getting a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580.

Hopefully, the upgrade goes off without a hitch.
Any advice on how/which order to update my GPU and OS? I'm currently using a GTX 950 (with the HD4000 still enabled in the BIOS) on High Sierra with an iMac13,2 system definition.

 

[trs96]

Any advice on how/which order to update my GPU and OS? I'm currently using a GTX 950 (with the HD4000 still enabled in the BIOS) on High Sierra with an iMac13,2 system definition.

13,2 and HD4000 still work with Mojave so you could remove the 950, connect to DP out on your mobo, do the mojave upgrade via the app store first. Make sure your Clover version is at least 4920. Do not use the newer 5xxx versions though. Then install the kexts such as Lilu and WEG (or update what you've got). Install your 580 and you're good to go. Don't forget to uninstall the Nvidia drivers at some point in the transition.

 

[pastrychef]

I decided to take the plunge and try the PSU upgrade, so I would be able to upgrade graphics cards more easily now and in the future. Getting a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580.

Hopefully, the upgrade goes off without a hitch.
Any advice on how/which order to update my GPU and OS? I'm currently using a GTX 950 (with the HD4000 still enabled in the BIOS) on High Sierra with an iMac13,2 system definition.

Just upgrade Clover and the kexts in /EFI/Clover/kexts/Other/. Be careful with the newer versions of Clover since they changed the file location where drivers are placed.

As trs96 stated, there's no support for the GTX 950 in Mojave so you will have to pull it.

 

[Lonelytanker]

13,2 and HD4000 still work with Mojave so you could remove the 950, connect to DP out on your mobo, do the mojave upgrade via the app store first. Make sure your Clover version is at least 4920. Do not use the newer 5xxx versions though. Then install the kexts such as Lilu and WEG (or update what you've got). Install your 580 and you're good to go. Don't forget to uninstall the Nvidia drivers at some point in the transition.

Just upgrade Clover and the kexts in /EFI/Clover/kexts/Other/. Be careful with the newer versions of Clover since they changed the file location where drivers are placed.

As trs96 stated, there's no support for the GTX 950 in Mojave so you will have to pull it.

Thanks for the advice. I should have the PSU, adapter cable, and RX 580 all by this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes. I'll definitely be cloning my system drive before doing anything, just in case I mess something up and need to start over.

This 8300 has been rock solid on High Sierra, so I'm hoping this upgrade will allow me to continue using it through several more macOS versions. The only issue I've had turned out to be a bad stick of RAM (the random reboots were baffling me!).

Thanks for all your help.

 

[phrozenpenguin]

@Lonelytanker how did you go?

 

[Lonelytanker]

@phrozenpenguin Got the PSU, adapter cable, and graphics card but haven't had the time to get it all installed and working, yet. Also ended up with a circle slash on boot that set me back a little. Finally figured out I needed to delete the prelinkedkernel and then rebuild my kext cache. So my hack is back working 100%.

I hope to try to get everything working this weekend. I'll definitely post an update here when I finally get around to it.

 

[phrozenpenguin]

Anybody moved over to 10.15 on an 8300?