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

[tdcam]

I am posting this from my Asus Z690 ProArt Creator with Sonoma 14.3 connected to a 10GbE network.

• Enter sleep -> works
• Wake from sleep -> works

However, I updated the firmware of on-board Aquantia chip several weeks ago. Current firmware is 1.3.33 as shown:
View attachment 577741
Regarding front-panel USB-C, unfortunately this port does not work reliably for me either. I just tried connecting a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 NVMe SSD enclosure, but it wasn't recognized. I connected it instead to one of the Thunderbolt ports on the rear, and it works there.

I run Ethernet too but am on

Firmware Version: 1.3.15 Is there a link somewhere to detail the upgrade ? Thanks so much !

 

[CaseySJ]

I run Ethernet too but am on

Firmware Version: 1.3.15 Is there a link somewhere to detail the upgrade ? Thanks so much !

Please see this post by @m4rk0:

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

Hey @CaseySJ Was thinking the same about Ethernet.... I've checked and I have AppleVTD enabled on BIOS, but my Hackintosh can't detect any of the Ethernet ports. I should mention that if I boot in Windows, they work fine. I'm referring to both Ethernet ports of my Asus Z690 ProArt Creator...

www.tonymacx86.com

And this one describing my attempt:

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

A flashed GC-Titan Ridge should work well on Asus Z690 ProArt with Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma. We should be able to connect both TB 2 and TB 3 devices. i thought you couldn't use a PCIe Thunderbolt card if you have Thunderbolt onboard .. don't you need to connect to a Thunderbolt...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[tdcam]

Please see this post by @m4rk0:

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

Hey @CaseySJ Was thinking the same about Ethernet.... I've checked and I have AppleVTD enabled on BIOS, but my Hackintosh can't detect any of the Ethernet ports. I should mention that if I boot in Windows, they work fine. I'm referring to both Ethernet ports of my Asus Z690 ProArt Creator...

www.tonymacx86.com

And this one describing my attempt:

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

A flashed GC-Titan Ridge should work well on Asus Z690 ProArt with Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma. We should be able to connect both TB 2 and TB 3 devices. i thought you couldn't use a PCIe Thunderbolt card if you have Thunderbolt onboard .. don't you need to connect to a Thunderbolt...

www.tonymacx86.com

thanks!

 

[m4rk0]

I've seen reports that spoofing through a SSDT is slightly better, or more "Mac-like", than through Device Properties but does not a finla answer on that (nothing to spoof in my collection).[..]

Thank you so much for the time you spent writing it. I was a little bit in a rush, so I took SmackAttack's aml file. It works, just a couple of adjustments needed.

[..]I'll post the SSDT for ya, no problem[..]

THANKS!

It would be interesting if we could compare our findings; here are a couple of thoughts based on my experience owning a Sapphire 6900 XT SE (11308-03-20G) and switching to an AMD Reference 6950 XT lately.

• 6900 XT SE without any spoofing + GPU properties commented out: Metal 3 support, GB 6.0.2 ~229k IIRC, 0 RPM mode enabled, fan never/rarely spun, idle @ ~56C
• 6900 XT SE + NootRX: Metal 3 support, GB 6.0.2 ~232k IIRC, fans always spinning (it seems everyone has this behavior when switching to NootRX, maybe it is by kext design), idle @43C IIRC
• 6950 XT SSDT, 6900 XT spoofing: Metal 3 support, GB 6.2.2 ~235k, 0 RPM mode barely working in both macOS/Win (might be due to the fact it is an Amazon Warehouse item? maybe needs thermal pads reapplied? not sure, it would be interesting to know your experience here), idle @56-57C
• 6950 XT + NootRX: Metal 3 support, GB ~245k, fans always spinning (by NootRX design), idle @56-57C

All the testings done using 2xDP feeding a 5k monitor, 1xDP feeding a 4k@60Hz.
Disconnecting both 5k DP feeds would drop idle power consumption of the 6950 XT from 43w to 9-10w IIRC under Windows 11.

All in all, for the time being I'll stick to using NootRX for my 6950 XT.

Would be super cool if you (and someone else?) could write how your Reference 6950 XT behaves sitting idle + how many displays are being connected. I could somehow try to understand whether mine is warming up too much or not.

PS going to attach Z790 Creator SSDT for AMD Reference 6950 XT, shall anyone need it

 

[SmackAttack]

Would be super cool if you (and someone else?) could write how your Reference 6950 XT behaves

Hmm, well, here's what I have between my personal system and some work systems:

1 6900 XT AMD reference on a z690 ProArt, 2xDP running 5k LG UF + 1x HDMI running 4k LG scaled, idles 50-58c
1 6900 XT AMD reference on a z790 ProArt, 2xDP running 2x 4k LG both scaled, idles, 41-48c
1 6950 XT AMD reference spoofed on a z390 Designare, running 1x 4k scaled, 1x HD, idles 40-45c

All three have zero-fan behavior until pushed. All three have NO OC DP definitions. All three report Metal 3 in System Information, but only the 6900s cosmetically report as the cards they are in "About This Mac," the 6950 reports as Navi 21 -- as I mentioned before. I did a bunch of testing to discern if DP definitions (or SSDT definitions) had any effect, and this is what I settled on.

