Hi Stork!
Thanks for the reply. I am a commercial photographer and filmmaker. My computing needs are Adobe products, AKA running Premiere, Lightroom, Photoshop etc. I don't game or anything.
Also, I'm on Mountain Lion now. Is that a good place to stop? Or does Mavericks run well?
Mavericks is my production system version which I have on my MacBook Pro and 2010 Mac Pro. 10.9.5 is very stable. I do not like the interface and "features" of Yosemite although I have several builds (Hector & Zippy) that I use to keep up with tonymacx86 software. When Yosemite 10.10.5 comes out, it will have the enough maturity. But, I'll probably wait to upgrade from Mavericks to El Capitan this coming Spring (2016) when it reaches version 10.11.3; El Capitan is what Yosemite should have been. We'll see.
The other thing I was considering was getting the Z97X-UH3, the Core i7-4790K and a new graphics card (GPU recommendation on this set up would also be very valuable ?) doing an upgrade to Yosemite using the rest of my existing hardware (32g vengeance ram, corsair 650 w supply, SSD system drive)
Make sure your memory is on the
Z97X-UD3H's Memory Support List - make and model # - as non supported memory as been shown to be the cause of the "dreaded Haswell Freeze." Additionally, use no more than 8GB of memory to install Yosemite; add the rest of your memory after your system is up and running. Again, use only memory make/model # on the Memory Support List as the Haswell specifications are much tighter than previous i3/i5/i6 generations.
Same for older PSUs - make sure it's approved as Haswell "ready" or "certified." The Haswell processor has a lower power idle state which can cause non Haswell compatible PSUs to shut down, the PSU thinking that the system has been shut down.
Any insights into graphics cards would be very valuable to me as I'm not super-techy and I'm finding it quite challenging to navigate through the GPU world with any precision.
Thanks in advance.
Well, I thought I did in my answer to your first post. What do you need to know? Are you driving multiple monitors? Will you be upgrading your monitor(s) to 4K+ monitor(s) in the near future?
Keep in mind that the newer nVidia Maxwell series graphics cards (750 & 900 series) are not supported natively in Apple's OS X (any of them). But, nVidia supports the Maxwell cards only in Yosemite with their Web and CUDA drivers. It's a pain, but, if you "don't rush to fail", you can get along with this PITA. (nVidia drivers update are published several days after Apple brings out a Yosemite update, so you have to be patient and wait. See the
Graphics forum section for more info.)
The AMD R9 200/300 series are rebadged versions of the AMD 7000 series cards. User's of these cards report good results when using only one monitor. When using multiple monitors you run into what they call "framebuffer" problems. (Hanging around the forum's Graphics section will get you smarter on this issue with AMD cards.) I'm still using a AMD 7950 in my 2008 Mac Pro with good results. The Sapphire R9 380 Compact ITX graphics card has the same port layout as the Apple Mac 7900 series cards, and WonkeyDonkey has it in his
build with specific questions posed to him about the R9 380 on
page 3 & 4 of his build description.
Lastly, unless you want to be on the cutting edge, I'd still look for a used GTX 680 or GTX 770 which are supported natively in OS X, and you can add nVidia's CUDA drivers if needed. But, be advised that I don't use the Adobe products, so I'm just reporting from what I've read.
I highly recommend you read threads in the Graphics forum section that have ask the same question or, if you can't find a thread that covers your requirements, post your question of a suitable graphics card for you use.
Good luck!
