Gigabyte Z490 Vision D (Thunderbolt 3) + i5-10400 + AMD RX 580

[CaseySJ]

This right here seems to be perhaps the leading edge of Gigabyte / Thunderbolt hackintoshing?

May I ask if anyone understands why the people at OpenCore don't like Gigabyte motherboards when from my original build here in 2013, Gigabyte has seemed to be, if anything, the preferred route?

Or am I misinterpreting what I have read?

Some of those views might have been expressed years ago and may not reflect current thinking. Gigabyte removed CFG-LOCK from many of their recent motherboards, but this is not a big deal any more because of CFGLock.efi. On Designare Z390, the beta firmware F9g finally exposes CFG-Lock, so perhaps this is a sign of things to come...

 

[CaseySJ]

Yes I used a pi 4b. I will try the DROM procedure later. But is the reported speed change after applying the DROM just cosmetic? In other words, even if System Profiler reports 40 gbps per port, isn’t it lying, and the real speed of the card is 20 gbps per port?

Under PCI devices, system profiler reports the thunderbolt controller as x4, taking up 4 PCIe 3.0 lanes. According to Wikipedia, PCIe 3.0 x4 = 3938.5 MB/s. Doing the math, this is 31.508 Gbps for the entire card. So how can it offer 40 gbps per port or 80 gbps or bandwidth?? What am I missing?

The DROM Micro-Guide provides a new SSDT. The ThunderboltConfig LinkDetails parameter in conjunction with ThunderboltDROM will set both ports to 40 Gbps. The port speed is theoretical maximum. In fact, it's even more convoluted than that, and requires us to differentiate between Gbps and GT/s. Google has several good explanations of the difference.

 

[dehjomz]

The DROM Micro-Guide provides a new SSDT. The ThunderboltConfig parameter in conjunction with ThunderboltDROM will set both ports to 40 Gbps. The port speed is theoretical maximum. In fact, it's even more convoluted than that, and requires us to differentiate between Gbps and GT/s. Google has several good explanations of the difference.

Thanks. I will try this later. hopefully usb4 is much simpler than all this. I wanted to wait for usb4 to come on Intel, but I jumped in on tb3.

So just to be clear, your DROM procedure lists a new SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-PORT7-VISION-D.aml.

Questions:
1) this file is added to the Rest of the files in our existing ACPI directory, or is it intended to replace the tb3-hotplug aml?

2)Does the “ThunderboltDROM” code with the modified bytes and checksum go into SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-PORT7-VISION-D.aml?? I’m not on Mac now so I can’t examine the code of the AML binary to see where it fits.

3) Finally, what happens if the DROM code is run on a card with stock gigabyte firmware? Any damage?

Perhaps update your guide to specify that DROM is needed to enable the 40 gbps. The guide speaks to more compatibility, as in “optional” but it seems that the DROM step is fundamental. If I had known that I would’ve done it. (I was under the impression that the system would work fine (At 40 gbps) without DROM, given that thunderbolt works just fine on both ports with the stock firmware and no DROM).

Anyways thank you so much for your contributions. It is because of your guide I chose to get the vision d. Just let me know please about where to put the thunderboltdrom code.

Thanks!

 

[LaurentMaldo]

Hi guys.
Thanks to the guide my system seems to work perfectly.
There's a weird thing though. When I boot up, In "About my Mac", I can't see my Startup Disk. What I mean is that the "Startup Disk" line doesn't even exist.
I have Processor, Memory... and then Graphics. So weird. I can close and open the window several times, and it doesn't change anything, the line is still missing.
But I noticed that "after a while", if I reopen "about my Mac", I eventually have Processor, Memory, Startup Disk, and Graphics...
Did any of you ever face anything similar?

Hey guys
I have made a few more tests, and now I know WHEN "Startup disk" appears.
No matter what I do, the line does not appear UNTIL I mount the EFI partition. When I do, I eventually have "Startup Disk" in about my Mac.
So weird.

Updated the BIOS to F5A, didn't change anything
Any idea?

