Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming build with working NVRAM

[SmackAttack]

@SmackAttack -- I think that explains it! The RadeonBoost kext only works in Catalina. After I moved to Big Sur, I "solved" the problem by getting a 6900XT . The rumor was that the kext or SSDT would only boost the Geekbench scores anyway. For real world use, I don't think they improved performance by two-fold or so.

I seem to remember a guy going off on how "this" version of RB is crap... I wonder if HIS version would work on Big Sur... Oh well, for another time. Thanks for the great insight!

 

[tedyun]

I seem to remember a guy going off on how "this" version of RB is crap... I wonder if HIS version would work on Big Sur... Oh well, for another time. Thanks for the great insight!

That would be mattystonnie and the AMD Radeon Performance Enhanced SSDT. It doesn't. I was using that SSDT then tried to switch to the kext because the SSDT didn't work in Big Sur.

It's something about how these hacks operate. They apparently tell the OS which framebuffer to use, and that the MacOS doesn't select the correct one. The MacOS uses a more generic profile or something like that. Anyway, with the move to Navi then Big Navi, there is little hope that Apple will fix this for the Vega. My personal conspiracy theory is that they wanted to throttle these GPUs in order to limit their power draw when using them in the iMacs.

 

[SmackAttack]

That would be mattystonnie and the AMD Radeon Performance Enhanced SSDT. It doesn't. I was using that SSDT then tried to switch to the kext because the SSDT didn't work in Big Sur.

It's something about how these hacks operate. They apparently tell the OS which framebuffer to use, and that the MacOS doesn't select the correct one. The MacOS uses a more generic profile or something like that. Anyway, with the move to Navi then Big Navi, there is little hope that Apple will fix this for the Vega. My personal conspiracy theory is that they wanted to throttle these GPUs in order to limit their power draw when using them in the iMacs.

I'm all for that kind of conspiracy theory.
I shudder to think what you paid for your 6xxx AMD card! If the market doesn't return (which I don't think it will even 75% anytime soon) I'll have to ride my current GPUs and hackintoshes into the sunset until it's time to buy an actual Mac. eee-Gawds.

 

[tedyun]

I'm all for that kind of conspiracy theory.
I shudder to think what you paid for your 6xxx AMD card! If the market doesn't return (which I don't think it will even 75% anytime soon) I'll have to ride my current GPUs and hackintoshes into the sunset until it's time to buy an actual Mac. eee-Gawds.

Yah, prices have come down too. I originally got the Vega 56 which was a generation behind the Navi's because I heard that the Big Navi's were coming out. When they did, they were too hard to find, so I waited almost another year.

But my system with the 6900 is pretty cool. I'm starting to install all my games on my Windows boot, and I'm pretty amazed. I can see why all those consoles are a big hit.

With the market, do you mean the stock market? I do quite a bit of investing myself. Don't worry, stocks always crash. But they eventually come back. I'm a pretty LTBHer myself, so I've seen many of these cycles, through the dot.com, the housing crash then the CoronApocalypse.

The one stock that taught me the value of LTBH is actually Apple. I bought it way back when, in 2004 or something -- but then sold out way too soon after I made a whopping 40% gain. I missed out on the remarkable run up to a $3T company. That was definitely my fish that got away and one that taught me the value of buying and holding in companies you believe in, no matter how bad the market crashes.

 

[SmackAttack]

Yah, prices have come down too. I originally got the Vega 56 which was a generation behind the Navi's because I heard that the Big Navi's were coming out. When they did, they were too hard to find, so I waited almost another year.

But my system with the 6900 is pretty cool. I'm starting to install all my games on my Windows boot, and I'm pretty amazed. I can see why all those consoles are a big hit.

With the market, do you mean the stock market? I do quite a bit of investing myself. Don't worry, stocks always crash. But they eventually come back. I'm a pretty LTBHer myself, so I've seen many of these cycles, through the dot.com, the housing crash then the CoronApocalypse.

The one stock that taught me the value of LTBH is actually Apple. I bought it way back when, in 2004 or something -- but then sold out way too soon after I made a whopping 40% gain. I missed out on the remarkable run up to a $3T company. That was definitely my fish that got away and one that taught me the value of buying and holding in companies you believe in, no matter how bad the market crashes.

Yeah, I just meant the GPU/chip market. My company's two Radeon VIIs we bought for $600 new back in the day, now they're $2k used. My home card in my 390m is just a lowly MSI Armour 8GB rx570, which is why I brought home one of the RVIIs for a Resolve project. I just can't justify a $2k 6900XT (or even a $1.5k 6800XT) when I know what the "suggested retail price" is/was. I'll spend $2k on a tricked out Mac mini M1+ (once they come out with it) b4 I do that.
Your Apple stock story is heartbreaking, where's Lt. Dan when you need him? {Forest Gump Reference}

 

[pastrychef]

Yah, prices have come down too. I originally got the Vega 56 which was a generation behind the Navi's because I heard that the Big Navi's were coming out. When they did, they were too hard to find, so I waited almost another year.

But my system with the 6900 is pretty cool. I'm starting to install all my games on my Windows boot, and I'm pretty amazed. I can see why all those consoles are a big hit.

With the market, do you mean the stock market? I do quite a bit of investing myself. Don't worry, stocks always crash. But they eventually come back. I'm a pretty LTBHer myself, so I've seen many of these cycles, through the dot.com, the housing crash then the CoronApocalypse.

