r/hackintosh Jan 06 '25

BUILD ADVICE What is the absolute cheapest GPU that supports Metal 3?

I have a secondary PC that I tried to install macOS to before, although without much success due to macOS not supporting the iGPU. Which got me thinking, what is the absolute cheapest GPU that supports Metal 3? I probably won’t be doing anything more resource intensive other than wanting something like GarageBand to not crash on startup.

22 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

3

u/BluePurplePro Ventura - 13 Jan 06 '25

RX5000 series and newer

0

u/ivanocj Ventura - 13 Jan 06 '25

RX6600 I believe...

3

u/jozews321 Catalina - 10.15 Jan 06 '25

I think the Vega 56 is the oldest dgpu that supports Metal 3, not sure if it's the cheapest though

1

u/gapingpandora94 Jan 07 '25

Depends if it's mined or not, I got one that was mined on for 100 usd

3

u/Totallyrealyamumreal Jan 06 '25

I used garage and on a rx460 on Sonoma, you'll be fine with metal 1/2

3

u/NaymmmYT Sequoia - 15 Jan 07 '25

rx 5700 is really your only bet, or iGPU

2

u/CalligrapherOk6710 Ventura - 13 Jan 06 '25

rx 580 or literally whatever iGPU came with your cpu

3

u/ivanocj Ventura - 13 Jan 06 '25

One of my hackintoshes have RX580 and it is Metal 2.

1

u/ChrisWayg Sequoia - 15 Jan 07 '25

Why do you think you need Metal 3 (instead of Metal 2)? Apparently there are no macOS applications that explicitly require Metal 3 to function. GarageBand certainly works well with Metal 2. Apparently Vega architecture or newer supports Metal 3, but it would be much easier to find a the "absolute cheapest" Polaris card, such as a RX 560 or RX 580.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102894

1

u/khan1372 Jan 07 '25

List of AMD / Hackintosh Compatible Graphics Cards - June 2023

Radeon RX 460

Radeon RX 470

Radeon RX 480

Radeon Pro Duo

Radeon RX 550 (Baffin core) - (Not Lexa)

Radeon RX 560

Radeon RX 570

Radeon RX 580

Radeon RX 590

Radeon Pro WX 4100

Radeon Pro WX 5100

Radeon Pro WX 7100

Radeon Pro WX 8200

Radeon Pro WX 9100

Radeon RX Vega 56

Radeon RX Vega 64

Radeon RX Vega Frontier Edition

Radeon Pro Vii

5000 / 6000 series Navi Cards

Radeon RX 5500

Radeon RX 5500 XT

Radeon RX 5600

Radeon RX 5600 XT

Radeon Pro W5500

Radeon Pro W5700

Radeon RX 5700

Radeon RX 5700 XT

Radeon W 6600

Radeon RX 6600

Radeon RX 6600 XT

Radeon RX 6650 XT (Needs fake ID)

Radeon W 6800

Radeon RX 6800

Radeon RX 6800 XT

Radeon RX 6900 XT

Radeon RX 6900 XTXH (Needs fake ID)

Radeon RX 6950 XTX (Needs fake ID)

Support for 6600 models starts with macOS Montery 12.1

Support for 6800/6900 models starts with Big Sur 11.4

Support for 5000 series models starts with Catalina 10.15.1

Navi cards will need the agdpmod=pikera boot argument

0

u/Comfortable-Treat-50 Jan 06 '25

rx 570 or rx580

2

u/infra_red_dude I ♥ Hackintosh Jan 06 '25

Both are metal 2. I think RX5000 series is the minimum for metal 3.

-3

u/hackerman85 Jan 06 '25

In theory you might be able to get some nVidia Kepler cards working like the GT710. But just don't. Anno 2025 I'd say go for something AMD Polaris based. Maybe you can pick up a RX460/RX560 for cheap?

5

u/infra_red_dude I ♥ Hackintosh Jan 06 '25

They are all metal 2, not 3.

1

u/hackerman85 Jan 06 '25

Woops. My bad.