There are some cards which are very similar to supported cards but still don't have their device ID in the drivers. Do not buy a card assuming it's fully compatible just because you see the device ID in there!! Having the device ID of a specific card in both files is necessary but not sufficient to make it work! Apple will add some device IDs every now and then, and while some of the added cards will actually work, others might have awfully buggy drivers because Apple added the IDs just for testing purpose. The first is responsible of setting up basic 2D operation, correct resolutions, handling the connection ports of your card (rooting the signals to the correct ports, detecting hot plug actions, handling multiple screens) and others while the latter is mainly responsible for the 3D acceleration of your card.īoth types of kexts contain a list of PCI device IDs in their ist to detect and properly initialize connected GPUs. The AMD drivers consist of a lot of kernel extensions, two of which are particularly interesting for the (possible) OS X compatibility of a specific GPU: AMD000Controller.kext (one for each AMD Radeon GPU family) and AMDRadeonX000.kext. Obviously I have never seen the source code of those drivers so my knowledge isn't as deep as it could be, but for the scope of this guide it'll be fine. To choose a compatible graphics card it is helpful to know some details about the operation principles of the AMD drivers. AMD discussions here: Both have their right to exist, and after reading the GPU recommendation section you'll know the pros and cons of Radeons so you can choose yourself. This won't be a super-detailed step-by-step tutorial on every single aspect, but instead an overview on most important topics with links to further information. I'll explain how to find perfectly compatible cards and how to improve the overall experience on not so compatible GPUs. However, before getting too excited there are a few things to consider to achieve hassle-free long-term compatibility, so I've composed this guide to collect all necessary information and to clarify some urban myths. This would make many people assume that they weren't compatible with OS X at all, but in fact Apple has included driver support for almost every relevant AMD graphics chipset from the last years, so there's a good chance your standard PC card will work out of the box!
Most of you might have noticed that the Buyer's Guide doesn't list a single compatible AMD Radeon card at the moment. The "boot to black screen" issue as well as the broken sleep/wake have been fixed! Read below for details. Building a CustoMac Hackintosh: Buyer's Guide
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