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

[MACAK]

Hi all,

I thought that I would post some updates regarding 2 issues I have been having for a while and despite several suggestions on this forum nothing worked.

1. Stuck on the Gigabyte logo after restarting from macOS: each time I restarted macOS whether manually or following an update, the system would hang on the Gigabyte logo with the various options at the bottom of the screen (F12, F11, etc.). Nothing was working. Only solution was to power down and restart. Then it would pass the Gigabyte logo and display the OC picker. Looking at the BIOS code on the MB, it was stuck on a SATA/IDE error code. In my system I had a classic standard magnetic HDD that I use for cloning purposes only (before an update). Disconnecting this HDD solved the issue. The system restarts now flawlessly. I am now on the market for a cheap SSD SATA drive for cloning. I don't know if this issue is due to SATA/IDE in general or specific to this HDD and brand (WD).

2. With OC 0.6.1 and prior, I could dual boot Windows/macOS from the OC picker. Since moving to 0.6.2 and above, booting from the Windows NVMe disk simply reset the system. The Windows spinning wheel will be displayed for a couple of seconds and eventually the PC will reset. My initial config was EVO + 1TB for macOS in first slot, then EVO + 250 for Windows in the second slot then and PCIe x4 adapter card hosting a 1TB WD SN750 (because if this was installed in any other slot, the system, would hang at boot). Reading that EVO + can cause some issues even with the new firmware, I bought a 500GB Sabrent rocket, clone the EVO + 250GB Windows disk on the Sabrent, removed the evo + 250GB. Unfortunately I still can't boot Windows 10 for the OC picker. I can boot Windows disk if I press F12 while the Gigabyte logo is displayed. the configuration is EVO + 1TB in slot 1 for macOS, WD 1TB in slot 2, Sabrent in slot.

3. Note that if I put the Sabrent in slot 2 regardless of the WD 1TB being in slot 3 or the PCIe x4 adapter, the system will not boot. I tried various combination except slot 1 which I have left untouched but nothing is working. I even tried to change the config.plist boot mode from bootstrap to none but same issue.

So one issue fixed, but, unfortunately for me, I would have preferred the other one to be fixed.

When using OC, at the boot menu for OC, pressing the spacebar allows for options. I suggest reading your manual for the motherboard for conflicts for SATA and M.2. I run two each M.2 and 2 SATA drives without conflict by following the directions in the manual. Resetting the NVRAM after moving hardware in your system is wise.

 

[dsingh]

Hi Casey and everyone,

I have a few questions regarding Thunderbolt Bus Activation, as I'm planning to flash it.
1. After flashing modded firmware, how will the Thunderbolt "normal mode" be affected? In particular, in macOS it will certainly run in "extended mode", but I have triple boot system and I boot Windows directly (not through OpenCore, I have rEFInd setup for triple boot which is slightly better for Linux maintenance), will there be any difference at all in its behavior?
2. My primary purpose of flashing firmware is to make it closer to real Mac. I'm also thinking about getting the LG Ultrafine 5K display, which only supports 5K resolution on Thunderbolt 3 Macs.
Now, in my current setup, Intel GPU is setup as headless, and I drive display(s) using 5500XT. When I use USB-C to DisplayPort cable in macOS it doesn't outputs any signal. But this cable will work fine in Windows because Intel GPU is not in headless/compute mode only, and it used to work in macOS when I didn't have AMD GPU and I had (temporarily) setup the macOS in iGPU mode only.
My question is, after flashing firmware, will macOS will be able to "route" video signal from the AMD GPU *internally* to the Thunderbolt Bus? In other words will the Thunderbolt Ports will start outputting the video signal after flashing the firmware like a real Mac because they are in extended mode? Or will I *still* need to use a DisplayPort cable to *externally* route the signal using DisplayPort-In in the motherboard?
I just wanna confirm that 5K display will work like a real Mac before purchasing it. Has anyone been able to make it work with this Vision D build and get full 10-bit color with true 5K@60Hz?

Thanks again for an amazing work!

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi Casey and everyone,

I have a few questions regarding Thunderbolt Bus Activation, as I'm planning to flash it.
1. After flashing modded firmware, how will the Thunderbolt "normal mode" be affected? In particular, in macOS it will certainly run in "extended mode", but I have triple boot system and I boot Windows directly (not through OpenCore, I have rEFInd setup for triple boot which is slightly better for Linux maintenance), will there be any difference at all in its behavior?

