The Hard Truth: Apple vs. NVIDIA
I analyze hardware for a living, and I hate waste. The biggest waste of silicon right now is plugging a modern NVIDIA card into a Mac. Years ago, a dispute between Apple and NVIDIA killed all driver development. This means if you are trying to build a Hackintosh or upgrade an old Mac Pro with an RTX 4070, you are out of luck. It simply will not work.
If you already bought a card and need to return it, check out my guide on buying a used GPU safely so you can trade it for something compatible.
The Compatibility Matrix
Here is the simple rule of thumb I use in the lab:
- Kepler (GTX 600/700): Works natively up to macOS Big Sur/Monterey. Requires patching for Ventura/Sonoma.
- Maxwell (GTX 900) & Pascal (GTX 10): Only works up to macOS High Sierra (10.13) using NVIDIA Web Drivers. Dead on anything newer.
- Turing (RTX 20), Ampere (RTX 30), Lovelace (RTX 40): Zero support. No drivers. No workarounds.
This timeline explains why your GTX 1080 died the day you updated to Mojave.
The “Web Driver” Dead End
You will see forum posts about “OpenCore Legacy Patcher” (OCLP). While this tool is amazing for reviving old Macs, using it to force NVIDIA support is a gamble. It works by injecting root patches that compromise system security integrity (SIP). I’ve tested it, and while you might get a desktop, you often lose hardware acceleration, making the UI laggy and video editing impossible.
If you are experiencing heat issues on your older compatible cards, read my guide on fixing GPU thermal throttling to keep them alive longer.
You can force it to work with community patches, but stability is a roll of the dice.
The Real Solution: Go Red
If you need a high-performance GPU for macOS, you have one choice: AMD. The Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 series (specifically the RX 6600, 6800, and 6900 XT) are natively supported and work flawlessly. It might not be the answer NVIDIA fans want to hear, but in my lab, we choose hardware that works, not hardware that fights us.
In the Hackintosh world, the red team (AMD) is the only team that plays nice with Apple.
Compatibility FAQ
Does macOS Sonoma support RTX 30 or 40 series?
No. There are absolutely no drivers for NVIDIA Turing (20-series), Ampere (30-series), or Lovelace (40-series) architectures on any version of macOS.
Can I use Web Drivers for macOS Sequoia?
No. NVIDIA Web Drivers stopped working after macOS High Sierra (10.13). While OpenCore Legacy Patcher can sometimes force old Kepler drivers to load, it is not a stable solution for daily work.
