Graphics card req for going to Mojave ?

[Gone To Lunch]

I just got an invite to upgrade from my 10.13.6 to Mojave 10.14.1

There was a message saying that it required that my graphics card enables Metal something - I don't what that refers to ?

The card is an ATI Radeon HD 5770 and the mac is a mid 2010 cheese grater 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

Should I upgrade ?

[rentadrummer]

I only know about this page because I was discussing an upgrade to Mojave with a friend who also has an older Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898

I'm sure someone else will reply and let you know if it's worth upgrading or not.

[Gone To Lunch]

I only know about this page because I was discussing an upgrade to Mojave with a friend who also has an older Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898

I'm sure someone else will reply and let you know if it's worth upgrading or not.

Thanks Ron for your reply.

I checked the list on the Apple support page and my graphic card isn't on it.

[mhschmieder]

BTW unlike a lot of system requirements, this one is an ACTUAL non-negotiable requirement vs. "recommended for best performance".

Apple dropped OpenGL gradually over the past few years, to better compete with Windows DirectX (and related toolkits). Just to confuse everybody (especially those of us who develop primarily in Java), they decided to call their new GPU-based toolkit "Metal" (also the name of the main Swing Look-and-Feel in Java).

I am pretty sure that Mojave is where they made the cutoff that there is no fallback for when a system is detected as not having a GPOU that supports Metal. So you would probably have a mostly-blank screen and possibly wouldn't even be able to get the system to start up.

Apple probably protects you from this scenario by refusing to install Mojave on such systems.

I believe that Metal is also why certain Macs have to do a firmware upgrade first, before updating the OS itself to Mojave.

[mhschmieder]

You can check to see what graphics card upgrades are possible on your Mac, and then see if any of those are supported by Metal or Mojave. The upgrade might be under $200, depending on age.

[mikehalloran]

It is possible to install Mojave on many unsupported Macs. There’s a hack but, as the guy who figured it out wrote, installing it with a graphics card that doesn’t support acceleration under Mojave “is useless”.

I set up an eSATA test drive and tried it out on my 2010 iMac (most 2009–2011 have an aTi 5770 of some sort). He ain’t joking — “is useless” is right.

Fortunately, when I saw the results, I shut down, unplugged the drive, rebooted and was back to normal.

There are other, recent threads that discuss cards to install in a 5.1 Mac Pro but you don’t want to install Mojave until you replace the 5770.

[HCMarkus]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=65824

Also see the thread linked in the second post in the above thread, from dix

[rentadrummer]

Besides the cost of the card, if you haven't already done so, I would suggest that you check to see if you have any outdated apps you use that won't run on Mojave and will need upgrading.

I have a computer that I don't use for recording. Before I upgraded my internal drive I experimented with an external drive and confirmed that one app I use the most wouldn't run. I liked Mojave enough that I decided to upgrade the app and install Mojave on my internal drive, and then wound up upgrading to the latest version of Carbon Copy Cloner. The free OS upgrade wasn't exactly free.

[dewdman42]

The RX580 mentioned in that apple support link is the one most people are getting and its not too expensive, I got it on black friday sale. The RX560 is also mentioned quite a lot and its less expensive, if it were not for the black friday sale I probably would have just gotten that and been fine.

But yes, you can't go to Mojave without a Metal card, and the ones mentioned by Apple are more likely to have drivers down the road, so recommend that.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will want to keep your old Radeon card on a shelf somewhere because it may be required to restore your computer or upgrade firmware, etc. The reason is because these older macs will not show the boot up screen until after OS X is loaded with drivers and stuff...so you can't get to the restore menu, or safe mode or whatever its called with these newer cards. So save your radeon in case you need to do that, you can plop it in there and get your machine fixed. Basically when you boot up, you see a black screen until the very end, just before your desktop comes up. but it works and Apple has officially named those cards....so likely to be supported for years to come. I'm happy with mine. Loving the hiDpi settings too!

[monkey man]

Dix said in another thread:
"I bought a Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 for my 2009 MP, which works well and provides a boot screen."

This is the first I've heard that any card provides a boot screen, so is anyone (including Dix) able to confirm this?

Does this card require a special power cable or anything? I'm hoping to avoid having to add anything other than the card itself.

Unfortunately he also wrote in another thread:
"I may get a AMD Radeon HD 7950. Apart from wanting better performance, my new (used) Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 has hard crashed my system 3 times in the month since I installed it, so something is weird there....displays freeze with white blocks on all three screens."

I only kept the quotes in a text file so I don't know which threads the comments are from.

Knowing nothing about graphics cards, I'm confused to say the least. Wanting something that will speed up FCP-and-Compressor conversions complicates the matter further still; I don't even know if this is a "thing"...

[Elektroakoustika]

I just installed the 4GB RX560 and it works great and only cost me about $120. Highly recommended and I would save the money you would have spent on the RX580 unless you're doing heavy professional graphics work. Even with the 560, you get a ton of performance for the money (I run a 32" 4k monitor with great performance)

Cheers.

[Luke]

I just installed the 4GB RX560 and it works great and only cost me about $120. Highly recommended and I would save the money you would have spent on the RX580 unless you're doing heavy professional graphics work. Even with the 560, you get a ton of performance for the money (I run a 32" 4k monitor with great performance)

Hi Elektroakoustika,

Where did you get yours?

[dewdman42]

Dix said in another thread:
"I bought a Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 for my 2009 MP, which works well and provides a boot screen."

This is the first I've heard that any card provides a boot screen, so is anyone (including Dix) able to confirm this?

Some cards are available with flashed firmware that provides a boot screen, the above is one of them. I am not sure whether that particular card provides Metal support, which is the critical aspects for OS X Mojave.

here is a site that sells them: http://www.macvidcards.com its also possible to flash them yourself if you're adventurous.

There is no flash available for the RX580/560 that has been mentioned

[toodamnhip]

Nice thread but what a hot mess this all is.

All because Apple is years behind giving pro users a new Mac Pro...what’d ya say?/ Mac BOOK pro? No idiot, Mac PRO...what’d ya say? iMac Pro?.......NO MAN!! MAC PROOOOOOO you know, for PROFESSIONAL users..lol

[monkey man]

Don't forget, "What'd ya say? Mac mini?", 'Hipster.

Yup, thank you, Apple, for forcing me to jump through hoops just to keep a 7-year-old Mac that should've been superseded alive and up-to-date.

Elektroakoustika and dewdman, thank you for that info.