Best video card to buy right now?

[Simon42]

In the last few weeks, I have upgraded my motherboard, installed OS X (surprisingly easy, although I don't know precisely how I got around my bootloader problem), set-up a triple boot and started playing with overclocking.

 

I've been looking at the problem for a long while but I'm still stuck: which video card should I buy? The install procedures seem quite complicated (I'm not sure I have time or competence for in-depth kext manipulations - which are all new to me). I want the best possible performance in PC games but I'm also pretty scared of not being able to make my specific 3D card work with Leopard.

 

 

I've been hesitating between the GeForce 8800GT and the Radeon 38x0 in the last months. Both can be installed in Mac Pros so I thought they would be easy to install... but my head is still spinning after once again reading the complex patching procedure needed to make a 3850 (that I was gonna buy) work. The GeForce seems complicated too, with the NVinject thingie... Is it even possible to install either of them on an already working Hackintosh? The 4850 would be the logical choice if it was supported at the moment; I'm even thinking of getting it and waiting but a 1024x768 Intel GPU resolution on my 24 inch display kinda sucks..

 

So what do you guys think? I know both can be done and you probably have found a way to do it with what you had, but is there an "easy" solution. Thanks

[bobbobson]

I have a HD4870 it boots fine at the moment using the VESA drivers. I'm on kalyway 10.5.2

 

You don't get graphics aceleration (at least I haven't found a way to get it work yet) but you can do "Graphics Mode"="1680x1050" or whatever your res is at boot and have a decent resolution. It's not perfect, but if you don't play games on OS X you won't notice a huge difference.

[Simon42]

Thanks a lot for the answer.

 

Would someone be kind enough to explain what VESA mode is precisely, or at least point out where I can find the answer; is it the same as running the onboard video (GMA3100 in my case) or does it use part of my video card? I'm not familiar with the command line prompting I'd have to do so can someone please point out where and how it's done?

 

Thanks again

[bobbobson]

It's basically a generic driver that should work with all video cards. It uses your video card but with no hardware aceleration for Quartz Extreme and such if you want a video card that you know is going to be supported your options are slim. It would have to either be a 9800GX2 or 9800GTX+ which are both based on the 8800GT design

[sg]

jesus christ... someone's asking for 'best osx video card' and you recommend a 4870 that has no driver yet in OSX?

 

if you want a good card get a 8800GT 512M or a 3870/3850.

[admirald]

The best price/performance fully supported cards for a hackintosh are: the 8800GTS 512MB (G92), the 8800GT (G92), and the Radeon HD3850/HD3870 (RV670). The 4800 series is not yet fully supported under Mac OS X because there are no drivers for it. The 4870 would be my recommended card for a windows-only machine, sure, but not for a hackintosh

[Hagar]

It's basically a generic driver that should work with all video cards. It uses your video card but with no hardware aceleration for Quartz Extreme and such if you want a video card that you know is going to be supported your options are slim. It would have to either be a 9800GX2 or 9800GTX+ which are both based on the 8800GT design

 

I don't wish to appear mean, but both your responses have been entirely incorrect in every important respect. This is a symptom of a growing problem on this forum, where people ask stupid questions like "what is the best video card" - a question that is more than thoroughly answered on the forum and wiki already, and which knowledgeable users therefore no longer bother to respond to. When a response comes, it comes from someone with very little knowledge or experience, and as a result misinformation is propagated..

 

so PLEASE:

 

Search thoroughly before asking questions, and make sure you provide ample information with your question to help it be answered properly.

 

And almost more crucial than the above:

 

IF YOU DON'T KNOW, DON'T ANSWER - incomplete or incorrect information is *far worse* than no information at all.

