Well openGL apps are still working in Mojave bit are now depreciated so they won't work in future versions.I hope that the UI isn't in metal so that there is a slight chance it can be ported to our older "vintage" machines.
I think that the Nvidia Web Drivers provide metal support for all the cards that it covers, right? I don't have an Nvidia myself that isn't supported by the native drivers with metal (GTX 760) but this could be a lifeline for certain Nvidia cards in laptops, just as it is for the desktops. The Web Drivers are one option. I thought of two more "lifelines" that we have left. Specifically, this stems from the fact that the original configs of the MacPro4,1 and MacPro5,1
may be supported, and therefore the AMD Terascale 2 series (5870/5770, a.k.a Evergreen, but some 6xxx use Terascale 2 as well) This I detail in the paragraph after the following one.
We can always try the methods from back in ML when we tried to just kextload the relevant extensions, but then we had the i386/x86_64 binary mismatch. This time we don't. So, we'll just have to wait and see if the UI only runs on metal, and we can still kextload the kexts because this time, they ARE architecture compatible. *Unlike AppleIntelIntegratedGraphics.kext* --> for the GMA950 + X3100, which we used the DP1 kernel trick to load the i386 kexts.
Note that Apple said "
support for 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros will come in a later beta" - This may mean that either:
1) Apple
rewrites AMDRadeon5xxx with metal support (so the "metal only" UI runs even without the '
recommended' gpu upgrade on the stock graphics cards, GT 120 and Radeon HD 5770/5870)
2) Apple just
keeps the existing OpenGL-only kext
BUT makes the UI compatible with OpenGL.
One of these scenarios *may* happen, because they did not make the GPU upgrade (from stock) mandatory. They
may therefore somehow support the stock graphics cards, the AMD Radeon HD 5770/5870. That gives us one architecture to have hope on: the Evergreen arch (AMD 5xxx + some 6xxx *if Terascale 2* + the mobile versions + some rebrands like the 7570, i think *if Terascale 2* + FirePro *some* + some other exotic ones) That's my reasoning for the 2 scenarios. Here's what I think will be the
results of the 2 scenarios:
If we get 1), then we get a lifeline for a few models of MacBook Pro (we can edit Info.plist and force the kext to load for graphics acceleration) + the 2011 Mac Mini (since I think its 6xxx chip actually uses the 5xxx architecture, Terascale 2, which matches one of the stock graphics cards archs, the 5770/5870, Evergreen/Terascale 2)
if we get 2), then we can attempt to force *all* the
old kexts from High Sierra/Sierra (like AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext --> Intel HD Graphics Arrandale, or AMDRadeon6xxx --> AMD Radeon, 'Northern Islands'/Terascale 2 and 3)
Either way, we're going to try and load the kexts anyway. I just thought of how the flowchart would go once we learn more details about how macOS Mojave ticks.
TL;DR: We can rely on Apple supporting the MacPro4,1 and MacPro5,1 GPU's someway to give us a lifeline to our old machines because they may share the same GPU architecture as the stock GFX in those MacPros.
UPDATE 1: Apparently according to
macOS_10.14_beta_Release_Notes.pdf the stock 5xxx will not be supported. I don't have access to it myself, so I hope to be able to check it soon.