The one stock that taught me the value of LTBH is actually Apple. I bought it way back when, in 2004 or something -- but then sold out way too soon after I made a whopping 40% gain. I missed out on the remarkable run up to a $3T company. That was definitely my fish that got away and one that taught me the value of buying and holding in companies you believe in, no matter how bad the market crashes.

Yeah, I just meant the GPU/chip market. My company's two Radeon VIIs we bought for $600 new back in the day, now they're $2k used. My home card in my 390m is just a lowly MSI Armour 8GB rx570, which is why I brought home one of the RVIIs for a Resolve project. I just can't justify a $2k 6900XT (or even a $1.5k 6800XT) when I know what the "suggested retail price" is/was. I'll spend $2k on a tricked out Mac mini M1+ (once they come out with it) b4 I do that.
Your Apple stock story is heartbreaking, where's Lt. Dan when you need him? {Forest Gump Reference}

The Vega cards can be pretty decent performers but they are soooo inefficient. My Vega 56 is flashed with Vega 64 firmware and I sometimes have it overclocked. This results in good enough performance for my needs but it sucks down a heckuva lot of power. I'd love to get a Big Navi card but, like SmackAttack, I am not willing to pay the current prices. (Btw, I sold my old Radeon VII and netted approx $1800 for it.)

Over the years, I've ended up making more from MSFT than AAPL.

 

[SmackAttack]

My Vega 56 is flashed with Vega 64

I didn't know you could do that... Can I flash my Vega 64 to a RVII?

 

[pastrychef]

I didn't know you could do that... Can I flash my Vega 64 to a RVII?

Lol. Vega 56s with Samsung HBM can be flashed with Vega 64 firmware. This allows the GPU and HBM run to at Vega 64 speeds and/or overclocked. I did this to a PowerColor Vega 56 Red Dragon which has three fans and I used liquid metal for the cooler so my card can be clocked quite high.

 

[pastrychef]

OpenCore EFI updated to version 0.7.7.

All kexts updated to latest release versions except for AppleALC. The latest version broke audio for me.

 

[Collembola]

OpenCore EFI updated to version 0.7.7.

All kexts updated to latest release versions except for AppleALC. The latest version broke audio for me.

The new AppleALC looks ok to me.

There are some differences in config.plist:

UEFI>>AppleInput
(added PointerPollMin, PointerPollMax, PointerPollMask)

and

UEFI>>Audio
(AudioOut replaced by AudioOutMask, added DisconnectHda, MaximumGain, MinimumAssistGain, MinimumAudibleGain, removed MinimumVolume and VolumeAmplifier).

Do you know if these need particular set?


I saw this on another page:

config.plist

Kernel >> Quirks >> ProvideCurrentCpuInfo (boolean, failsafe value is false) now works differently depending on the CPU.

• For Microsoft Hyper-V it provides correct TSC and FSB values to the kernel
• For Intel CPUs it adds support for asymmetrical SMP systems (e.g. Alder Lake).

NVRAM >> Add >> 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82 >> added SystemAudioVolumeDB (Data): current system audio volume level in decibels (dB). The value is a signed byte representing the audio offset (gain if positive, attenuation if negative) in dB relative to the amplifier reference value of 0 dB that depends on the codec but it's usually near the maximum available amplifier volume. Typical values go from -60 to 0. Failsafe: E2 hexadecimal (this represents -30 in a signed byte).

UEFI >> AppleInput >> added 3 new properties:

• PointerPollMin (number): minimal pointer polling period in ms. Failsafe: 0. Current OC implementation defaults to 10 ms. Setting 0 leaves this default unchanged. OEM Apple implementation uses a polling rate of 2 ms. Failsafe: 0.
• PointerPollMax (number): maximum pointer polling period in ms. The period is increased up to this value as long as the devices do not respond in time. The current implementation defaults to 80 ms. Setting 0 leaves this default unchanged. OEM Apple implementation uses a polling rate of 2 ms. Failsafe: 0.
• PointerPollMask (number): configure indices of polled pointers, selects pointer devices to poll for AppleEvent motion events. -1 implies all devices. Failsafe: -1.

UEFI >> Audio:

Unless documented otherwise (e.g. ResetTrafficClass) settings in this section are for UEFI audio support only (e.g. OpenCore generated boot chime and audio assist) and are unrelated to any configuration needed for OS audio support (e.g. AppleALC).

• AudioOut replaced by AudioOutMask (number): to play sound in UEFI to more than one channel (e.g. main speaker plus bass speaker). Failsafe value is -1 (output to all). Output channels are internally numbered as bit 0 (value 1), bit 1 (value 2) and so on. A value of 1 refers to the first audio output (not necessarily main speaker). A value of -1 is used to play to all channels simultaneously. When AudioSupport is enabled, AudioDevice must be either empty or a valid path and AudioOutMask must be non-zero.
• added DisconnectHda (boolean): Disconnect HDA controller before loading drivers to allow UEFI sound on Apple hardware. Failsafe: false.
• added MaximumGain (number): maximum gain to use for UEFI audio, specified in decibels (dB) with respect to amplifier reference level of 0 dB. Failsafe: -15.
• added MinimumAssistGain (number): minimum gain in decibels (dB) to use for picker audio assist. The screen reader will use this amplifier gain if the system amplifier gain read from the SystemAudioVolumeDB NVRAM variable is lower than this. Failsafe: -30.
• added MinimumAudibleGain (number): minimum gain in decibels (dB) at which to attempt to play any sound. Failsafe: -128. Sample.plist file has -55
• removed MinimumVolume (number) and VolumeAmplifier (number).