Do Intel 'F' CPUs work in macOS?

[colinzeal]

Hi All

I currently have an Ivybridge build. Have been very happy with it, have 100% functionality, but now looking to upgrade with the rumours that the late 2012 iMac will not be supported in 10.15 which happens to be similar to my build.

Current essential Specs:

Gigabyte Motherboard - GA-B75M-D3P​

Intel 3770​

8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengance RAM​

Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB itx versions​

​

​

Having searched around, I'm intrigued by 'Motherboard Bundles' and I'm very interested in the below I found at Palicomp.

I was looking at going with the following:

ASUS PRIME H310M-A - USB3.1 Gen2, USB3.0, SATA6 + M.2​

Intel Core i5 9400F - 6 Cores - 6 Threads @ 2.9Ghz/4.1Ghz + 9MB CACHE​

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz​

AMD RX 580 8GB PCI-E 3.0 DX12​

​

I'm interested in the 9400F because of it's price and performance. Looking at Intel Core i5-9400F @ 2.90GHz Benchmark, it looks pretty impressive for it's price BUT, I haven't seen anyone using a 'F' processor for macOS.

Does anyone use one or has tried using one? I'd love to know what people think generally.

Thanks

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[scottkendall]

Hi All

I currently have an Ivybridge build. Have been very happy with it, have 100% functionality, but now looking to upgrade with the rumours that the late 2012 iMac will not be supported in 10.15 which happens to be similar to my build.

Current essential Specs:

Gigabyte Motherboard - GA-B75M-D3P​

Intel 3770​

8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengance RAM​

Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB itx versions​

​

​

Having searched around, I'm intrigued by 'Motherboard Bundles' and I'm very interested in the below I found at Palicomp.

I was looking at going with the following:

ASUS PRIME H310M-A - USB3.1 Gen2, USB3.0, SATA6 + M.2​

Intel Core i5 9400F - 6 Cores - 6 Threads @ 2.9Ghz/4.1Ghz + 9MB CACHE​

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz​

AMD RX 580 8GB PCI-E 3.0 DX12​

​

I'm interested in the 9400F because of it's price and performance. Looking at Intel Core i5-9400F @ 2.90GHz Benchmark, it looks pretty impressive for it's price BUT, I haven't seen anyone using a 'F' processor for macOS.

Does anyone use one or has tried using one? I'd love to know what people think generally.

Thanks

​

The only thing I could find that might cause issues is:

"This is model is identical to the i5-9400 except it comes without integrated graphics"

Most real Macs these days have the integrated graphics even though they are configured headless it is used as a co GPU. You might have issues with encoding/decoding H.24/H.25, FXCP

You might consider an I5 8400 since it is about the same in cost @ $199 with same speed/boost and core/thread count

 

[colinzeal]

Spot on.

I get what you’re saying. But I was hoping using an RX580 for example would get around this issue.

I’m currently using a 1060 and stuck on High Sierra.

I was hoping to squeeze a little extra performance for sacrificing on-board graphics.

Anyone else have experience with a ‘F’ intel chip?

 

[scottkendall]

Spot on.

I get what you’re saying. But I was hoping using an RX580 for example would get around this issue.

I’m currently using a 1060 and stuck on High Sierra.

I was hoping to squeeze a little extra performance for sacrificing on-board graphics.

Anyone else have experience with a ‘F’ intel chip?

How would you get more performance out of the chip with the same spec, sans the Igpu? As far as I can tell the I5 9400F is just a rebranded I5 8400 without the IGPU. And since the price is the same losing the Igpu seems to me like you are getting less for your money. Unless I am totally missing something about the F chip that makes it faster.

 

[colinzeal]

How would you get more performance out of the chip with the same spec, sans the Igpu? As far as I can tell the I5 9400F is just a rebranded I5 8400 without the IGPU. And since the price is the same losing the Igpu seems to me like you are getting less for your money. Unless I am totally missing something about the F chip that makes it faster.

Well in the UK, it’s more expensive and had a better benchmark! (I know, I know)

 

[scottkendall]

Well in the UK, it’s more expensive and had a better benchmark! (I know, I know)

Looks cheaper

Intel Core i5 8400 - 6 Cores - 6 Threads @ 2.8Ghz/4Ghz + 9MB CACHE

www.palicomp.co.uk

I never pay much mind to bench marks, my bench mark is if something works faster then it did before =) but I can not imagine .1ghz is really going to give you much you know.

 

[colinzeal]

So does anyone know if they’ll work?

 

[scottkendall]

Like I said in the first post it will work. However, without the IGPU you will experience issues with hardware acceleration with h.24/h.25, and FXCP unless you use a Vega card and even then You may also experience system stability issues because of the aforementioned issues. Since it is coffee lake it should boot and run the OS it might even be totally stable but the hardware acceleration is the issue.. I do not think anyone on this forum uses an F processor. You might look under graphics and make a post about getting hardware acceleration with a RX580 without IGPU! Maybe there is already a post that address that.

 

[Jamesbond007]

So does anyone know if they’ll work?

I want to add that the 9400F requires BIOS support on the motherboard to work. You have to be sure that the motherboard that you want to get is updated to a BIOS version that can support the 9400F, otherwise the CPU won't be recognized. In such a case you will need an older 8th generation CPU to activate the motherboard and update the BIOS before you can use the 9400F.

 

[e-troc]

Don't do it, if you want to use an iMac SMBIOS you will need internal graphics configured in headless mode even for mundane things like Finder preview of JPEGs.