How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[flymovies]

Did you still keep OC few cores at 4.9? Because I could never boot into OS with any core at 4.9.
So maybe lower them down to 4.8?

Yes, I have lowered them even to 4.5 Ghz - This does not help the NVME install. Since the backup of Superduper failed (failed to make NVME bootable), also all the special partitions on my NVEM drive have disappeared - I guess I am due for a fresh install, but this time I will use the SSD instead of the NVME - it is much easier to maintain, because if something breaks, you still can access the SSD via Macbook and USB and make changes. The NVME is bricked on the mobo, like this it is really painful to repair and to get your system back working.

I will report later how the fresh install went ...

 

[kgp]

My Vega 64 works very well with all other programs/apps etc etc
but I can't say it's stable, because I don't use Chrome/Electron Apps/or build in Photo editor...
so please try Google Chrome few minutes or build in photo editor with selection of whole image /cut/copy sth...

If you use 10.13.1 or older OS X version you should have that known freeze ...
BTW: "Congratulation" for 60K geekbench record !

I think you will reach 64-65k soon...
when @kgp and few others with your beast 7980XE
will start OC, I'm sure we will see next world records

If I properly remember, you run your your Vega 64 with whatevergreen.kext? Why? The card should be natively implemtented and run OoB without any additional requirements....

Can you please comment on that?

 

[sgunes]

Hi Sgunes. First I want to say, thanks for remembering me back in the SR-2 days. Too bad your system went out, but great to have a new system working again. To answer your question, I don't know what you mean by "GB" "TB3" or "AIC," but I can only tell you that my installer followed KGP's input almost to a T. The only main issue I had was sound, but he used the other file that KGP suggested (if the original one didn't work). Now sound on my Logitech Z5500 5.1 surround speakers are working just fine.

I'll ask Chris (my installer) if he knows what you're requesting and see what he replies to. When it comes to using other motherboards and whatnot, I could've still used the Gigabyte AORUS 9 Gaming board, but I would've had continual problems with that board. Especially after almost three years of going through headaches; not worth it. The only thing that I encourage people to do now if they're following a post like this, is to just do what KGP is doing. Even if you have to dismantle things and sell them in order to get the correct equipment. That's what KGP did (and he had to do it twice - LOL), and I had to do it FOUR times, till I finally got it right.

You know what they say (or at least what I say), "3rd times a charm, 4th time is... how come you didn't listen the 3rd time?"

When I saw Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 in your profile I assumed it was the X299 board. It looks like you got the Asus board instead. My abbreviations were referring to the Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 Add-in-card. I chose the Gigabyte board as it has dual channel TB3 while the Asus has only single channel TB3.

 

[kgp]

Important question to @ALL Nvidia users,

did anybody realise at all that the new 10.13.1 Nvidia Web Driver now also supports Metal 2???

Look at this! Tremendous Metal Score rise from 98.000 to 230.000!!!

 

[kgp]

When I saw Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 in your profile I assumed it was the X299 board. It looks like you got the Asus board instead. My abbreviations were referring to the Gigabyte Thunderbolt 3 Add-in-card. I chose the Gigabyte board as it has dual channel TB3 while the Asus has only single channel TB3.

One could use the Gigabyte TB3 also on the ASUS board, isn't it? It is just another PCIe adapter, which is anyway not shipped in line with any Gigabyte board (additional paid add-on)... Apart from TB3, I think the Gigabyte boards might be definitely the worse choice with respect to all other aspects... But that's my personal opinion and experience you certainly have not to share at all..

@ImaPirate could you please update your profile? Thanks in advance!

 

[AlBeast]

"ASUS MultiCore Enhancement": When abled, one however seems to achieve only some marginal increase in CPU performance.

I haven't tested it too much, but I believe I can get scores in Geekbench differing multiple 1000's on the 7820X I tested over three boards.

Enabling MCE enables the turbo ratio for one core to all cores. Typically the motherboard manufacturer sets its one-core turbo, two-core turbo, n-core turbo, but the frequency becomes lower the more cores are added. MCE simply takes one-core turbo and allows all cores to run this*.

