Asus Z690 ProArt Creator WiFi (Thunderbolt 4) + i7-12700K + AMD RX 6800 XT

[etorix]

The first bullet seems full of caveats: Bandwidth Boost provides up to 3 times the throughput for video-intensive usage, up to 120 Gbps. Not sure what this means. It may just be referring to the DisplayPort pins.

Thunderbolt 3/4 is always symmetrical at 40 Gb/s each way. TB 5 will be 80 Gb/s each way, but with an alternative asymmetrical mode at 120 Gb/s one way and 40 Gb/s the other way.

USB4 V2. First time I've seen this nomenclature.

Yes, that's the announced nomenclature for USB at 80 Gb/s… After the "USB 3.X Gen Y ZxW" naming chaos and a first attempt at streamlining with "USB4" with no qualifier, no"generation", no lane number and even no space , the USB defining body could not resist a backlash on its own backlash and went back to its old habit of creeping, confusing nomenclature with a "V2".

Makes sense if it's the same connector with the same number of input and output pins, but rated for higher bandwidth.

At that rate, we could as well have "USB 3.4 Gen 5"…

edit. Ninja'd by @dehjomz

 

[ummario]

Hi @CaseySJ hope you are ok!

Now that Sonoma is GM wondering if we can safelly update. Any special reccomendation, before we proceed? Are you planning to update instructions for the Sonoma update or clean install?

Thank you!

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi @CaseySJ hope you are ok!

Now that Sonoma is GM wondering if we can safelly update. Any special reccomendation, before we proceed? Are you planning to update instructions for the Sonoma update or clean install?

Thank you!

We’ve been running Sonoma public betas since the beginning. Broadcom WiFi will no longer work, but we can use Intel WiFi with the latest preview build of AirportItlwm. Other than that, the upgrade to Sonoma is quite straightforward.

I can create a mini-guide soon.

 

[dehjomz]

One thing that's not clear is, PCIe4x4 = 64 Gbps sec ... less than 80 Gbps. So TB5 80 Gbps mode will have more bandwidth available than the underlying PCIe 4x4 interface. At these speeds, NVME storage will top out at roughly 8000 MB/sec, while PCIe5 storage is emerging on the market place.

However, in my view, 8000 MB/sec is still extremely fast and will likely be so for a long time to come. 32 Gbps is still quite capable as well in 2023 as well. Even 1000 MB/sec is good enough to run an operating system. The key metrics are random read/write performance, as well as sustained write performance after the cache/buffer runs out, as well as endurance in TBW. Peak transfer speeds don't tell the whole story.

 

[etorix]

One thing that's not clear is, PCIe4x4 = 64 Gbps sec ... less than 80 Gbps. So TB5 80 Gbps mode will have more bandwidth available than the underlying PCIe 4x4 interface.

Same for 40 Gb/s TB 3 and 4: PCIe3x4 = 32 Gb/s. Beside encapsulation overhead, the difference is useful to let other data streams keep passing at the same time.
Thunderbolt is not 4 lines of PCIe in another package; rather Thunderbolt is an interface which can encapsulate PCIe lines, among other things (USB, DisplayPort).

 

[dehjomz]

Same for 40 Gb/s TB 3 and 4: PCIe3x4 = 32 Gb/s. Beside encapsulation overhead, the difference is useful to let other data streams keep passing at the same time.
Thunderbolt is not 4 lines of PCIe in another package; rather Thunderbolt is an interface which can encapsulate PCIe lines, among other things (USB, DisplayPort).

I understand that, but for a peripheral device such as NVMe storage, there’s no need to encapsulate/tunnel other protocols like USB or DisplayPort or Ethernet. Just raw performance. It’s just an interesting observation that the wire’s data rate will be much faster than the tunneled PCIe activity… 16 Gbps of unused bandwidth.

Nonetheless here’s a video from Intel demoing thunderbolt 5.

They’re using a dock with embedded NVMe storage, reading at up to 6200 MB/sec. This is more than double what we get now from Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosures. Impressive.

 

[etorix]

Thunderbolt devices can be daisy chained. So, in Intel world, your Thunderbolt laptop could be connected to external NVMe storage AND connected to LAN AND connected to a 6K external display all at the same time with all streams passing through a single cable, alongside charging power.

 

[dehjomz]

Thunderbolt devices can be daisy chained. So, in Intel world, your Thunderbolt laptop could be connected to external NVMe storage AND connected to LAN AND connected to a 6K external display all at the same time with all streams passing through a single cable, alongside charging power.

