Will my Nvidia Graphics Card work with macOS ? List of Desktop Cards with Native Support

[trs96]

Apologies just realized this is the desktop forum, got carried away in the thread without checking

This post is still on the topic of supported Nvidia Kepler graphics cards. It will help others learn too. This thread is intended mainly for desktop graphics but your specific question shows the importance of actually researching which graphics core series you are using. Why GPU Zoo is important to use to see if your 750 is Kepler or Maxwell.

So I have a MacBook Pro late 2013 with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M and as I checked on gpuzoo.com it does indeed have a Kepler base GK107.

What would you realistically advise me to do? Stay with High Sierra or upgrade to Mojave/Catalina since my Kepler card has drivers that ship with macOS ?

To answer your question, no you don't need the web drivers for the 750M. Those are only for use with Sierra/High Sierra and dedicated graphics cards from the Maxwell and Pascal series. There is no need to install them on any Macbook Pro. It's perfectly OK to install Mojave on your MBP as it's fully supported. If you look at the desktop EVGA GTX 750 it's Maxwell based, over 1 year newer than GT 750M graphics. They used the GM107 chip instead of the older Kepler GK107.

Your 750M graphics are in fact Kepler. Nvidia made this confusing by putting "750" in both laptop and desktop lines. This is why I needed to post my Nvidia Compatibility thread, to clarify the Nvidia graphics idiosyncrasies.

In regard to using Adobe Photoshop, again that advice is mainly for Mac Pro owners that have Nvidia discrete cards from the Maxwell and Pascal series. It would make sense for them to switch to AMD when upgrading to Mojave. It shouldn't cause issues with your Metal 2 supported GTX 750M Kepler graphics.

 

[nickonline]

Thank you so much for your detailed and thorough answer.

This issue has been plaguing not just me but a lot of photographers and video editors I personally know who purchased a batch of the NVIDIA based Retina MacBook Pros but that have held just brilliantly with time in terms of performance (single/multithread speed, SSD speed, ram, etc) and it just felt crazy to invest in a new mac just for gfx compatibility.

We were all kinda taken aback by the amount of noise the whole NVIDIA/macOS compatibility has taken online, in articles, in forums etc. There is so much confusing and quite honestly misinformation out there especially on the NVIDIA dev thread regarding the issue.

Your answer has lifted a 2 year headache for me and a lot of people I know, so thank you very much.

Just out of curiosity since the Web Driver is mainly geared towards Maxwell/Pascal series, all this time I had it installed to run my Kepler card was pretty much useless? As in it gave me no added performance compared to the regular macOS drivers for my NVIDIA card?

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[MrOptimistic16]

Is it possible that i will use my RTX 2070 for windows and hd 530 of 6700k for my hackintosh? I'll have two hdmi cord use my monitor to switch. Sorry i'm just rumbling want to buy rtx 2070 instead of 10 series.

I'll mainly used hackintosh for web development so discerete gpu isn't needed btw both os are in different ssd

 

[macdz]

Is it possible that i will use my RTX 2070 for windows and HD 530 of 6700k for my Hackintosh? I'll have two HDMI cord use my monitor to switch. Sorry i'm just rumbling want to buy rtx 2070 instead of 10 series.

I'll mainly used hackintosh for web development so discrete GPU isn't needed btw both os are in different SSD

can work well as I to do the same thing. but the only difference is, I am on a laptop with Nvidia card. so on mac I use igpu and on window igpu and dedicated card. in your case, you will have to switch the HDMI setting on the monitor as per the requested os.

my installation is on the same drive with separate partitions.

 

[MrOptimistic16]

can work well as I to do the same thing. but the only difference is, I am on a laptop with Nvidia card. so on mac I use igpu and on window igpu and dedicated card. in your case, you will have to switch the HDMI setting on the monitor as per the requested os.

my installation is on the same drive with separate partitions.

Oh glad to hear that it's working now the next question is where i can find that kind of tutorial like step by step on how to do it

 

[trs96]

Is it possible that i will use my RTX 2070 for windows and hd 530 of 6700k for my hackintosh?

It is possible but you must do the work of creating your SSDT to disable the 2070 when you're booted into macOS. See RehabMans guides on this. Find them in the Laptops forum.

 

[trs96]

since the Web Driver is mainly geared towards Maxwell/Pascal series, all this time I had it installed to run my Kepler card was pretty much useless?

I've never attempted what you were doing but I do know that the Nvidia drivers in macOS are much better than the web drivers Nvidia makes. The optimization for macOS is much better.

 

[nickonline]

I've never attempted what you were doing but I do know that the Nvidia drivers in macOS are much better than the web drivers Nvidia makes. The optimization for macOS is much better.

That is fantastic news.

One last question if that's ok: if one has a macOS compatible NVIDIA card that ran the official NVIDIA CUDA driver (I think the web driver which from my understanding also runs a version of CUDA), do certain applications that do not use Metal and use OpenGL or OpenCL work better with the native NVIDIA macOS driver or with the official NVIDIA CUDA driver? (say like blender)

 

[trs96]

do certain applications that do not use Metal and use OpenGL or OpenCL work better with the native NVIDIA macOS driver or with the official NVIDIA CUDA driver? (say like blender)

Not sure. Good question to post in a Blender or Nvidia focused forum elsewhere.

 

[RandomTech]

Is it possible that i will use my RTX 2070 for windows and hd 530 of 6700k for my hackintosh? I'll have two hdmi cord use my monitor to switch. Sorry i'm just rumbling want to buy rtx 2070 instead of 10 series.

I'll mainly used hackintosh for web development so discerete gpu isn't needed btw both os are in different ssd

Laptops has switchable graphic card technology (Nvidia Optimus transitions between integrated graphics and a discrete GPU to keep battery last as long as possible) where desktops doesn't have that in their drivers (and they don't need it).
In this case you need to to change primary GPU in the BIOS manually, select IGPU every time you boot to Hackintosh or select discrete GPU as for Windows, this applies switching the cable from one port to another and vise versa (or having two cables connected and switch the Monitor source, I'm not sure about that tho).

Say if you leave IGPU as primary with cable connected to mobo (as it should be) and boot to windows, you won't have the discrete GPU working as with laptops (switchable graphic). So after all I think its not worth the effort, still your choice.

I'm actually very interested in a question, a question which I'm yet skeptical about, to not be marked as a fanboy because I never was/will be. because fanboy-ism kills any discussion and any logic, but anyway ill drop it carefully:

What keeps you guys to still getting Nvidia for a Hackintosh?

Apple has literally solved our problem by providing powerful selection of new GPUs with full support (ok 95% for Hackintosh) which does everything perfect without touching anything, on the other hand the last supported Nvidia are now almost 7 yo and weak for todays tasks. (for the newer ones Webdriver has proved us repeatedly its instability for macOS and Apple proved us as well that macOS apps won't benefit from CUDA any).
That's my only question that my brain cannot process, literally I'm all ears and attention to receive any answer with common sense.