 

 

oh, and P.S. moved to the correct subforum

[thesr5]

Hello Guys i am pretty new to the forum and just want to ask the Moderator what the best search keywords would be for looking for the correct answer, i tried "Best OSX Graphic Card" "Good Graphic Card" "OSX Plug and Play Graphic Card" "Cheap working Graphic card" and nothing really answers the question or please like i stated im not trying to sound like an ass but how would i locate this in the wiki

[Synaesthesia]

but how would i locate this in the wiki

Here ya go -> http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.ph...5.1#PCI_Express

[CarlitosWay]

Thanks Synaesthesia,

 

Another question for you. Would more memory on an 8800GT card affect compatibility? I am planning on purchasing an 8800GT 256Bit card with 1GB DDR3 RAM. I would think that memory capacity would not affect compatibility, but I am curious anyway.

 

Thanks!

[Detosx]

9800GTX+ is on pre-order, over here, at a surpisingly keen price. I wanted an ATI 4870 but I can't see a driver coming out for that one any time soon. The 9800GTX+ would seem like a better horse to bet on. As Hagar said, though, incomplete information is worse than useless. Have to wait and see. Another good question to ask is, do I really need that extra horse power? I'd bet that unless you were an architect or hardcore user of Adobe productes, etc, or hardcore games player, the answer will be no. The 8800GT is a scorcher as it is, though I don't know about the 1gig models. If you have problems with Search, use google with insanelymac as one of the key words. That has the added benefit of bringing up entries outside of insanelymac, also.

[vbetts]

Driver support for the 48XX series isn't the greatest right now, but with what little support the 4870 has right now, it does pretty good. I just got one yesterday, and it's pretty amazing...But for OSx86, I would go with the 9800.

 

8800GT I would not get at all now. It's getting cheaper and cheaper, but it's really just not a smart buy as of now imo. I would still go for the 9800, well look at it like this I guess.

 

If you have $200 to spend, the 9800.

Lower than that, then I would go for the 8800GT. Hell, I'd go for the GTS 512.

[Detosx]

Driver support for the 48XX series isn't the greatest right now, but with what little support the 4870 has right now, it does pretty good. I just got one yesterday, and it's pretty amazing...But for OSx86, I would go with the 9800.

 

8800GT I would not get at all now. It's getting cheaper and cheaper, but it's really just not a smart buy as of now imo. I would still go for the 9800, well look at it like this I guess.

 

If you have $200 to spend, the 9800.

Lower than that, then I would go for the 8800GT. Hell, I'd go for the GTS 512.

I agree about the 8800GT - at the moment. Point is the introduction of the 9800GTX+ is supposed to be the reset point for the 8800 series, and presumably the other 9800 cards, meaning lower prices, possibly substantially so. Or at least that's the speculative buzz, that NV aren't going to take the introduction of the 4850 and 4870 lying down. 8800 is a stable runner, it seems. If you're on a tight budget, maybe wait and see what the introduction of the 9800GTX+ does. £129 seems to be the entry level point for that card, pre order from overclockers.co.uk. ATI/AMD aren't going to like that party spoiler one bit! If a further price war breaks out, ATI will win because manufacturing costs of the 9800GTX+ are apparently relatively high.

[vbetts]

You can pretty much do the + yourself, all it is is just clocks alittle bit higher than stock.

[bobbobson]

jesus christ... someone's asking for 'best osx video card' and you recommend a 4870 that has no driver yet in OSX?

 

if you want a good card get a 8800GT 512M or a 3870/3850.

 

The guy asked about HD4xxx cards and I gave him the answer IF you would like to reread my post and tell me where the words recommendation came from other then in your own head it would be much appreciated.

