[Advice] Best build for 10/11th Intel gen with IGPU and 2x Display Port

[jamesst20]

Hi,

I was wondering what were the best known working build out of the box that meets those requirements:

Chipset: Z490 or newer
CPU: 10th or 11th Gen i7
Graphics: Intel IGPU. No AMD GPU.
Ports: At least 2 display ports working. 4k hopefully.

Every hackintosh I built in the past I ended up getting an AMD graphics card because the IGPU was a mess. No 4k or only one monitor.
I'm looking for the best hackintosh I could build that meets the above criterias with an IGPU.

Reason: GPUs are costly and also very hard to buy right now.

Thank you
James

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi,

I was wondering what were the best known working build out of the box that meets those requirements:

Chipset: Z490 or newer
CPU: 10th or 11th Gen i7
Graphics: Intel IGPU. No AMD GPU.
Ports: At least 2 display ports working. 4k hopefully.

Every hackintosh I built in the past I ended up getting an AMD graphics card because the IGPU was a mess. No 4k or only one monitor.
I'm looking for the best hackintosh I could build that meets the above criterias with an IGPU.

Reason: GPUs are costly and also very hard to buy right now.

Thank you
James

The integrated graphics of 11th generation CPUs that are supposedly to be released soon probably won't work with MacOS as no Macs use them, and with the transition to Apple Silicon there probably won't be new Intel Macs that will use them. So I think you can forget about them.

And you want 2 DisplayPort ports on the motherboard? I don't think I have ever seen such a board. However, boards like the Gigabyte Z490 Vision D and the upcoming Z590 Vision D have 2 USB-C (Thundebolt 3/4) ports at the back which supposedly support DisplayPort 1.4 signals, which you should be able to use (via an USB-C to DP adapter) to act as 2 DisplayPort ports.

Z490 VISION D (rev. 1.x) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

Z590 VISION D (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

A dedicated graphics card should be best if you want to have 2 DisplayPort ports, but as we all know it is nearly impossible to get one due to lack of stock and high prices caused by the cryptocurrency boom.

 

[trs96]

At least 2 display ports working. 4k hopefully.

The only PCs that ever have two full size DP outputs are primarily Dell and HP business desktops. Never seen one by Gigabyte or Asus that has dual DP outputs. Here's one example from HP:

 

[jamesst20]

nd you want 2 DisplayPort ports on the motherboard? I don't think I have ever seen such a board. However, boards like the Gigabyte Z490 Vision D and the upcoming Z590 Vision D have 2 USB-C (Thundebolt 3/4) ports at the back which supposedly support DisplayPort 1.4 signals, which you should be able to use (via an USB-C to DP adapter) to act as 2 DisplayPort ports.

Thanks for the quick reply. You are indeed right ! I hadn't though about the fact there were not so much DP motherboards. Maybe 2xHDMI 2.0 ports would do it fine then.

Are there any known natively working board with 2xHDMI 2.0 working on 4K with IGPU?

Also, I am now wondering, are Thunderbolt 3 ports natively working? Do they count as USB ports in USB Port Limit patch? Do you know if a Thunderbolt->Dual-DP Adapter would work in this specific case? If so, is the bios able to display on a Thunderbolt monitor ?

I am sorry, this is so many questions.

Thanks

The only PCs that ever have two full size DP outputs are primarily Dell and HP business desktops. Never seen one by Gigabyte or Asus that has dual DP outputs. Here's one example from HP:

View attachment 510499

View attachment 510500

I must admit I was more looking for a custom built but this is interesting. Are both ports working natively?

 

[trs96]

I must admit I was more looking for a custom built but this is interesting. Are both ports working natively?

There is a User Build dedicated to these HP mini desktops. Have a look at that. These use UHD630 graphics.
Ask deeveedee whether people in that thread have dual 4K monitors working.

What is working

• Sleep / Wake
• Multiple displays with IGPU graphics acceleration, hot pluggable display ports and DP->DVI adapters
• USB 3.1 ports
• Audio (internal speaker and headphone jack)
• Ethernet

[GUIDE] Catalina on HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini - The Perfect MacMini8,1 Hackintosh - CLOVER & OC

*********************************************************************************** *** Click here for the thread dedicated to Big Sur installation on the HP EliteDesk 800 G4 / G5 Mini *** ***********************************************************************************...

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Big Sur on HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini - The Perfect MacMini8,1 Hackintosh - OpenCore

This thread is dedicated to installing / running Big Sur on the HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini PC. This thread is derived from the original Catalina Guide and will gradually replace the Catalina guide. A thread dedicated to Monterey on this HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini has been created here by...

