Is there a reliable place to snag a GTX 680?

[ActionableMango]

The thing is, Mac graphics applications are fairly picky. Some will work much better with Nvidia and some will work much better with AMD.

And some applications, especially games, just run really bad because of how they were ported or due to no optimization. So it's entirely possible you could buy one of the $300-$700 cards suggested here and be massively disappointed with the level of improvement.

So if possible, it's best to find out what other Mac users' experiences are with Rocket League or any other application that's important to you.

 

[Jayson A]

The thing is, Mac graphics applications are fairly picky. Some will work much better with Nvidia and some will work much better with AMD.

And some applications, especially games, just run really bad because of how they were ported or due to no optimization. So it's entirely possible you could buy one of the $300-$700 cards suggested here and be massively disappointed with the level of improvement.

So if possible, it's best to find out what other Mac users' experiences are with Rocket League or any other application that's important to you.

Worst comes to worse, I'll just boot into Windows. Is there a major bottle neck with running the RX 580 in PCIe 1.0 mode on Windows?
[doublepost=1523971347][/doublepost]

The Sapphire Pulse in both RX 570 & RX 580 are specifically recommended by Apple on their support page. The Pulse RX 550 and RX 560 are fine too. In fact the only RX 550 that works is the Pulse.

Do you know if the Sapphire Cards will run full speed under Windows too, or do they still get reverted to PCIe 1.0?

 

[762999]

I really want a fast video card WITH a boot screen. I don't care if I have to flash it myself... I just want it done RIGHT and from what I read, ebay can be pretty shady with these pre-flashed cards they're selling.

Is there any possible way I can get one without having to worry?

I have an EVGA GTX 680 in excellent condition I just don't know the shipping cost from Canada

 

[MacDann]

I just snagged a reference NVidia GTX 680 2GB PC model off eBay for $120 shipped. Yeah, it's only a 2GB model, but I don't do anything that really taxes a GPU, so I figured I could get away with 2GB and be fine. So far, so good.

I flashed it with AM's wonderful instructions and a bootable USB using FreeDOS in my FreeNAS box, since that was easier than messing with my MP to do it. Instructions were spot on, process was quick and painless, and my MP 3,1 now boots with the new GPU into the Apple boot screen as intended.

I would have preferred to go with a 4GB version, but the prices are just out of control on them. The 2GB models are a lot more affordable and don't seem to have the demand (or prices) that the 4GB models do.

MacDann

 

[Jayson A]

I have an EVGA GTX 680 in excellent condition I just don't know the shipping cost from Canada

Now that I got Windows working properly, I don't really even think I need a boot screen anymore. I might as well just go with a brand new, modern GPU.

I'm hoping my wife lets me buy a RX 580, and hopefully that will be powerful enough in macOS to run Rocket League maxed out.

 

[ActionableMango]

Worst comes to worse, I'll just boot into Windows. Is there a major bottle neck with running the RX 580 in PCIe 1.0 mode on Windows?

Do you know if the Sapphire Cards will run full speed under Windows too, or do they still get reverted to PCIe 1.0?

No, half speed PCIe isn't anywhere near the bottleneck that it sounds like. I doubt you'd see a real life noticeable difference in frame rate.

AMD cards revert as well, even those that can be flashed. They require a hardware mod to run at full PCIe speeds.

 

[MisterAndrew]

ActionableMango is right. There’s virtually no bottleneck at PCIe 1.1 x16. My Vega 56 benchmarks the same or better as the same card installed in a PC with PCIe 3.0. It’s a non-issue.

 

[fendersrule]

Now that I got Windows working properly, I don't really even think I need a boot screen anymore. I might as well just go with a brand new, modern GPU.

I'm hoping my wife lets me buy a RX 580, and hopefully that will be powerful enough in macOS to run Rocket League maxed out.

I've gamed a lot with the RX580 and GTX 1070 in MacOS recently (Sierra). The GTX 1070 works so well that you'd think Apple made GPU drivers for it! MacOS takes a 30% hit all around in gaming, but both of those cards are powerful enough that it doesn't phase them.

Boot screens are not necessary if you just have 1 MacOS and 1 Windows 10 drive. If you're using the boot screen to switch between them, you are doing it the slow (wrong) way.

 

[Jayson A]

No, half speed PCIe isn't anywhere near the bottleneck that it sounds like. I doubt you'd see a real life noticeable difference in frame rate.

AMD cards revert as well, even those that can be flashed. They require a hardware mod to run at full PCIe speeds.

ActionableMango is right. There’s virtually no bottleneck at PCIe 1.1 x16. My Vega 56 benchmarks the same or better as the same card installed in a PC with PCIe 3.0. It’s a non-issue.

I've gamed a lot with the RX580 and GTX 1070 in MacOS recently (Sierra). The GTX 1070 works so well that you'd think Apple made GPU drivers for it! MacOS takes a 30% hit all around in gaming, but both of those cards are powerful enough that it doesn't phase them.

Boot screens are not necessary if you just have 1 MacOS and 1 Windows 10 drive. If you're using the boot screen to switch between them, you are doing it the slow (wrong) way.

Thanks for all the info guys! I think I've got a pretty good idea about what to buy now.

Everyone in this thread has been great with helping me understand all of this!

 

[Yahooligan]

If you're using the boot screen to switch between them, you are doing it the slow (wrong) way.

So, what is the right way with APFS? I'm aware that the OP is running 10.12, but you may want to update your post since using the boot screen is the only way with 10.13 and some folks may think you have some secret way to do this without using the boot screen.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208123

 

[fendersrule]

Or just don’t enable APFS. Isn’t that what most do around here?

 

[Yahooligan]

Or just don’t enable APFS. Isn’t that what most do around here?

I don't know what "most" do, the only way to not convert to APFS is to run the HS installer via command line with the option to not do the conversion and then it will remain HFS+. I don't know why anyone would do this except to be able to boot back into macOS from Windows without needing to use the boot screen method. That may be reason enough for those that don't want to run a flashed GPU, but again this is something you'd need to know to do before upgrading to HS. A fresh install of HS using HFS+ is more involved but is also possible, neither of these options are particularly intuitive so if "most" people aren't switching to APFS with HS I must have missed it. Then again, I don't spend a whole lot of time scanning these forums, so maybe it's just me.

 

[bsbeamer]

You can simply clone your system drive to an HFS+ formatted drive. That’s what I did and several others. I was running into severely reduced read/write speed issues with APFS on a non-Apple issued SSD after one of the updates and the change to HFS+ immediately fixed. Cannot recommend Carbon Copy Cloner enough.