 

Given that very few people at the time on this forum would have a HD4xxx card I gave him an answer based on the fact that I have a HD4xxx card IF you would like to push people away that give honest answers based on bleeding edge hardware then be my guest, alls I did was state the fact that these cards worked under VESA without hardware support from the operating system but your previous answers in a couple of my own threads suggests your nobody bothers attitude shines through and I can see exactly why

 

If you'd like a ladder to step down from that horse I can provide one

 

If you want my complete answer I will state that the 9800TX+ is the best card capable of supporting graphics acceleration in OS X right now due to Apples own lack of drivers and further more that the 9800GTX+ is a G92 core with a dye shrink, and faster clocks which I'm sure you already knew

 

It's posts like these which will drive new comers from these very forums and makes me wonder why I bother to contribute the knowledge I have about PC's which is a damn sight more then most on this forum

[bobbobson]

You can pretty much do the + yourself, all it is is just clocks alittle bit higher than stock.

 

It's funny you guys bag me out for posting incorrect information when this post in itself is blatantly incorrect unless you want to unsolder the core on your 8800GT yourself and then shrink the dye no you can not do the + yourself on a 9800GTX+

[vbetts]

? I didn't know it was a die shrink, plus I didn't "bag you out". I was only given info like the clocks of the 9800+.

 

So then I guess I should apologize to you, for not being informed all the way? Maybe? Just a tiny bit?

 

 

No no no, I think I'm alright.

[bobbobson]

It's OK I'm sorry to use you as an example but It was more a point with regards to some people in this thread to not treat newbies here like they know less then nothing. My job is to build PC's and solve problems so I think I'd know a thing or two regarding video cards, and coming from an open source background I some times find certain peoples views amusing

 

The 9800GTX+ is a "kind of" response to the HD4xxx series from ATi. They're good, and quite a good card for what is really a nvidia 8 series GPU, they play crysis really well but in comparison for most other games the 4xxx from ATi beats it.

 

IF you don't plan on playing games and using your hackintosh at it's maximum potential and for other purposes then just games its a good compromise. They are a quick card for 75% of games quick enough not to know a difference there's just that 25% that the new ATi and nvidia cards do better.

 

But that said neither have driver support yet

[vbetts]

>_> I really didn't say you don't know a thing or two...

[Krazubu]

Ok, he's been banned for 14 days, maybe we can now discuss in peace.

So, to clear things, don't think about getting OSX without QE, it's barely usable nowadays, being a gamer or not, many apps won't even launch without it. Anyway, OSX without QE is much more slower and not as beautiful.

The ATI 4000 boards are very nice reguarding performances and price but they're not supported, and nothing tells us they'll be, though it's probable.

So you could take the bet of buying one, wait and see, but maybe it's safer to wait for the next gen macs that should be out soon.

You can also consider nVidia, all models are compatible except the 9600GT and latest GTX 2X0 boards.

I'd personnally wait for ATI, many new things are coming from their side, they have better OSX drivers, and they're far cheaper...

[Detosx]

Ok, he's been banned for 14 days, maybe we can now discuss in peace.

So, to clear things, don't think about getting OSX without QE, it's barely usable nowadays, being a gamer or not, many apps won't even launch without it. Anyway, OSX without QE is much more slower and not as beautiful.

The ATI 4000 boards are very nice reguarding performances and price but they're not supported, and nothing tells us they'll be, though it's probable.

So you could take the bet of buying one, wait and see, but maybe it's safer to wait for the next gen macs that should be out soon.

You can also consider nVidia, all models are compatible except the 9600GT and latest GTX 2X0 boards.

I'd personnally wait for ATI, many new things are coming from their side, they have better OSX drivers, and they're far cheaper...

Ah! I am on the cusp of pre ordering a 9800GTX+ for £129, which is a little more than a 4850 but with better performance on around 60% of games, according the the head-to-head shoot outs I have read so far. It's not in the 4870's league, though. I could overclock but even then, if you overclock the 4870 the comfortable advantage would be restored. You say ATI drivers have traditionally been better in the world of Hackintosh? I'm not sure I could stand the wait. I might hold off buying at 9800GTX+ until I have read that someone else has tried it with OS X.

 

For those who don't know, take the word of those who have already said that VESA is synonimous with a complete waste of time. Without core/qe a lot of applications won't even run. Fixed resolution and poor sharpness would quickly make you want to revert back to Vista. No, really!