I don't find GB to be a tremendously accurate bench test, in fact, if you monitor GPU usage (through either activity monitor or GPU monitor) you'll see it's hardly hitting the card, PLUS, the results can be wildly variable. That said, the 6900s on the z690/z790 can report 211k to 235k. The 6950 on the z390 can report SLIGHTLY higher, sometimes. Is it the tiny amount of higher clocks? Or are the tiny amount of higher clocks impacted by the GEN 3 bus? Who knows.

Cinebench is a decent GPU bench as it hits the GPU harder, but results vary run-to-run just like GB. I ran v2024 last night for you on all three machines (2x SMBIOS MacPro7,1, 1x iMacPro1,1), and one just prior to updating to Sonoma from Ventura and here are the results:

6900xt #1 on z690 Ventura = 8644
6900xt #1 on z690 Sonoma = 7928
6900xt #2 on z790 Sonoma = 7643 (I imagine having 2x 4k scaled to 2560 is why it's slower)
6950xt on z390 Sonoma = 8304

I use all three machines for video editing purposes, and specifically Resolve, and Resolve can really hit them hard -- so hard, in fact, that all three have been built into cases to specifically help GPU cooling. We can drive the GPUs to as high as 100c territory depending on the rendering. All three crush the typical Resolve benchmarking tests, so much so that we ditched a Cubix expansion chassis with 2x Radeon VIIs + 1 590 internal for GUI in favor of just the one 6950xt.

Hope some of that helps,
J

 

[m4rk0]

1 6950 XT AMD reference spoofed on a z390 Designare, running 1x 4k scaled, 1x HD, idles 40-45c

This line confirms my suspects that, at least, it needs new thermal pads.

Cinebench is a decent GPU bench as it hits the GPU harder, but results vary run-to-run just like GB. I ran v2024 last night for you

Thank you for your dedication

6950xt on z390 Sonoma = 8304

Mhhh this is interesting. The little preview frame is black when running CB R24 on macOS w/ Reference 6950 XT. But it works just fine under Win 11. macOS installation is pretty fresh and clean. Need to dig on the reason why it happens. I will test install macOS on another drive and see what happens.

Hope some of that helps,

Precious insights, thanks.

 

[beconxinh]

** Update on Stability of Asus ROG Strix Z690-i WiFi mini-ITX System **​

Despite increasing the speed of VRM fan, I continued to experience periodic total system crashes in both macOS and Windows. Thinking I may have applied too much thermal paste and the CPU was experiencing periodic heat-related problems, I decided to remove the CPU, replace the thermal paste, and reinstall it.

There was indeed a bit too much paste, but not enough to cause system instability. Nevertheless I applied a thinner amount, which actually led to reduced CPU temps.
...

Hi CaseySJ, Hi everyone,

Thanks a lot for continuing this thread which giving a lot of info to all of us.

After reading this post, I wonder myself, which DDR5 would have no problem with Asus ROG Strix Z690-i Gaming WiFi motherboard? Because I have the same mother board like CaseySJ's build.

As I understand so far from this post, this one G.Skill TridentZ 32GB DDR5-5600 CL40-40-40-76 non-RGB RAM caused the problem and system crashed. Then he installed this one G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 5600 CL36-36-36-76 1.20V Memory into and everything running smoothly now. Am I understanding it correctly? So I need to find the 5600 CL36 DDR5?

Is there any other options from other brand? What's the most important info of DDR5 that it must have to keep it running without any problem? Really appreciate your support here.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi CaseySJ, Hi everyone,

Thanks a lot for continuing this thread which giving a lot of info to all of us.

After reading this post, I wonder myself, which DDR5 would have no problem with Asus ROG Strix Z690-i Gaming WiFi motherboard? Because I have the same mother board like CaseySJ's build.

As I understand so far from this post, this one G.Skill TridentZ 32GB DDR5-5600 CL40-40-40-76 non-RGB RAM caused the problem and system crashed. Then he installed this one G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 5600 CL36-36-36-76 1.20V Memory into and everything running smoothly now. Am I understanding it correctly? So I need to find the 5600 CL36 DDR5?

Is there any other options from other brand? What's the most important info of DDR5 that it must have to keep it running without any problem? Really appreciate your support here.

Hello @beconxinh

Most DIMMs will work. I replaced the DIMMs only because they were defective, not because they were incompatible.

 

[SmackAttack]

setup_var.efi -n CpuSetup 0x44 0x0

@racermaster

Can you explain where you got this from?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hello @Karkh

If you search this thread you'll find a fair amount of discussion on the Asus Z790 ProArt. Bottom line is that the EFI provided here is compatible with that board, but some BIOS parameters may need to be tweaked.