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The GPU you really need

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Joined
Apr 14, 2013
Messages
20
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI
CPU
Intel i7
Graphics
GTX 970
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
I have been a Hackintosh tinker for more than 4 years. Little by little I realized that my PC mindset was not working anymore when building a Hackintosh. More often than not newest is enemy of good. Let me explain myself.

When building a Hackintosh choosing the right components is paramount. This is particularly true when it comes to GPUs. As for today, NVidia macOS drivers support up to the 900 series, and soon the 1000s, which work perfectly in El Capitan but not quite perfectly in Sierra. Apple introduced a signature protection that make many things in Sierra not work or do it badly. I had a nVidia 970 running three monitors and Sierra 10.12.3 installed and after installing nVidia drivers and setting all up the best I could this is the list of issues I experienced.

1. IBooks rendered transparent windows.
2. Safari and OS crashes after waking up due to some Safari internal crash related to OpenGL.
3. Rare Illustrator and Photoshop crashes.
4. Mouse cursor not visible during OS login screen.
5. The canvas flickers when adjusting sliders in ON1 Photo Raw.
6. Transparent windows using some instrument panel in Logic.
7. Issues using same Xcode debugging tools.

All these pointed to some kind of GPU problem. They were frustrating and forced me to make many compromises and stop using apps that I like. I decided to step back and reconsider my GPU choice. I did same research and realized that the nVidia GTX 770 has native support in macOS and it is still a good card in 2017. In fact it is capable of throwing much better benchmarks than the GPU used by an iMac 5K. I borrowed one, replaced my 970 and uninstalled the third party drivers, and all issues went away.

My piece of advice to anybody who is trying to build a new Hackintosh is if you are neither a gamer nor a video editor, just get yourself a GTX 760/770/780 card. You will be happier and still have a better performance than you would get from a current iMac and a macBook Pro.

I hope this helps.
 
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I don't know how your config is like and you seem to have experienced more problems than most, but I honestly don't think that what you experienced is the norm.
 
It is the norm. You have a similar computer to mine. I would honestly appreciate you prove me wrong. Here some links to threads reporting the issue.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/nvidia-web-driver-ibooks-bug.203229/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/41470684/using-xcode-instruments-on-hackintosh
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/how-to-disable-metal-on-nvidia-webdriver.209999/

I even tried to use the igpu, and fixed the render issue but got new issues. How did you fix it? Are you able to use iBooks and Xcode Instruments?
 
I don't code in Xcode but sometimes use it as a plist editor...
Screen Shot 2017-04-02 at 5.40.11 AM.png
iBooks seems to work fine for me...
Screen Shot 2017-04-02 at 5.33.26 AM.png

  1. I am currently using iMac17,1 system definition with macOS Sierra 10.12.4.
  2. I am using ADGPfix v1.3 to fix the black screen issue with iMac17,1 system definition.
  3. My GTX 980 is set to primary in BIOS and Intel HD 530 is enabled.
  4. In config.plist, I have:
  • nvda_drv=1 enabled
  • Inject Intel with ig-platform-id set to 0x19120000
  • 10.11-SLL19120000-4_displays patch
  • NvidiaWeb enabled
Update:
I just tested iBooks on my i7-3770 system with GTX 745 and iBooks did NOT work. It displayed the transparent window as described in the linked post.

Update #2:
I did a little testing on my i7-3770 system. I swapped the GTX 745 out and installed a GT 640. Using Nvidia web drivers, transparent iBooks window. Using built-in Apple drivers, normal, working iBooks window.

On a whim, I decided to boot up the i7-3770 system with the boot drive from my Skylake system with the GTX 745 (which requires the Nvidia web drivers). This resulted in transparent iBooks window.

So, it appears that when using the Nvidia web drivers, the video card being used is the determining factor on whether you get the transparent windows or not. When using the built-in Apple drivers, you will not get the transparent windows.

I really should test the i7-3770 with my GTX 980 and the boot drive from my skyline system, but it's such PITA to pull that video card, I'm loath to do it..
 
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I can see you are using the HD 530 as coprocessor as well so macOS can default to it when renders metal stuff. I am using the same system definitions and had the same plist except the "4_displays patch" which I am going to give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
As for the GTX 745, Are you using the osx driver or nvidia's? As far as I know, GTX 770 and 780 have native supported and don't need third party drivers.

May I ask which kind of software you use on daily basis? Is your hackintosh stable stable? Does sleep/wake work for you?
 
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The GTX 745 is a Maxwell card and requires the Nvidia web drivers. The GTX 770 and 780 are Kepler based so they can work with with Apple's built-in drivers. Although, some later versions of the GTX 780 (GK110B) had difficulty with real Mac Pros.

My Skylake system is my daily driver. I use if for all your normal stuff, i.e. surfing, media consumption, etc. I also do some very light work in Photoshop and Illustrator. The heaviest lifting it does is converting videos prior to putting them on my NAS for Plex serving.

I currently have 3 hackintoshes:
  • Skylake build using Asus Maximus VIII and i7-6700K (daily driver)
  • Dell Latitude 3450 laptop with i3-5005U (used daily for surfing when I'm too lazy to walk to my desk)
  • HP Elite 8300 with i7-3770 (got it because it was too good of a deal to pass up and can't find a good use for it)
All are extremely stable. The Skylake and laptop both run 24/7 and sleep when inactive. The HP usually remains off unless I have a specific task I want to run and do not want tie up my Skylake but it also sleeps and wakes perfectly fine.
 
That's reassuring pastrychef. I'll give it another try.

I am a software developer (XCode, Intellij, Coda, Sketch 3 and many other wonderful apps for mac) and enthusiast photographer (Capture one,Lightroom and Photoshop), so I don't need a powerful graphics card except when applying some photoshop filter, but I would like to use my 970.

Thanks.
 
I tried it again, now with the patch but I still get ui glitches.
 
Is your HD 530 enabled?

I should note that I also have my HD 530 renamed from GFX0 to IGPU and PEGP renamed to GFX0 in the DSDT patch section of Clover configurator. This is what macOS expects on real iMac17,1 and I wanted to mimic it.
 
This is my config at the moment. iGPU active, 64MB in BIOS. Then Intel inject, ig-platform-id you indicate, the 4 monitors patch, and GFX0 to IGPU and PEGP to GFX0. With this config I still get glitches. Then going to BIOS and setting the iGPU as primary the glitches go away but no boot screen. Is this your experience?
 
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