[Simon42]

I've had my 4850 for a few days now... It plays games flawlessly, something I hadn't done in a long while; but now I don't need a console... I even installed Crysis to see what kind of FPS it would do; sucky game though.

 

I have yet to test it in OSx because I messed up my triple boot and the little free time I had was spent virtually racing Champ Cars.

 

And to those complaining about the question that started the thread: You can look around all you want, search the forum to get partial info or look at the previously-linked compatibility list but you don't get overall-synthetic info. Hell, that list doesn't even list recent cards like the GTX 2x0 or the 48x0 and has very little info on 2008 hardware!

 

In the meantime, we have a 2-page thread with some good answers to the question... and I'm crossing my fingers for the 4850 or 70 to be the next new card in the Mac Pro like so many ATI GPUs before. That should make my card fully work, maybe with a ROM flash or some other tweaking at worst...

[Detosx]

I've had my 4850 for a few days now... It plays games flawlessly, something I hadn't done in a long while; but now I don't need a console... I even installed Crysis to see what kind of FPS it would do; sucky game though.

 

I have yet to test it in OSx because I messed up my triple boot and the little free time I had was spent virtually racing Champ Cars.

 

And to those complaining about the question that started the thread: You can look around all you want, search the forum to get partial info or look at the previously-linked compatibility list but you don't get overall-synthetic info. Hell, that list doesn't even list recent cards like the GTX 2x0 or the 48x0 and has very little info on 2008 hardware!

 

In the meantime, we have a 2-page thread with some good answers to the question... and I'm crossing my fingers for the 4850 or 70 to be the next new card in the Mac Pro like so many ATI GPUs before. That should make my card fully work, maybe with a ROM flash or some other tweaking at worst...

Read some more reviews of the 9800GTX+. It beats the 4850 in most games but, again, falls well short of the 4870. I like the 4850 because of its low power consumption - in this day and age that's a consideration! The central issue remains, I think with the 4850/4870 the wait for any kind of extensive drivers will be a much longer one.

[nigelbb]

Has anyone actually done any performance comparisons in OS X between these expensive cards being recommended & much lower priced ones that work equally as well? It's all very well recommending the latest 8800 or 9800 because it is fast running Windows games but are they that much better than a 7xxx or Radeon 2600 when it comes to QE/CI & OpenGL?

 

Personally I have seen little or no difference in performance between a 7300GT, 7600GT, 7900GS or 2600XT when tested under Leopard & these are just 30-50% of the price of an 8800GT. In fact you could probably buy all four of those graphics cards for the price of a single 9800GTX or 4870.

 

 

If all modern graphics cards perform pretty much equally under Leopard then the choice needs to be based on number of DVI sockets, Active or Passive cooling & of course price.

[Synaesthesia]

Has anyone actually done any performance comparisons in OS X between these expensive cards being recommended & much lower priced ones that work equally as well? It's all very well recommending the latest 8800 or 9800 because it is fast running Windows games but are they that much better than a 7xxx or Radeon 2600 when it comes to QE/CI & OpenGL?

 

Personally I have seen little or no difference in performance between a 7300GT, 7600GT, 7900GS or 2600XT when tested under Leopard & these are just 30-50% of the price of an 8800GT. In fact you could probably buy all four of those graphics cards for the price of a single 9800GTX or 4870.

If all modern graphics cards perform pretty much equally under Leopard then the choice needs to be based on number of DVI sockets, Active or Passive cooling & of course price.

Here are a couple of reviews, showing that the 3870 is the fastest Core Image card at the moment on Mac.

http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/ATI_38...mp2008macosapps

Of course you only need that kind of graphics power if you are using intensive Core Image programs, like Apple's Motion, which has GPU accelerated effects. Like you say, if you're not gaming, a 7300 with run OS X perfectly and as smoothly as any card.