[SUCCESS] blouse's "Hack Pro" :: i9-9900K + Z390 Aorus Pro + Vega 64 + TB3 + USB3 :: 100% working

[blouse]

@blouse,
...
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/an-idiots-guide-to-lilu-and-its-plug-ins.260063/

If your not already doing so you might want to consider enabling the IGPU and using a 'headless' PlatformID to get native support for Intel Quicksync, see the 'headless' documentation in the WhatEverGreen section of the above guide for more details.

Very impressive first build ...
Cheers
Jay

Hey Jay! Good news, it looks like I may have enabled headless support for the iGPU. I realized I was not able to use quick look for previewing JPG's and other filetypes (PNG's were working though). I did some searching and traced it to OS X using the iGPU for these tasks?

Following your awesome guide...

1) Apply GFX0 to IGPU patch in Clover Configurator...



2) Generate patch in FB-Patcher
• Framebuffer Menu -> macOS 10.14.X
• PlatformID = 0x3E920003
• Patch -> General -> Devices
• Patch -> Advanced -> Device Id: 0x3E9B
• Generate Patch

3) Copy Device Properties to config.plist through Clover Configurator



4) Restart


Now quick look is working, which is great! Also system feels a bit snappier- might just be placebo though.

Is there an easy way to test if I have headless iGPU set up properly?

 

[jaymonkey]

Hey Jay! Good news, it looks like I may have enabled headless support for the iGPU. Is there an easy way to test if I have headless iGPU set up properly?

@blouse,

As detailed in the guide .. if IGPU is enabled in the BIOS and you are using a Headless PlatformID then the IGPU should not show up in System Information/Profiler (Appel Logo -> About this Mac -> System Report -> Graphics/Displays )

Glad your up and running ...

Cheers
Jay

 

[sunnyj]

great to hear about your build so far @blouse. I too am running an intel 9th gen system, but the i7 instead of the i9. Everything working GREAT for me except for video rendering. I don't know if you do video production, but have you been able to render video successfully with FCPX or Premiere Pro???

This is the one major issue I've been having. Everything else works wonderfully.

Do you mean OpenCL is not available in media encoder in 10.14.1 while using an RX 590?

 

[blouse]

@blouse,

As detailed in the guide .. if IGPU is enabled in the BIOS and you are using a Headless PlatformID then the IGPU should not show up in System Information/Profiler (Appel Logo -> About this Mac -> System Report -> Graphics/Displays )

Glad your up and running ...

Cheers
Jay

Excellent, I must be up and running then Thanks for the help!

An odd thing I noticed- I am showing several lines of Vega 64 in DPCI manager with varying "ports" every time I restart. Tends to vary after a restart, maybe has something to do with the Vega64 kext I am using...

I am noticing significantly higher framerates in Cinema 4D preview after the headless iGPU. Very buttery now, a huge improvement. I have been putting it through its paces and the system feels flawless in all 2D/3D animation apps. I haven't tried rendering anything in Premiere, but "Hardware" is now an option in Adobe Media Encoder for H.265 so my guess is it will work.

 

[jaymonkey]

An odd thing I noticed- I am showing several lines of Vega 64 in DPCI manager with varying "ports" every time I restart. Tends to vary after a restart, maybe has something to do with the Vega64 kext I am using...

@blouse,

Sorry I cant help you with that .... I don't have Vega GPU yet but hope to get a Sapphire Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition very soon, have given up on Nvidia ever releasing updated WebDrivers anytime soon.

I am noticing significantly higher framerates in Cinema 4D preview after the headless iGPU. Very buttery now, a huge improvement. I have been putting it through its paces and the system feels flawless in all 2D/3D animation apps. I haven't tried rendering anything in Premiere, but "Hardware" is now an option in Adobe Media Encoder for H.265 so my guess is it will work.

Yes that is to be expected ... iMacs with Radeon and IGPU graphics use the Intel IGPU in headless mode all the time to help accelerate certain tasks ... MacOS is very well optimised to get the most out of the hardware features Intel baked into their IGPU's.

