I want my 9950X rig to double as a hackintosh since I'm mainly a Logic guy but here's the problem: I can't manually disable or bypass PCIE slots on my motherboard. Which means I have to kneel down, open the side panel, unscrew and pull out my 3090 and replace it with my RX 590 every time I want to boot into MacOS. Unfortunately that puts a lot of strain on my prosthetic hips and I'd rather not do that. Does anything like a PCIE "switcher" exist? Basically like a PCIE extender but with two slots and the ability to completely cut off one of them from receiving PCIE power and data. That way I can keep both GPUs plugged in (I don't mind swapping power cables if that's all I have to do, I can add more to my PSU but it's a mess down there so I'd rather just swap them around) and select which one is active before booting.

 

What you are looking for is probably a Thunderbolt 3 or greater external cage. 1 to 3 slots are the norm. For just the 3090 you want one that comes with or, has room for a power supply that can handle the load with headroom.

Does your motherboard have thunderbolt or, USB4 with tummeling support?

 

What motherboard is in the pc?

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, why not put your PC on a desk or even coffee table/nightstand, so you don't have to kneel down?

I'm sure the thought's occurred to you, but even if there's no space for a table, surely a $25 keyboard stand on Amazon can/will do the trick. Just a thought (I did likewise once, in tight quarters - a cheap keyboard stand and a piece of wood: bam! Laptop desk).

 

0 space, very weird desk situation, huge and heavy full tower case + top-mounted AIO exhaust, etc
plus I wouldn't be able to lift it that high either lol
I guess the alternative is a hydraulic platform but that's a bit excessive

 

Depending on the motherboard and BIOS options, this may only require placing the GPUs in the correct PCIe slots once. Some mobos allow selecting the active GPU or disabling slots in firmware. After that, Windows can ignore the RX 590 and OpenCore can hide the RTX 3090 from macOS.

 

I was going to say the same as Clone! So I will. Windows can ignore the RX 590 and OpenCore can hide the RTX 3090 from macOS.

 

that puts a lot of strain on the pcie slot and the card's connector too! afaik such pcb connectors are made for roundaboaut 50 dis- and re-connects.

 

It can? Last I checked (about two years ago) I was told this was impossible (even though I don't really want to leave both GPUs in just to avoid restricting the 3090's airflow, maybe I'll get an extension board and plug the 590 vertically)


wait i'm an idiot i can just plug the 3090 in the second slot

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2026 at 4:56 AM

The one time I did unplug the 3090 I felt like I was gonna rip the slot's springs? pins? out, those PCIE 5.0 slots are built different

 

for a hacktintosh with dual boot that could go wrong.

can´t he just deinstall the drivers? if there are no drivers, a GPU card won´t initialize on boot.

edit: to answer my own question: no, then the "basic display" driver of windows runs it in 2D mode.

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2026 at 5:16 AM

I see... that's a challenging set of parameters you're dealing with, sorry mate.

Have you had a look at Sonnettech's X-mac solutions? A fellow film/TV composer uses/swears by them.

 

hackintosh is dead by now, you can literally buy base model latest M4 Mac Mini and get better performance than 9950X

 

Not to mention, Intel is finally dead to Apple as of this Fall. Have fun with an outdated OS and having to constantly band-aid the system just to pretend you have a Mac.

 

That solution with having two cards sounds interesting, I was thinking what if we wouldn't select them in bios plus have one ignored by the driver of the os but instead use simple switches to cut them from power? (PCIe slot power and from the PSU as well)
Then I had a look at the pinout of PCIe and found way too many power rails to make that possible
https://pinoutguide.com/Slots/pci_express_pinout.shtml

//edit// It still is absolutely legit to want to have an intel mac in 2026. There are a lot of studios using their 10000 bucks cheese craters for the next years.

//edit 2// maybe my idea isn't so bad after all... there is a 3.3 v detection line.
possibly maybe one switch is enough to make it invisible?
My guess is, if that one pcie connector is disconnected the card is invisible to the board.
It would be one simple cut on the card and a switch on the backplate.
I would not test that on the 3090 though... maybe some old matrox card from the attic?
(buuut being undetected plus having all power rails on definitely will set the card in its initial mode with all the fans running at high speed)

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2026 at 2:56 PM