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iMac Pro X299 - Live the Future now with macOS 10.14 Mojave [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

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I had big troubles with EVO 960s in the M.2 slots of the Prime x299 Deluxe. I don't know if it was the fault of the EVO 960s or thermal throttling induced by standard heatsinks in use.

I've got a 960 EVO and a 970 EVO, and the entire machine comes to a standstill whenever Time Machine kicks over and hits the disks. This doesn't happen on my 2016 MBP with the standard Apple 1Tb SSD.

What were the troubles you saw with your EVOs, @kgp? I'm considering ordering a 970 PRO if it made a real difference for you.
 
izo1.
How did you implement Vega FE? I can not get a stable work of the video card
 
I've got a 960 EVO and a 970 EVO, and the entire machine comes to a standstill whenever Time Machine kicks over and hits the disks. This doesn't happen on my 2016 MBP with the standard Apple 1Tb SSD.

What were the troubles you saw with your EVOs, @kgp? I'm considering ordering a 970 PRO if it made a real difference for you.

The trouble with the EVO 960 was the write performance during BlackMagic disk speed bench mark. First benchmark something line 1900 then down to 1200-1400. Users reported that there were not such issues with the EVO 960 Pro.

Thus, I decided to directly opt for the EVO 970 PRO instead of the EVO 970 and used some water blocking in addition (see post #1,536). Now everything works as expected (see post #1,539).
 
Does anyone have boot freeze with Samsung NVMe SSDs ? I'm trying to connect Samsung PM1725 to already configured and working system, but it hangs while NVME initialization....
 
Does anyone have boot freeze with Samsung NVMe SSDs ? I'm trying to connect Samsung PM1725 to already configured and working system, but it hangs while NVME initialization....

And you think it is a hatdware fault of the Samsung NVMe and not the fault of your EFI-Folder configuration or BIOS settings? I never faced hardware freezes on boot caused by a Samsung NVMe.
 
And you think it is a hatdware fault of the Samsung NVMe and not the fault of your EFI-Folder configuration or BIOS settings? I never faced hardware freezes on boot caused by a Samsung NVMe.

I'm using yours EFI folder and BIOS settings. I think this is some incompatibility with loaded Apple NVME driver. But i can't find the reason because it freezes and i don't know how to debug this. HGST nvme drive works well, Intel NVME drives works very slow, Samsung just freeze the system.
 
izo1.
How did you implement Vega FE? I can not get a stable work of the video card

Hi there,

What is your problem? Could you elaborate?

Vega FE has been working perfect for me for about a year. I just use WhateverGreen+Lilu (on dual 38" LG Ultrawide displays via DisplayPort) and no other SSDT or kext to support it.

Actually I had more problems with motherboards and coolers than any other parts in this build.

Currently it is on a waterblock with an EKWB 280mm radiator (push/pull config) on it's own loop, and it runs extremely cool with zero noise on full load (hot spot is about 56c, which is very good on such a hot card). Also "performance" mode is enabled (the switch toward the rear ports for the higher clock speed VBIOS).

I will say though that on stock blower style cooler, it runs extremely hot and gets loud.
 
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Hi there,

What is your problem? Could you elaborate?

Vega FE has been working perfect for me for about a year. I just use WhateverGreen+Lilu (on dual 38" LG Ultrawide displays via DisplayPort) and no other SSDT or kext to support it.

Actually I had more problems with motherboards and coolers than any other parts in this build.

Currently it is on a waterblock with an EKWB 280mm radiator (push/pull config) on it's own loop, and it runs extremely cool with zero noise on full load (hot spot is about 56c, which is very good on such a hot card). Also "performance" mode is enabled (the switch toward the rear ports for the higher clock speed VBIOS).

I will say though that on stock blower style cooler, it runs extremely hot and gets loud.

Hey mate,

Did you noticed fans issues before water-cooling your Vega FE? Did you implemented power table on air?

Furthermore... Do you plan to buy a Radeon VII, wait for Navi, or stick with your current GPU?
 
Hey mate,

Did you noticed fans issues before water-cooling your Vega FE? Did you implemented power table on air?

Furthermore... Do you plan to buy a Radeon VII, wait for Navi, or stick with your current GPU?

Hey there,

I had tried everything on air to make it silent, everything from repasting (Kryonaut, Noctua, Arctic MX4) to custom power tables, undervolting, etc....it just did not work. Vega is too hot and inneficient, but when you have a good cooler it has a lot of legs.

In terms of the stock cooler, I did not notice any of the "fluctuating" idle fans which many users have reported, it has always worked at normal fan speeds. On idle it was silent, but when you started pushing it, it would reach 95c on the hotspot (which is in the middle of the GPU and HBM2 transposer on the die) quickly and fans would hit 2500-3500RPM.

I think this fan speed issue was for Vega 64/56 users with stock coolers (The aluminium ones).

So I moved to a custom waterblock in a semi-open loop and wanted to keep both the GPU and CPU on separate loops. I just added push fans and ran Prime95/IntelBurnTest and GPU intensive tasks all at the same time for 8+ hours and the GPU hot spot hits around 56-60c max and the CPU hits ~65c max (non overclocked CPU). The fans do not spin up and annoy me and I'm loving it.

I can also add a second Vega FE to the loop if I see a good price since I have a 2nd waterblock.

Regarding Radeon VII, I think that would be a perfect setup for me. Hopefully my waterblock works with it and macOS supports it soon (with how things are with AMD + Apple, it will most likely happen).

I would be happy with a single Radeon VII for years. RTX2080 performance is more than enough for what I do, which is basically a 1080Ti.

Just remember that the Radeon VII is a hot card too, pretty much similar to the previous gen Vega, so even that 3 fan cooler they have on is not going to help alleviate all your concerns.

If you can get an AIO for your X299 CPU, I also suggest a water cooler for your Vega if you are not willing do a full open loop. I would avoid 120MM Rads for the GPU though (I think this is one of the reasons why people with Vega Watercooled stock are having issues since it's such a small radiator and a hot GPU), go with at least 240mm for the GPU (I prefer 280mm for GPU with push/pull so you can run at low RPMs and keep it cool). This also depends if your case has enough room for all these fans. My current Phanteks Evolv X, even though a big case, I ran out of room once I added 360mm top (push/pull) and 280mm front (push/pull)...pretty much only things I can add to it are SSDs, that's all.

Some companies like EKWB and Alphacool make Vega waterblocks with semi-closed loops. I'm pretty sure they will make Radeon VII plates when it becomes popular enough.
 
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Let’s see reviews of VII in the next few days... I think Navi will be less powerful and more cost effective than VII since they say it will feature GDDR6
 
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