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Using an Nvidia GPU on a MacOS later than 10.13 (High Sierra)

privatepixels99privatepixels99 Posts: 36
in Daz Studio Discussion

Hey All,

I've been thinking of turning my Z440 into a hackintosh. My concern is the GPU. I have an older Quadro M5000 and the reading I've done (in particular round CoreBoot) suggests that Apple doesn't like Nvidia GPU's much these days. In fact I'm reading that Nvidia GPU's aren't supported very well after 10.13 (High Sierra). I'm not sure what to make of that.

Can some kind soul share their experiences with nvidia graphics on Intel MacOS when it comes to running Daz Studio and in particular Iray?

Thanks.

Comments

  • robertswwwrobertswww Posts: 790

    @privatepixels99 Unfortunately, Mac no longer natively supports nVidia graphics cards (I had one in an old Mac Cube).

    It looks the last nVidia driver for Mac OS was released in 2010 (download here)...
    GEFORCE MAC OS X DRIVER RELEASE 19.5.8 19.5.8F03
    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/macosx/19_5_8f03/geforce-macosx-19-5-8f03-driver/
    https://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/Mac/19.5.8f03/19.5.8f03.dmg&lang=us&type=Other

    Here is the list of current eGPUs that Mac supports (note: various AMD Radeon cards):
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

    Article: Adding an external GPU to your Mac is probably a better upgrade option than getting a new one
    https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/22/adding-an-external-gpu-to-your-mac-is-probably-a-better-upgrade-option-than-getting-a-new-one/

    Apple is getting away from discrete GPUs in their new line of M-series processors. But the new Apple Pro Desktop computer is expected to be unveiled later this year, and it has always been the one with PCIe slots, so we'll have to wait and see what it supports.

    As other Mac users have said, we need Metal support in Daz Studio 5 for iRay rendering on Macs.
    https://developer.apple.com/metal/

  • privatepixels99privatepixels99 Posts: 36

    Thanks for your extensive reply :)

    Things do look a little  miserable for those of use with nvidia silicon. But, I'm not sure if you're right about the last driver release being from 2010...

    This link: https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/153191/ seems to be for a Quadro & GeForce driver at version 387.10 released in 2019.

     

  • robertswwwrobertswww Posts: 790

    @privatepixels99 Thanks for the link... I was unaware that nVidia had release a later Mac driver. At the bottom of the page you linked to, under the Release Highlights tab, it has this info about supported Mac Hardware...

    Release Notes Archive:
    This driver update is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010) users.

    BETA support is for iMac 14,2 / 14,3 (2013), iMac 13,1 / 13,2 (2012) and MacBook Pro 11,3 (2013), MacBook Pro 10,1 (2012), and MacBook Pro 9,1 (2012) users.

    According to the Supported Products tab, it looks like the last GeForce card supported on the Mac is the GeForce 8800 GT.

    An interesting side-note, is that nVidia CUDA driver was apparently released in 2019, but that was the same year nVidia announced they would no longer support CUDA for macOS...

    Officially official: NVIDIA drops CUDA support for macOS
    November 24, 2019
    https://www.provideocoalition.com/officially-official-nvidia-drops-cuda-support-for-macos/

    Don't forget there is always Octane X photorealistic render engine for MacOS.  Lots of details in the following Mac thread:

    Mac is Back!
    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/519166/mac-is-back/p1

  • privatepixels99privatepixels99 Posts: 36

    And then there's this:

    https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/will-my-nvidia-graphics-card-work-with-macos-list-of-desktop-cards-with-native-support.283700/

    Which suggests Maxwell and Pascal card will work with the 'latest' nvidia drivers from the web.

    Either way, at some point I'll just give it a go and see how badly things blow up :)

     

  • robertswwwrobertswww Posts: 790

    @privatepixels99 I hope you can get a Hackintosh made that will run Daz Studio and render iRay via a nVidia card…. that would be pretty cool.  But, depending on what video card you go with, you might need to find an older version of Daz Studio, since later versions of DS keep dropping support for GPUs that iRay no longer supports. Try and get the most recent card you can get a driver for.  Here's some examples of iRay dropping older GPUs:

    Iray RTX 2020.0.2, build 327300.6313
    NOTE: 2020.0 is the last major release to support Kepler based cards - 2020.1 will drop support for Kepler based cards.
    * Support for SM 3.X/Kepler generation GPUs has been removed due to CUDA 11 (note that SM 5.0/’Small’ Maxwell generation GPUs are still marked as deprecated, matching CUDA 11).
    SOURCE: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/6105217/#Comment_6105217

    Iray no longer supports Fermi cards either including: GTX 4XX, GTX 5XX and some of the 600 and 700 series cards. A 10-series Pascal card might be best, or the 750ti is a Maxwell based card, so that is another option (note: The link you posted said to avoid the OEM 750 Ti). https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/geforce-gtx-750-ti/

    Be sure and post an update in this thread if/when you ever get your Hackintosh running with Daz Studio iRay... Good Luck!

  • privatepixels99privatepixels99 Posts: 36

    Well, it's been educational :)

    I managed to get OSX 10.13.6 High Sierra running on my HP z440 (E5-2680v4, Quadro M5000, 32Gb RAM) using the OpenCore documentation and the reddit r/Hackintosh list. I also managed to install OSX 64-bit DIM 10.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.80 and Daz Studio 4.12.0.86. I even got working Iray viewport visuals and Iray renders.

    But, you really don't want to go down that route for anything serious.

    I put together a very simple scene using Byni for Eva 8, the dForce Clarissa dress and Orestes' mystical whisps:

    OSX 10.13.6 Nvidia drivers 380.something and CUDA 418.something
    Simulation: 03:56
    Render: 03:51

    Win10 Nvidia 472.something
    Simulation: 00:57
    Render: 1:50

    I guess there's all sorts of reasons, but it's not going to get better as it's not possible to go beyond OSX 10.13.6 given the the 'latest' Nvidia drivers. Nvidia hardware on OSX is an evolutionary dead-end.

    I don't have the inclination to do the same test on GNU/Linux by running Daz under Wine 7.something, which I understand has the correct CUDA library etc. for Iray to work with much more recent drivers. All my Linux boxen run Alpine Linux which runs MUSL libc which in turn cannot run the Nvidia binary blob which is linked to glibc.

    Hope my little experiment satisfies somebody's curiosity, someplace, somewhere, somehow.

    :)

     

  • robertswwwrobertswww Posts: 790

    @privatepixels99 So glad to hear you had success in putting together a Hackintosh! Also, thanks for posting the dForce simulation and iRay render times.  Really not that bad considering the older hardware and software technology.

    If you want to run the Daz Studio Benchmark Scene and post the results of your Hackintosh running the nVidia Quadro M5000 GPU, you can find the test scene on the first page of this thread:

    Daz Studio Iray - Rendering Hardware Benchmarking
    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/341041/daz-studio-iray-rendering-hardware-benchmarking/p1

    Thanks again for sharing your progress!

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