What version of OSX can I re-install on my old PC?

[ResentedPoet]

Hi,

It's been a while since I have visited here and no longer have a current working Hackintosh system. I am looking to revive my old desktop into a Hackintosh again and am completely lost in terms of compatibility with hardware and what version of OSX/OS11 I can install. Last time I had OSX installed was I think OSX 10.8 or 10.9 but I could be wrong.

The hardware I have is a Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Mobo with an Intel 3770K CPU and 16GB of Ram. The video card is an Nvidia 970 (which from what I can tell is not Mac supported; is there such thing as third party support?) which was upgraded from the original 560ti I had years ago.

What is the highest version of MacOS that is supported by the CPU and motherboard and will I bel limited to the internal GPU for graphics or is there a possibility of getting the nVidia card to work?

-Cheers and thanks for any help.

 

[trs96]

What is the highest version of MacOS that is supported by the CPU and motherboard and will I bel limited to the internal GPU for graphics or is there a possibility of getting the nVidia card to work?

With the 970 as primary graphics you can go as far as High Sierra if you install Nvidia web drivers. If you remove the 970 and use the HD4000 iGPU you could potentially upgrade to Big Sur if you change to a supported SMBIOS. Probably either MacPro 6,1 or iMac 15,1 are the best candidates to run Big Sur on old Ivy Bridge systems.

 

[ResentedPoet]

With the 970 as primary graphics you can go as far as High Sierra if you install Nvidia web drivers. If you remove the 970 and use the HD4000 iGPU you could potentially upgrade to Big Sur if you change to a supported SMBIOS. Probably either MacPro 6,1 or iMac 15,1 are the best candidates to run Big Sur on old Ivy Bridge systems.

Thanks for the reply and info. That makes sense.

On the side of High Sierra vs. Big Sur; is there any major features or support I would be missing being 3 MacOS versions behind? Ex. 3rd party app support and updates?

-Thanks again!

 

[trs96]

is there any major features or support I would be missing being 3 MacOS versions behind? Ex. 3rd party app support and updates?

The security features are much better, more robust with Big Sur. Won't be long till HS stops getting security updates. Also note that support for 32 bit apps stopped with Catalina so plan accordingly. You could still install Mojave and then have access to the new Mac App Store (HS doesn't) and still use any 32 bit apps you want. Of course you can't use the web drivers and your 970 with Mojave, you'd just use HD4000 or buy a new supported card.