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Should I buy a better Cpu or a better Gpu?

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Dec 28, 2019
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Motherboard
H310M A2.0
CPU
i5 9400f
Graphics
Gtx970
Hi there. When i bought my current PC (for the sole purpose of building a hackintosh) was because I had already a running and functional system but it was old and started to faiI. The motherboard was unstable and all that good stuff. I needed to replace it. But I thought I have the Gtx970 that by today’s standards should be viable. The last update I installed was High Sierra. So I bought the cheapest Cpu (i5 9400f) with no graphics I found and the cheapest motherboard (Gigabyte H310m A2.0) and ram I thought should be compatible Because I thought the gpu should work since it was already compatible and had the web drivers. I couldn’t be more wrong.

but i try to right my wrongs now. I’m in a low budget and i don’t know if I should buy a more powerful cpu with integrated graphics and pray nvidia will update the drivers now that we have a Mac Pro with pci slots? Or should I just buy a Radeon 570. I already know the Cpu is trash for my workflow but my priority right know is to get Catalina running with the lowest budget posible. Thanks
 
forget nvidia, go for amd gpu. keep the cpu /it is great for any workload/ and buy a used R9 270-290 below $100 or RX460-480 or RX560-580 around or sligtly above $100
if you are really low on budget buy an nvidia gt710 $50 which is supported even in Catalina and can run 3 FHD screens easily
 
Agree but I’d suggest skip the 710 since it’s old and likely will not have support soon.
 
Running the non-X 280 and 290 cards has become much more difficult in recent OS X versions. How much so probably depends on how old your chipset is. With my R9 290 on Z87, which I recently updated to High Sierra, I got no help at all from Whatevergreen. It required the old methods (which are complicated), and there was limited info online.
 
Woah thank you all for your replies.
I’ll go for the graphics card then. But I’ve been checking the buyers guide and I can’t choose a proper gpu from the list. Bit let’s say my budget is around $150 and $160. It could be a little more flexible but let’s stay close to it as possible.

can you recommend me a better gpu than my current gtx970 between that range that will work oob with Catalina For the years to come? Thanks!!
 
Woah thank you all for your replies.
I’ll go for the graphics card then. But I’ve been checking the buyers guide and I can’t choose a proper gpu from the list. Bit let’s say my budget is around $150 and $160. It could be a little more flexible but let’s stay close to it as possible.

can you recommend me a better gpu than my current gtx970 between that range that will work oob with Catalina For the years to come? Thanks!!


RX 580 would be in your range especially if you go used. it looks like this would be marginally faster than the 970. Another option, which is what I did, is to get a Vega 56 and flash the bios to a Vega 64, which will give you far more performance than you are used to. You can even tinker with the power play tables to get a nice overclock. They look to be going for around $200 on Ebay.
 
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Nvidia has officially ceased the support for macOS. There will not be any driver for Mojave and newer versions unless the policy is changed.
 
My R9 280 went bad and I replaced it with a RX560. I am much happier. I use a 4K HDMI monitor and do no 3D work.
 
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