The Best Hackintosh Graphics Cards – Reviews

Despite the fact that the GTX 980 has been in the market since 2014, its super-fast performance, competitive price, and low power consumption has kept this graphics card on the top of the wish-list of crypto and gaming enthusiasts.

Features:

For starters, the GTX 980 offers a curious mix of super-fast performance – which makes it one of EVGA’s most powerful cards – and ridiculously low power consumption. The reason for this lies in the Maxwell architecture of this GPU which is famous for its ultra-efficient multiprocessors.

While there are Nvidia cards which are more powerful – the Titan X and GTX 980 Ti – both of them use 8 billion transistors and 3,072 stream processors. The GTX980, meanwhile, does the same job with 5.2 billion transistors and 2,048 stream processors, hence indicating its super-efficiency.

Yet another feature which makes the GTX 980 special is its ACX 2.0+ cooling system. Apart from its dual fans and a thick heat sink located underneath the fans, the cooling plate of this system keeps your card’s MOSFET and memory chilled, hence reducing temperatures by as much as 5C.

Also, while the GPU runs on the default “dial BIOSes” – which you can tinker with by flicking a switch on the switch – we recommend that you use the custom “SSC Performance BIOS” as it gives more oomph and leads to improved frame rates.

Lastly, with the GTX 980, you’ll be able to play most games at 4k – with only the most data-intensive titles requiring minimal toning down of graphics. This feature bodes well for VR and widescreen, too – as the GTX 980 will run both effortlessly.

Pros:

• Handles 4k titles with ease
• ACX 2.0+ cooling system
• Higher performance rate
• Compact size

Cons: 

• Might experience crashes sometimes

Final Verdict:

The best compliment that we can pay to the GTX980 is that despite providing the same monstrous power which lures people towards the Titan X, it is available at a much more competitive price.

An absolute monster of a GPU, the GTX Titan X is so powerful that whenever you see anybody reviewing an Nvidia GPU, it is this graphics card which serves as a standard and against whom the performances of all the other ones are measured.

Features:

Even though this model uses the same 28nm Maxwell architecture that we just saw in the GTX 980, it’s much faster. That’s because its chipset is 55mm2 – far bigger than the 398mm2 chip of the GTX 980 – and larger than most of its AMD rivals.

Buttressing its monstrous credentials is the Titan X’s die which contains a massive eight billion transistors. Again, no other GPU comes close to offering this, with the Radeon R9 T290 X – which is AMD’s top GPU – stopping almost two billion short.

What’s more, when it was released, the Titan X was the first ever graphics card to provide a might 12GB of GDDR5 RAM which offers up to 336GB/s of bandwidth, leaving behind any latest single-GPU card from Nvidia and even AMD.

Look inside the card, and you’ll notice support for Nvidia’s DSR, DirectX12, and MFAA, plus three DisplayPort connectors and single DVI-I and HDMI ports. All these connections make the Titan X Virtual Reality (VR) ready, though that is a feature which other Nvidia cards also offer.

Finally, despite oozing so much power, the Titan X runs cool thanks to its self-contained cooling mechanism. No filling, no maintenance, no custom tubing. All you have to do to set its inner water rolling is to just plug in the unit.

Pros:

• Ultra-fast single-GPU card
• Eye-catching aluminum exterior
• Smart cooling system

Cons: 

• Pricey

Final Verdict:

Provided you can afford to pay its asking price, there’s no reason whatsoever why the Nvidia GeForce Titan X might disappoint you.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 is an updated version of the GTX 780 as it consumes up to 35% less power than its predecessor, plus a lot of new features to keep the users interested.

Features:

In case you were thinking the same thing, the reason why the Gigabyte GTX 980 consumes as little power as it does lie in its Windforce 3X cooling system. Comprising of copper-heat pipes which directly connect to the GPU, the system encourages heat dissipation to keep power consumption minimal.

Also, if you are one of those people who need effective cooling – but not at the cost of ridiculous levels of noise – there is another reason why you should consider the GTX980. It has a uniquely designed fan whose blade’s pitch strengthens airflow to keep noise level at a bare minimum.

Furthermore, thanks to Gigabyte’s Flex Display technology, the GTX 980 can accomplish a simultaneous display of up to 4 monitors. Throw into the mix its ability to detect any connected monitors automatically, and you’ll have a seamless gaming experience with this model.