Cheers
Jay

 

[blouse]

@blouse,

Sorry I cant help you with that .... I don't have Vega GPU yet but hope to get a Sapphire Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition very soon, have given up on Nvidia ever releasing updated WebDrivers anytime soon.

Same- at first I was trying to run dual GTX 1080's. The latest web drivers for High Sierra worked for one card, but it would not let me run dual cards and at the time I was a major newbie to all of this. The Vega 64's have been flawless after the VGTab fan fix.

Yes that is to be expected ... iMacs with Radeon and IGPU graphics use the Intel IGPU in headless mode all the time to help accelerate certain tasks ... MacOS is very well optimised to get the most out of the hardware features Intel baked into their IGPU's.

Cheers
Jay

Another interesting thing I just noticed as I was trying some different settings going for higher bench scores: I don't get the same sort of FPS boost in Cinema 4D when I use iMacPro1,1. Using iMac18,3 gives me such drastically better realtime 3D performance.

Still trying to figure out how to overclock this thing, I think I may have to get a bootable windows flash drive so I can run the Gigabyte EasyTune software.

 

[blouse]

Some new benchmarks up on post #1
• LuxMark CPU+GPU
• Cinebench (went from 120fps to 162 after headless iGPU)

 

[jaymonkey]

I don't get the same sort of FPS boost in Cinema 4D when I use iMacPro1,1. .... Cinebench (went from 120fps to 162 after headless iGPU)

@blouse,

iMacPro1,1 uses a Workstation class Xeon CPU which does not have a IGPU so this SMBIOS is not a good match for your Desktop class i9 9900K CPU as MacOS will be attempting to use Xeon CPU optimisations and no IGPU optimisations.

iMac18,3 is currently the best match for your hardware (i7 7700K + IGPU + AMD GPU) most of the Open GL processing will be done on the dGPU but MacOS will also use the IGPU if it's available and correctly configured in headless mode hence the bump to 162fps with the iMac18,3 SMBIOS ..... your getting approx 120fps from the AMD GPU and 42fps from the IGPU (Which sounds about right for UHD 630 IGPU on a i9 9900K)

The only oddity here is that the 120fps would suggest to me that MacOS is only using one of the Vega 64's, i would have expected you would see around 180fps form two Vega 64's ... (don't forget that the 2nd dGPU will only be running on 8 PCI lanes where as the 1st will be running on 16 PCI lanes due to the limited number of PCI lanes that Intel Desktop class CPU's have)

I'm not sure about this but i think MacOS limits Open GL to just one dGPU ( +IGPU if available) ... Metal 2 and Open CL will use all available GPUs.

The Cinebench Open GL benchmark (the one with the car chase) is not a pure test of the dGPU as it's CPU bound .... for that reason it's not the best benchmark to use for Open GL benchmarks .... LuxMark or FurMark are better options, GeekBench 4 is also a very good option as it allows you to benchmark Open GL/CL and the Metal API's separately as well as the CPU.

Cheers
Jay

 

[kolutsham]

@blouse
Thank you so much for this build tutorial! And thanks to everyone else contributing this thread as well! I have near identical hardware (different Mainboard: Z390 Aorus Master) and you saved me a lot of time and trouble. I use my machine primary for music production in my studio and sometimes I do video stuff too. As I have dedicated PCIe audio interfaces (with macOS Support), my onboard audio is deactivated, so I don't know if it would work. I can confirm, that using the iGPU headless brings a lot more smoothness and overall performance. The only things currently not working for me are shutdown (reboot works), and I'm not able to get the Vega 64 temp data into HWMonitor. It also would be cool to get the onboard Bluetooth working. Did anyone ever manage to do so?

All the best,
Jan

 

[kolutsham]

I will get the same board. So sleep/wake works properly? Did you try fixshutdown in clover acpi section?

Actually I haven't tried sleep/wake yet but will do so later that day and report back here. Thanks for the fixshutdown tip, I'll try that also later