Yep. I have a tb4 dock and hub hanging off of one thunderbolt 4 port on my Mac. The hub is daisy chained to the dock. Together, they provide power delivery, DisplayPort output to a high refresh rate monitor, a plethora of usb connectivity (at least 10 usb devices) and 4 downstream tb4 ports, all populated with connected nvme storage and 10gbe Ethernet (I’m using marvel’s aqc113cs pcie card connected via a thunderbolt solution I cooked up by repurposing an unused tb3 nvme enclosure and a m.2 to pcie adapter…placed inside an acrylic enclosure I built).

When thunderbolt works the way it is supposed to work it is indeed mighty impressive that one cable can support so many simultaneous connections/devices.

 

[CaseySJ]

** macOS Sonoma Installation Mini-Guide **
Please do not quote this post in its entirety; post a link or excerpt instead​

Introduction:
Fortunately, macOS Sonoma (kernel version 23.x.x) is fairly straightforward to install. But regrettably, the Broadcom WiFi modules we use are no longer supported. Broadcom Bluetooth is still supported, but we need to use Intel WiFi or USB WiFi.

In this guide I will discuss only the Intel WiFi option. Instructions for USB WiFi can be found by searching the web for Chris1111.

If you have replaced the on-board Intel M.2 module with a Broadcom BCM94360NG, then your options are:

1. Reinstall the Intel M.2 module
2. Use USB WiFi
3. Purchase and install an Intel-based PCIe add-in-card

Sonoma 14.4 and Newer:

• Change SecureBootModel in Misc -> Security section of config.plist to DISABLED before installing any 14.4 or newer macOS updates
• SecureBootModel can be changed back to Default when macOS installation is completed, but must be switched off again before installing the next update

AMD Ryzen Users:
Download and install the latest AMD-OSX kernel patches from here (click the green Code button and download the ZIP). Follow the instructions to modify the first 4 kernel patches with the number of physical CPU cores on your processor. Then proceed with the steps below.

​

Enabling Intel WiFi:
Only Handoff and Continuity Clipboard will work; all other Continuity features are unsupported

If your motherboard has an Intel WiFi module, it is relatively easy to activate it as follows:

• If using Gigabyte Z390 Designare, disable SSDT-DESIGNARE-Z390-NO-CNVW.aml as shown:

• Choose the correct version of AirportItlwmas shown in two screenshots below:
  • For Sonoma 14.0 through 14.3 select AirportItlwm-Sonoma14.0-v2.3.0-DEBUG-alpha-...
  • For Sonoma 14.4 and newer select AirportItlwm-Sonoma14.4-v2.3.0-DEBUG-alpha-...

• Rename the kext to AirportItlwm-Sonoma.kext, copy it to EFI/OC/Kext, and add it to config.plist as shown:
  • BundlePath: AirportItlwm-Sonoma.kext
  • ExecutablePath: Contents/MacOS/AirportItlwm
  • PlistPath: Contents/Info.plist
  • MinKernel: 23.0.0
  • MaxKernel: 23.99.99
  • Enabled: True

Enabling Intel Bluetooth:

• If you wish to disable Broadcom Bluetooth and use Intel Bluetooth, do the following:
  • Use a USB port map SSDT that enables HS14 or whatever USB port that Intel Bluetooth is on
  • Either disable the USB port that Broadcom Bluetooth is on, or disconnect the Broadcom Bluetooth USB cable
  • Then add these kexts for Intel Bluetooth:
    1. BlueToolFixup.kext
    2. IntelBTPatcher.kext
    3. IntelBluetoothFirmware.kext
  • The first kext (BlueToolFixup) is available from BrcmPatchRAM package
  • The last two kexts are available from IntelBluetooth package
  • Copy all 3 files to EFI/OC/Kexts and add them to config.plist as shown:

Intel i225-V or i226-V Motherboards (if AppleVTD is not enabled or available):

• If your motherboard has one of these 2.5GbE ports, follow this procedure to install AppleIGC.kext.

Updating OpenCore:

• Update to latest version of OpenCore. We can use @Inqnuam's HackinDROM App to upgrade from OC 0.6.6 or newer to latest OpenCore version
• Instructions for using HackinDROM to update OpenCore are located here

Make a Full Bootable Backup:

• This must not be avoided!
• If you fail to make a full bootable backup and the upgrade to Sonoma fails badly, it's very likely that we won't be able to assist -- you will be on your own, so make a full bootable backup
• The procedure for this is located here (using Carbon Copy Cloner)

Now you should be able to perform either an in-place upgrade or a fresh installation of Sonoma. Good luck!

 

[CaseySJ]

The above guide can also be referenced from Post 1: