Upgrade from El Capitan to High Sierra / Mojave?

[OndaRosa]

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on the best way to upgrade my OS from El Capitan 10.11.5 to either High Sierra or Mojave without having to do a clean installation.

Current Specs:

Motherboard: Asus Z170 Sabertooth Mark 1
Graphics: GTX 970
CPU: Intel i7-6700K
RAM: 64GB HyperX Fury DDR4
Wifi: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Bluetooth: IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter

Clover EFI: r3423 (I think)

Also, but unsure if relevant...

Clover Configurator: v4.29.0
Multibeast : 8.2.2 (1)
I keep a Carbon Copy Clone of the boot drive as a backup.

Questions:

1. Am I correct in understanding that my GTX 970 is still unsupported in Mojave? Can we expect any Nvidia webdrivers to become available in future?
2. If I decide not to change any hardware, is my best option to upgrade to High Sierra? If so, what is the best strategy? (Is there any merit to the first method described here? https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/can-i-update-to-mojave-from-el-capitan.271274/page-2#post-1907956 Or would it be best to follow this guide? https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ierra-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.235474/ )
3. Given that I’m running 3 monitors and I’m beginning to do more video work, would changing to a graphics card such as a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX580 8G be a sensible option to see me through for at least another 2-3 years? If not, what would you recommend?
4. Should I change the current profile of the machine for any reason? If so, to what?

I’m doing my own research, but any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I haven’t played with kexts, plists etc. since 2016 and I’m a little daunted by the challenge ahead.

Thank you in advance for your help - this community is really fantastic and I’m excited to start participating rather than merely lurking!

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on the best way to upgrade my OS from El Capitan 10.11.5 to either High Sierra or Mojave without having to do a clean installation.

Current Specs:

Motherboard: Asus Z170 Sabertooth Mark 1
Graphics: GTX 970
CPU: Intel i7-6700K
RAM: 64GB HyperX Fury DDR4
Wifi: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Bluetooth: IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter
View attachment 401753
Clover EFI: r3423 (I think)

Also, but unsure if relevant...

Clover Configurator: v4.29.0
Multibeast : 8.2.2 (1)
I keep a Carbon Copy Clone of the boot drive as a backup.

Questions:

1. Am I correct in understanding that my GTX 970 is still unsupported in Mojave? Can we expect any Nvidia webdrivers to become available in future?
2. If I decide not to change any hardware, is my best option to upgrade to High Sierra? If so, what is the best strategy? (Is there any merit to the first method described here? https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/can-i-update-to-mojave-from-el-capitan.271274/page-2#post-1907956 Or would it be best to follow this guide? https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ierra-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.235474/ )
3. Given that I’m running 3 monitors and I’m beginning to do more video work, would changing to a graphics card such as a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX580 8G be a sensible option to see me through for at least another 2-3 years? If not, what would you recommend?
4. Should I change the current profile of the machine for any reason? If so, to what?

I’m doing my own research, but any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I haven’t played with kexts, plists etc. since 2016 and I’m a little daunted by the challenge ahead.

Thank you in advance for your help - this community is really fantastic and I’m excited to start participating rather than merely lurking!

(1) Yes, the GTX 970 is not supported in Mojave due to the lack of Nvidia web drivers. My opinion is that you should not expect any Nvidia drivers any time soon, or ever.
(2) The latest MacOS you can run on your system is High Sierra.
(3) I don't use multiple monitors so I can't comment on that. But changing to a RX 580 will allow you to install and run Mojave or later MacOS versions.
(4) You will need to use an alternative system definition (Is that what you mean by "profile"?) such as iMac14,2 as MacPro3,1 (Mac Pro Early 2008) no longer works with MacOS Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave. You will also need to use an updated version of Clover if you want to run newer versions of MacOS.

 

[OndaRosa]

Thank you, @Jamesbond007 for taking the time to reply and provide clarification.

All things considered, I'm going to go for High Sierra.

I'd be very grateful for any tips with strategy for this. I'm sure there are plenty of threads out there dealing with the topic, but any advice specific to my current setup would be most welcome.