Additionally, to reduce the amount of power-switching related losses, this model provides more bandwidth to facilitate electron passage. That, in turn, reduces circuit impedance, stabilizes the flow of current and makes this model more efficient.

Pros:

• Multi-display gaming
• Lower GPU temperatures
• Excellent overclocking capability

Cons: 

• Doesn’t have a backplate

Final Verdict:

Engraved from 28nm GM204 silicon, containing around 129 texture units and using a triple-fan cooler to keep its inner temperatures under control, the Gigabyte GTX 980 is undoubtedly a powerful beast.

A supremely efficient card which offers full-HD capability, the under $350 price tag of the Nvidia GTX 1050Ti means that it will slot nicely in most people’s budget.

Features:

For those of you who are want to convert a desktop PC with no graphics cards at all into a Hackintosh, the GTX 1050Ti is a godsend. It roughly uses the same form-factor of its rival cards and fits nicely into low-cost and compact builds.

Like most other Nvidia cards, the GTX 1050Ti features ACX fan technology. With its optimized swept blades, a low-power motor and double ball bearings, it requires less power yet delivers more airflow, thereby reserving additional power for the GPU.

Fortunately, this model comes with some exclusive features as well, the first of which is its Direct X 12 support to provide an on-screen display of DirectX 12 games. Then comes the ability of this GPU to automatically locate your optimal frequency curve/voltage with its ScannerX Integration feature.

Since this model uses Pascal architecture, Nvidia claims that it provides improved delta color compression, which leads to a reduction in bandwidth load by as much as 30 percent. Therefore, while the abovementioned 60 might be faster in theory, the 1050Ti rules the roost in situations where memory bandwidth is more important.

Finally, using the GTX 1050Ti is very easy thanks to its basic port arrangement.  Its control panel includes a single HDMI 2.0 port, a dual-link DVI output, and a solitary DisplayPort. No doubt the number of ports isn’t huge, but they should cover pretty much every scenario you might use this card in.

Pros:

• Efficient and quiet
• Very affordable
• Low power consumption

Cons: 

• Might not max out all graphics settings

Final Verdict:

All told, using the GTX 1050Ti, you can build a budget Hackintosh under $500. Or if you already have a Hackintosh but need to amplify its display, this model will fulfill your wish in a budget.

Released all the way back in 2014, the Zotac GeForce GTX 980Ti has seen a price reduction over the years though one thing that has remained constant about this model is its huge power. Throw into the mix its low noise output and “Ice Storm” cooler, and you have a deft product in your hands.

Features:

Compare it with Nvidia’s flagship GPU, the Titan X, and you could see that the GTX 980Ti is a bare-bones version of the same. Despite cutting down 256 of the Titan X’s processor cores and half of its 12GB RAM, the GeForce GTX 980Ti still provides the same level of performance.

Secondly, this GPU is one of the heaviest that we have ever come across. Its 12.9-inch length means that this GPU takes up three parallel PCI Express slot positions and has a massive shroud which incorporates three fans. That’s why it is almost 2.5’’ longer than Nvidia’s reference design.

Also, in contrast to the reference design, this GPU has shunned the standard 6-pin connector in favor of its 8-pin counterpart. You also get two 6-pin-to-8-pin adapters in its package, which come very handy if your power supply wasn’t built to deal with high-end cards.

Glance under the shroud, and you’d come across a cooling mechanism which Zotac refers to as IceStorm. With its aluminum fins, copper heat pipes and a ‘’blade-within-a-blade’’ design, its manufacturer claims that the IceStorm increases airflow by 30 percent.

Lastly, this GPU clocks considerably higher on both the boost clock as well as the core clock fronts than a standard GTX 980Ti. For instance, while its base clock of 1,253MHz is almost 250MHz more than the standard card, the boost clock of 1,355MHz is 280MHz higher than the reference design.

Pros:

• Incredibly high frame rates
• Good build quality
• Quiet, air-cooled operation
• 5-year warranty

Cons: 

• Has a massive size

Final Verdict:

Even though it is a massively overclocked GPU, the Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti Amp Extreme is one of quietest GPUs on the market. Just make sure that your case has a lot of space since this card is longer and thicker than most.

When the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti was first released in 2017, the crypto bubble was well and truly flourishing and the prices of GPUs had skyrocketed due to the resulting demand. Fortunately, now that the prices of crypto have settled, more people can afford this monstrous GPU.