Like this you'll find that reviews with different BIOS settings, especially related to MCE, turn out to widely vary in score results in typical CPU benchmarks, because the manufacturer allows an indirect overclock option that is harder to trace than an actual 5.0GHz All Core overclock. Note that Intel stopped providing information about these n-core turbos since Coffee Lake, making things even more obscure.

So, the reason results may very well vary per board and manufacturer when enabling MCE, is manufacturer implementation of these turbo's, because Intel certainly won't guarantee anything else anymore than stock speed, and only gives guidelines for possible turbo speeds.

How this may relate or influence macOS power management is beyond me. I imagine the XCPM method can use MCE.

Some backup:

More information here:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/6214/multicore-enhancement-the-debate-about-free-mhz

(AdoredTV shows 25% difference in i7-8700K review benchmarks, points it to cherry picked chips, enabled/disabled MCE, and notes the i5-8400 is never within specifications, let alone being capable of and programmed to run it's "hidden" n-core turbo boosts on an entry-level motherboard*).

 

[paulotex]

1) When booting from USB + NVME, I get a boot cache error (0xE)
2) After copying the EFI folder from the backup to the NVME boot still fails with the same error.
3) When I boot from the NVME only, the system basically breaks down where one would see the "++++++++++++++" in verbose mode

Question: Could this be the result of apfs problems? The NVME runs on APFS. I am now restoring from the backup onto HFS+, hoping this will give better long-term reliability.

Thoughts?

Hi.

I had similar problems while using an older version of apfs.efi. Make sure you have the latest version installed, even if you don't update Clover.

This is independent of any macOS updates. I suspect that after some time using APFS, the partition gets into a state that the older apfs.efi does not understand.

IIRC, the latest version is in
/usr/standalone/i386
Copy it from there into the drivers64UEFI folder and reboot.

Good luck and HTH

 

[kgp]

I haven't tested it too much, but I believe I can get scores in Geekbench differing multiple 1000's on the 7820X I tested over three boards.

Enabling MCE enables the turbo ratio for one core to all cores. Typically the motherboard manufacturer sets its one-core turbo, two-core turbo, n-core turbo, but the frequency becomes lower the more cores are added. MCE simply takes one-core turbo and allows all cores to run this*.


...

Sorry, but when enabling MCE one the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe, also CPU Core Ratio changes to "Sync All Cores"! And that's the crucial point, "Sync All Cores" syncs the max. turbo frequency to all cores! Only with MCE on "Auto" instead of "disabled", the Geekbench score boost is indeed marginal on ASUS boards! 100% verified by my tests... Further note that "Sync All Cores" is a ASUS-only BIOS feature! This might be also the reason, why in your benchmark results presented above, all ASUS boards are leading by far... I might well be that MCE is differently implemented on non-ASUS mainboards. This however goes beyond my actual knowledge.

 

[kgp]

Hi.

I had similar problems while using an older version of apfs.efi. Make sure you have the latest version installed, even if you don't update Clover.

This is independent of any macOS updates. I suspect that after some time using APFS, the partition gets into a state that the older apfs.efi does not understand.

IIRC, the latest version is in
/usr/standalone/i386
Copy it from there into the drivers64UEFI folder and reboot.

Good luck and HTH

Note that aps.efi changes with each new macOS release.

 

[mgregrs]

If I properly remember, you run your your Vega 64 with whatevergreen.kext? Why? The card should be natively implemtented and run OoB without any additional requirements....

Can you please comment on that?

Of course ...
Look at screen below:
On the right: with whatevergreen and on the left: without...
PS: only one thing changed by wtevergreen is a card name ... Performance is the same...



BTW: I connected 3rd backup SSD and I don't have that weird bug like @vikikang, @lucatze , @Bagi1992
I will reinstall another copy on my evo 960 today and we will if I will find their lag...

@kgp Have you a magic command to prepare USB with 10,13,2 beta version?
after download and before PC restart (because after restart I'm almost sure, system will not boot so, I have to do it before... )