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[etorix]

My C246-WU4 has two DisplayPorts. Out of curiosity, I removed the GPU and gave a try at having two DP monitors from the iGPU. It works, with a caveat. If the two displays are plugged at boot, they work as duplicates. If only one is present during boot and the second is plugged afterwards, OS X (Mojave in this case) correctly identifies and sets up the two different displays (a 4k 32" Dell and a much smaller 19" NEC) as expected. This may be a BIOS initialisation issue, and I suspect that the default framebuffer is a bit too small for two displays so some work would be required to optimise the setup.
But, at least, I can confirm that what you want to do is possible with a 9th gen. CPU.

Based on Dortania's guide, HDMI outputs are known to be problematic, so it's probably safer to stay with DP.

If you go for the Thunderbolt route, the 15-port limit applies per USB controller. The Thunderbolt controller is also a USB controller; its ports will not count against the ports controlled by the chipset (or any additional ASM controller that could be present on the board). Monitors would then best be plugged as USB-C, if available. Video signal still comes from the iGPU and must be passed to Thunderbolt with pass-through cables, which means that is no issue with displaying the BIOS, but you would still need a board with two DP outputs, to be passed to two (usually mini-DP) video inputs for the Thunderbolt controller.

 

[etorix]

And you want 2 DisplayPort ports on the motherboard? I don't think I have ever seen such a board.

There are three such consumer-level boards with two DisplayPort in the current generation (all are microATX, which is getting more and more rare overall):
https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1200&xf=17319_2
They are twelve boards in the previous generation, of which two variants are ATX and the rest is microATX:
https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbp4_1151v2&xf=17319_2
But the feature is slightly more common among Xeon boards (twelve over the last three generations if one removes the duplicate bulk+retail entries, but then over a total of about 120 products instead of about 200 for each of the above two non-Xeon searches):
https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbxeon&xf=17319_2
Again, all but two are microATX so these boards appear to be built for a very specific market.

 

[trs96]

Looks like Amazon.com carries this Asus dual DP output board, but with a green PCB. If you can get past the effect on your color scheme it looks like a good option.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CH5VKDJ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

[success] Catalina ASUS PRIME B360M-C

Motherboard: Asus B360M-C, rev. 1.01, bios 1404 CPU: i3-8100 with integrated UHD 630 graphics RAM: 8GB SSD: 120GB Monitor: Dell 2415Q 4K 3840x2160 Audio: USB SoundCard so I did not bother about HDA sound. Changes in the BIOS: disable VT-d, enable XHCI-Handoff, DVMT (memory set aside for...

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[jamesst20]

@etorix @trs96

I would like to thank you both for the very detailed informations, I did learn a lot from it. I wasn't even aware of the existence of the concept of 'GPU passthrough to Thunderbolt 3' and the need that physical ports have to be present. I used to think that if DisplayPort output works with a real macbook pro, then it should be the same with a thunderbolt motherboard.

It looks indeed that there is only 2 boards of the current generation (ASUS B460M-C or Q470-C) with 2 display ports. I'm really considering them, altough it looks like I will be the first trying them out for hackintosh.

I tried to search motherboards with with 1xDP & 1xHDMI 2.0 and I ended up on this board which looks promising : https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z490-i-gaming-model/ It is a known working board for hackintosh, however I couldn't find anyone using IGPU. Is there a way to know if I could have 2x4k@60hz monitors before buying it ?

It also looks like HDMI 2.0 will be more widely present for the Z590 chipset. Looks like most boards has it however it will run as 1.4 if I have a 10th CPU gen and 2.0 with 11th gen

 

[etorix]

There's no obvious reason why the B460 or Q470 boards you're considering would not work and you should not worry being the first, especially if you've already built hackintoshes. (Q chipset is Z with Intel vPro for centralised IT management and minus overclocking features.) But I'm afraid you'll have to pay to see if 2x4k@60Hz from the iGPU works, and how. Users with such displays most likely use a dGPU anyway.

From my (admittedly quick) attempts, I strongly suggest that you first hack the board with a single display and only try to add the second once your hack is stable.

There will likely never be a real Mac with a 500 chipset and/or a 11th gen CPU. Looking for Z590 is asking for extra trouble with unsupported features. To expand the possibilities, you should rather consider the 300 series chipsets and 9th gen. CPUs: There's very little improvement from the 9th to the 10th generation, and the possibility to have ten cores comes at the cost of a monstrous increase in thermal power.
In less than twelve months Alder Lake will launch on socket 1700 and Z490/Z590 will be just as obsolete as Z390 is now.