My current build is starting to show its age, a Haswell Z97 with an Nvidia GT 740, I want to do a complete rebuild.
My first OSX machine (now RIP) from 2006 used an ATI card and I'd like to go back with AMD for video cards unless the community strongly urges I get an NVidia. Budget is fairly substantial: $300 up to $400. The issue is, I'm ready to start this build now and I will not have time to commit to a build in November, so I do not think I can bite the bullet on a 5700 at this point. Would really appreciate any help from the community. I'm also bad at upgrading my computers piecemeal. Once the build is done I'll sit on it for 5 years until I start from scratch again so I probably won't do something like get a 580 then update to a 5700 in December. My Haswell has treated me pretty well for the last 5 years but motherboard has major power issues and the video card cannot handle much in the way of processing or gaming, so, time to rebuild.
My work requires video editing, rendering, and music production (mostly mastering but also some synth sequencing and sampling). I only work with camera footage, I do not do animation with the exception of small after effects and color correction (so video cards aren't quite as important on the production end). Honestly, these days, most of my production work (and what I would use the OSX side for) is for music production and sound.
I also game and will have a Windows 10 drive. Would love ultra high settings for most current single player games at least at 1080p if not 1440p. The video card will define what monitor I get (freesync vs whatever is nvidia's).
AMD
Vega 56 -- probably the Sapphire PULSE series though there are a number of used cards on eBay I may pick up that are decently priced (I've never bought a used video card though). PLUSES: they work well with Mojave and I don't think I need any additional kexts or plugins.
Vega 64 -- a little too expensive for my budget particularly since these cards are gobbled as soon as a new set hits the market but I may be able to grab a used one off ebay if the community strongly suggests I do a 64. Any recommendations on chipset mfgs or specific sub-models?
5700 or XT -- the issue here, as I mention above, is that OSX doesn't support it, yet. I can buy it now if we are quite sure that Catalina will support it later (and just flash in Catalina in November).
Older models like the 580 or 590 -- for 3 year old cards, these guys are still demanding heavy prices for new OOB which surprises me.
NVidia
I know almost nothing about NVidia cards, but I know that, on average, their prices are sky-high for comparable models. The GTX's are rare and incredibly expensive, but if the community recommends going with an NVidia along with whatever kexts are necessary to get hardware acceleration on Mojave, happy to consider.
Thank you all in advance!
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