Features:

Although its cover is mostly plastic – which is never a good thing – Nvidia imitated aluminum to make it look pretty classy. You can’t recognize its plastic build until you touch its fan shroud and the GTX1080Ti also has a two-part backplate which also performs the function of a passive cooler.

For those of you who are familiar with the design of Nvidia’s Pascal graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 1080Ti will look indistinguishable. Though there is one difference as this GPU doesn’t have a DVI port, though it does come with an adapter which you can as easily connect to its DisplayPort.

The absence of a DVI port has allowed this GPU to come with a better cooling solution, which is the reason why this model provides twice the airflow area of its predecessor, the GTX 1080. Even at full load, the GTX 1080Ti won’t peak above 82 degrees Celsius.

On the performance side, you get 3,854 CUDA cores and a massive stack of 12 billion transistors. You can overclock its factory default boost clock to 2GHz and make full use of the 11GB of GDDR5X which runs at 11GHz.

Lastly, while its memory is 1GB less than that of Titan X – which is the model with which the 1080Ti directly competes – this GPU makes up for this shortcoming with its increased data speeds. Hence the reason why where the Titan X stops at 480GB/sec, the 1080Ti’s data speed has a maximum limit of 484GB/sec.

Pros:

• Incredibly fast GPU
• Improved cooling mechanism
• Rivals Titan X’s performance

Cons: 

• Pricey

Final Verdict:

Of all the cards that Nvidia churned out in its 2017/18 series, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti sits at the pinnacle. If you want to push your single GPU’s performance to new heights, go for this model.

Referred to as the “GPU Sweet Spot” by Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 960 is a mid-range card which employs Maxwell architecture. Will it help you in constructing a Hackintosh? Let’s find out.

Features:

In case you were wondering, the “SuperSC” in the card’s name stands for “Super Superclocked.” Though that doesn’t mean that you’d get more cores in this architecture than the age-old Kepler architecture, as it contains 128 cores to the Kepler’s 192.

Instead, what it does suggest is that despite having fewer cores, the GTX960 SSC is able to provide the same performance. That’s because while older cards had their base clock set at 980MHz, this GPU goes all the way up to 1,279MHz in the same.

What is slightly underwhelming news about this model is its memory architecture. In this day and age when other cards provide as much as 12GB of GDDR5, the GTX 960SSC won’t go above a paltry 2GB GDDR5. That means that you can create a fairly conservative Hackintosh with this model.

Ask Nvidia about this shortcoming, and they claim that the GTX 960SSC’s total memory bandwidth – which stands at 112GB/s, makes up for its small memory size by allowing users to view 1080p resolutions with ease, which is what an average user demands from their GPUs.

Pros:

• Ultra-quiet
• Massively overclocked
• Less power hungry

Cons: 

• Small memory size

Final Verdict:

It doesn’t have the features to set your case alight, but EVGA’s GTX 960 SuperSC ACX does well for users who want their GPU to come in a budget.

Users balked at their prices the first time Nvidia started rolling out its Turing cards. However, with the RTX 2060, Nvidia has turned the game on its head by giving a much-needed combination of value and competitive pricing.

Features:

Design-wise, the 9-inch length of this model means that it should easily complement most desktop cases’ sizes. And since its width is a narrow 4.4-inches, even desktops which have small-form-factor (SFF) builds should have no problem accommodating this GPU.

For a card whose forte is gaming at 1080p and 1440p, the GeForce RTX 2060 faces no competition from either AMD. Granted, the Radeon RX Vega 65 (2017) rivals it in price but once you compare the overall performances of the two, the GeForce RTX 260 sprints well ahead.

Within Nvidia’s own GPU house, only the GeForce GTX 1660Ti is capable of rivaling this GPU with its 1080p and 1440p resolution. Still, since it lacks the features that define the RT X20 series – which include Deep Learning Super Sampling and ray tracing – the RTX2060 emerges as a clear winner here as well.

Unlike other Nvidia cards which preceded it, the RTX 2060 has a unique cooling mechanism as its two cooling fans send exhaust air into the case, and not outside. After crisscrossing the interior, the air then exits from the heatsink fins, keep the inner temperature at a reasonable level.