 

[CaseySJ]

Thanks. I will try this later. hopefully usb4 is much simpler than all this. I wanted to wait for usb4 to come on Intel, but I jumped in on tb3.

So just to be clear, your DROM procedure lists a new SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-PORT7-VISION-D.aml.

Questions:
1) this file is added to the Rest of the files in our existing ACPI directory, or is it intended to replace the tb3-hotplug aml?

It is a replacement. We can simply disable the existing one from the OpenCore config.plist and add the new one.

2)Does the “ThunderboltDROM” code with the modified bytes and checksum go into SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-PORT7-VISION-D.aml?? I’m not on Mac now so I can’t examine the code of the AML binary to see where it fits.

Correct. There's a ThunderboltDROM field in there already; we just replace it with the modified version that gives us a unique UID.

3) Finally, what happens if the DROM code is run on a card with stock gigabyte firmware? Any damage?

No damage; it should work with un-flashed Thunderbolt firmware as well.

Perhaps update your guide to specify that DROM is needed to enable the 40 gbps. The guide speaks to more compatibility, as in “optional” but it seems that the DROM step is fundamental. If I had known that I would’ve done it. (I was under the impression that the system would work fine (At 40 gbps) without DROM, given that thunderbolt works just fine on both ports with the stock firmware and no DROM).

All of the links in the Thunderbolt section were listed because they're essential. But there is always room for clarification.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hey guys
I have made a few more tests, and now I know WHEN "Startup disk" appears.
No matter what I do, the line does not appear UNTIL I mount the EFI partition. When I do, I eventually have "Startup Disk" in about my Mac.
So weird.

Updated the BIOS to F5A, didn't change anything
Any idea?

Did this happen right from the beginning, when macOS was first installed? Or did it happen sometime later?

I see that you've renamed the CPU. Did the "Startup" disk issue happen before the CPU name was changed?

 

[LaurentMaldo]

Did this happen right from the beginning, when macOS was first installed? Or did it happen sometime later?

I see that you've renamed the CPU. Did the "Startup" disk issue happen before the CPU name was changed?

hard to say. I got aware of if when I renamed the system partition.
I followed the whole install guide till the end, had this problem with the CPU name (needed to identify that the right file to modify was in the en-GB folder and not in « en ») and at the same time, I wanted to rename my system partition to something different than « Catalina ».
if you think there might be a relation, I can try to put the original file into place (the one before I renamed the cpu)

 

[CaseySJ]

hard to say. I got aware of if when I renamed the system partition.
I followed the whole install guide till the end, had this problem with the CPU name (needed to identify that the right file to modify was in the en-GB folder and not in « en ») and at the same time, I wanted to rename my system partition to something different than « Catalina ».
if you think there might be a relation, I can try to put the original file into place (the one before I renamed the cpu)

Yes, please try putting the original one back. Let’s at least rule that out.

 

[dehjomz]

It is a replacement. We can simply disable the existing one from the OpenCore config.plist and add the new one.

Correct. There's a ThunderboltDROM field in there already; we just replace it with the modified version that gives us a unique UID.

No damage; it should work with un-flashed Thunderbolt firmware as well.

All of the links in the Thunderbolt section were listed because they're essential. But there is always room for clarification.

Thank you so much good sir! Final question, can the SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-PORT7-VISION-D be adapted for the flashed GC-Titan Ridge add in card. That is, instead of device RP05 in aml, change it to RP21 (or the relevant address) of the add in card?

Edit: Never mind. It works fine with GC-Titan Ridge. Thunderbolt Bus @ 40 gbps.

Does the GC-Titan Ridge card work in motherboards without the thunderbolt header? In Vision D, with internal thunderbolt off, the GC-Titan Ridge powers on, hotplugs, BUT, although attached thunderbolt devices power on, the OS does not detect the attached device.

 

[LaurentMaldo]

Yes, please try putting the original one back. Let’s at least rule that out.

Done. Not better.
Even tried to reboot afterwards, just in case