Recommendations for new Graphics card for upgrade to Catalina

[dalecorderoy]

Hi guys,

Just wondered if I could ask for a little bit of expert advice for recommendations on a new graphics card for upgrading to Catalina.

I checked my main system stats and everything looked good to upgrade by simply running the direct update to Catalina via the install app but I then noticed that apparently my current Graphics Card (Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Windforce) isn't supported under 10.15 due to Apple now not supporting Nivida cards?

I run the machine for mostly music production so I don't need a very expensive card for playing games or graphic design etc, so I was looking for the best and most compatible cheapest option that would work. The only requirement that I would like is that it's able to support two monitors.

I'm based in the UK, so any thoughts on what I could buy would be greatly received.

Thank you so much!
Dale

 

[andrelabbe]

hi
For what is worth
I have a z170 and I was using a NV 1060/8Gb but since I wanted to move from 10.13 I bought an AMD 580/8Gb to get more or less same spec without breaking the bank.
I only remove the NV card and plugged the AMD in place
Booted and straight away got the display
I then removed the NVIDIA web driver and uninstalled the CUBA driver.
May be I was lucky but all worked fine 1st time
Now the only draw back but nothing to do with the Display was the removal of 32 bits support.
I have quite few 'Steam' games and a lot of them do not work anymore being 32bits same for some Apps.
My way around it to simply boot back to 10.13

 

[dalecorderoy]

Thanks for the great reply mate! I'll check out the AMD 580, I was looking at perhaps thinking of one of the following as they looked like decent options.

PowerColor Radeon RX 550 Red Dragon, 4GB
PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Devil, 4GB
Powercolor Radeon RX 580 Red Devil, 4GB

 

[andrelabbe]

No problem.
if you do not play game the 5xx 4Gb would be more than enough.
Please do some research... At the time if I recall some cards had some compatibility issues.

Not to repeat myself, I was amazed how simple it was.
I just swapped them and boot.
Of course I had errors with the nv web drivers since no nv card present. This was just an untick to remove them.
CUBA... I had to dig to remove it.
Then afterward I upgraded... But as stated I did clone the old 10.13 since I still need to run some 32 bits Stuff.

My rig is still on 10.15
I am waiting to go to 11 since some Apps do not work (I have noticed on my MacBook Air)
and I still run Clover (old version).
I am more of the style "If it is not broken, do not try to fix it"

 

[molko1234]

Thanks for the great reply mate! I'll check out the AMD 580, I was looking at perhaps thinking of one of the following as they looked like decent options.

PowerColor Radeon RX 550 Red Dragon, 4GB
PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Devil, 4GB
Powercolor Radeon RX 580 Red Devil, 4GB

you could take a look at the dortania guide

It suggests PowerColour might work but probably best avoided for an easier life

The only brand of GPU you should avoid with the Polaris series would be XFX, PowerColour, HIS and VisionTek as many users have had issues with these cards with viewing Clover and macOS booting but other users have found fixes/workarounds(though nothing consistent). This seems to be caused by having an odd VBIOS that doesn't communicate well with macOS and the only real solution is flashing another VBIOS which is not ideal for most users.

 

[andrelabbe]

My card is an Asus RX 580 Armor 8Gb OC
works fine and I have 2 monitors (one DP and one HDMI)

 

[Jamesbond007]

Thanks for the great reply mate! I'll check out the AMD 580, I was looking at perhaps thinking of one of the following as they looked like decent options.

PowerColor Radeon RX 550 Red Dragon, 4GB
PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Devil, 4GB
Powercolor Radeon RX 580 Red Devil, 4GB

Not the RX 550 as it is based on a different graphics chip and is not supported on MacOS.

I recommend using Sapphire Pulse cards as they seem to be the most compatible (and has been tested by Apple for use in Thundebolt external GPU enclosures).

 

[dalecorderoy]

Not the RX 550 as it is based on a different graphics chip and is not supported on MacOS.

I recommend using Sapphire Pulse cards as they seem to be the most compatible (and has been tested by Apple for use in Thundebolt external GPU enclosures).

Thanks so much for the advice mate, I was looking at the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8g so that could work well from the feedback I've received

 

[andrelabbe]

Hi
one thing I have not tested with the card is sound.
For one simple reason.... Both monitors do not have Speaker or 'Speaker Out'
I can see the option in 'System Preference' for both monitors. I guess it should work!

I only use the DP (not HDMI) as 2nd monitor since I use a converter DP->VGA to connect an old 'Compaq V1000'
I know it is silly but it saves me the cost of a monitor since right now I spend more time WFH.