Finally, as far as its ports are concerned, this GPU won’t give you any reason to worry. Apart from the usual HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort and VirtualLink port, it contains the USB Type-C port as well, a rarity among most GPUs. Oh, and the backplate is made of aluminum to add sturdiness and style to the unit.

Pros:

• 1080p and 1440p resolutions
• Has a VirtualLink port
• Future-proof
• Decent value for money

Cons: 

• DLSS and ray tracing still haven’t found widespread support

Final Verdict:

A premium mid-level GPU which offers DLSS as well as ray-tracing, the ability of this graphics card to support 1080p and 1440p resolutions make it a must-have.

As long as your needs don’t force you to go for a professional solution, the Nvidia GeForce RXR 2080Ti is, without doubt, the most powerful GPU that you can buy.

Features:

Every new generation of GPUs tries to lure users by offering improved clock speeds for better resolutions, higher frame rates, and smoother performances. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, however, has greater ambitions.

With its Ray tracing technology, this model provides more realistic lighting effects than any of its predecessors. Add to the equation it’s Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS), and that allows it to employ artificial intelligence to display HQ images with better efficiency.

What’s more, while the Pascal card – the predecessor generation – was able to display 4k resolutions, the RTX 2080Ti offers 60fps in Ultra HD. That means that you’ll be able to do some of the most demanding tasks without any stuttering or judder.

However, even though it provides a better level of performance, the RTX 2080Ti consumes the same amount of power (250W or 260W) which the GTX 1080Ti consumed. So you won’t have to pay extra for electricity bills.

Pros:

• High fps 4k resolution
• USB-C connectivity
• Super-overclockable
• Operates quietly

Cons: 

• Astronomically expensive

Final Verdict:

An ultimate graphics card if you want to enjoy 4k resolution, the GTX 1080Ti is a worth-having GPU provided its steep asking price doesn’t force your heart to skip a beat.

With its incredible graphics, above-average performance and a competitive price tag, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme will leave you more than impressed.

Features:

Gigabyte markets this card by stating that it features an extended feature set, a claim we found to be true on inspecting its package. Apart from a new mouse pad and wrist protection, it provides a VR bracket, a front-panel bracket, a USB 3.0 port, and an HDMI output.

Aesthetics-wise, Gigabyte does well to decorate the card’s top with an LED indicator and the company’s logo, the colors of which you can control via Gigabyte’s Xtreme Engine software.

The reason why this model is shorter than many of its counterparts has to do with the design of its fans. Instead of being stacked one-by-one, the three fans are placed over each other. The compactness that comes from this unique design means it can easily fit into a 12-inch space.

Additionally, with its 8GB of GDDR5x RAM, the model operates at a base clock of 1784MHz in OC mode and 1759MHz in gaming mode. Both the modes offer different levels of boost as well, with the former touching 1936MHz at full power and the latter stopping at just below 1,900MHz.

And to keep its safety first, this model has two capacitors placed right beneath the GPU, which equalize and absorb peaks in voltage to keep everything in working order.

Pros:

• VR Ready
• Compact design
• 4-years warranty

Cons: 

• Fan’s maximum speed increases noise levels

Final Verdict:

Though it has some areas where improvements could be made, overall, the GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme is a dependable GPU for your next Hackintosh building project.

The market might be overflowing with graphics card from manufacturers you know nothing about, but there are only two companies that power the components: AMD and Nvidia. So which one deserves your money more? Your personal preferences are all that count.

AMD

If you looking for something that is available on a budget, go for AMD. Nothing comes close to AMD when it comes to offering ridiculously low-priced GPUs.

Take the example of AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, for instance, which is the most powerful AMD card yet comes under $500. However, when you compare them to Nvidia’s counterparts, AMD GPUs consume more power.

Nvidia

Nothing beats Nvidia if it is a sheer performance that you’re after. Though you’d have to pay a hefty asking price for the better overall performance. After all, you have to pay $1750 for the RTX 2080Ti.

Provided you can afford to pay this asking price, Nvidia’s Green GeForce Experience software – by delivering driver updates and optimizing games – will justify your choice.

Building a Hackintosh isn’t that difficult provided you have the necessary hardware at your disposal. Provided you have all the other tools at standby, a decent graphics card could make a world of a difference between an average Hackintosh and a high-end one. So now that we have recommended you the best Hackintosh cards of 2019, the onus is on you to select the fit which meets your requirements.