A flashed Thunderbolt controller can behave oddly in Windows. What does "oddly" mean? One can only answer this question for themselves because it's impossible to predict how the flashed controller will interact with the motherboard's firmware, with Windows, and with specific Thunderbolt devices. In our flashing guides we include warnings that behavior in Windows can be unpredictable.

2. My primary purpose of flashing firmware is to make it closer to real Mac. I'm also thinking about getting the LG Ultrafine 5K display, which only supports 5K resolution on Thunderbolt 3 Macs.

If you use one of the on-board Thunderbolt ports to connect the LG UltraFine 5K, the computer will send a 4096x2304 signal to the monitor, and the monitor will scale it up to 5120x2880. This is because the Z490 Vision D contains a single DP-In port. But two DP-In ports are needed for full native 5120x2880.

Note also this warning at the top of Post #1:

Now, in my current setup, Intel GPU is setup as headless, and I drive display(s) using 5500XT. When I use USB-C to DisplayPort cable in macOS it doesn't outputs any signal. But this cable will work fine in Windows because Intel GPU is not in headless/compute mode only, and it used to work in macOS when I didn't have AMD GPU and I had (temporarily) setup the macOS in iGPU mode only.
My question is, after flashing firmware, will macOS will be able to "route" video signal from the AMD GPU *internally* to the Thunderbolt Bus?

macOS can route video signal from AMD GPU to the Thunderbolt Bus once you connect a video cable from the AMD GPU to the DP-In port on the rear IO panel. It cannot route the signal "internally" from a discrete GPU. It may also be necessary to change Platform ID to 0x3E9B0007 (non-headless for iGPU), but first see what happens if you leave Platform ID the way it is (0x3E980003).

In other words will the Thunderbolt Ports will start outputting the video signal after flashing the firmware like a real Mac because they are in extended mode? Or will I *still* need to use a DisplayPort cable to *externally* route the signal using DisplayPort-In in the motherboard?

An external cable is necessary. However, if you just set iGPU to 0x3E9B0007 (non-headless) then the iGPU will route its video output "internally" to the Thunderbolt ports.

I just wanna confirm that 5K display will work like a real Mac before purchasing it. Has anyone been able to make it work with this Vision D build and get full 10-bit color with true 5K@60Hz?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

• You will not get true 5K. For true 5K you will need a GC-Alpine Ridge card or GC-Titan Ridge card and connect two DP-In ports to two video output ports on the AMD GPU. Even then, the LG UltraFine may not turn on in BIOS, may not turn on in OpenCore Picker, and may even require hot-plug to turn on in macOS. The monitor may not even wake from sleep, or the on-board devices may not work.

Once again:

 

[rtw]

Hello Casey,

I just installed the new OC 0.6.5 with the updated Alpha Intel WiFi drivers but it seems like the BT is broken, WIFI is okay though.
BT and Wifi works with previous 6.4 version although occasionally the BT will drop but acceptable.

I really appreciate your work here.
Thank you very much.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hello Casey,

I just installed the new OC 0.6.5 with the updated Alpha Intel WiFi drivers but it seems like the BT is broken, WIFI is okay though.
BT and Wifi works with previous 6.4 version although occasionally the BT will drop but acceptable.

I really appreciate your work here.
Thank you very much.

Hello @rtw,

Welcome to the forum!

In the OC 0.6.5 Wireless EFI, I copied the 1.2.0-Alpha version of the OpenIntel WiFi driver, but the Bluetooth driver is the same as the previous EFI (v1.1.2 from August 2020).

Some questions:

• Are you able to pair and connect Bluetooth devices?
• When we switch from a different Bluetooth device to the on-board Intel Bluetooth module, we should delete all paired devices and re-pair them. Have you already done this?

 

[Stork]

Hello @rtw,

Welcome to the forum!

In the OC 0.6.5 Wireless EFI, I copied the 1.2.0-Alpha version of the OpenIntel WiFi driver, but the Bluetooth driver is the same as the previous EFI (v1.1.2 from August 2020).

Some questions:

• Are you able to pair and connect Bluetooth devices?
• When we switch from a different Bluetooth device to the on-board Intel Bluetooth module, we should delete all paired devices and re-pair them. Have you already done this?

Any improvement since the last time we tried the Wireless driver?

 

[CaseySJ]

Any improvement since the last time we tried the Wireless driver?

Just switched over to try it out. Unfortunately WiFi speeds are still the same (i.e. not very good). This is with version 1.2.0-Alpha of the AirportItlwm driver. The driver is compiled in Debug mode, so there's some added overhead.



And this is the Fenvi FV-T919 just a few minutes later:

 

[dsingh]

A flashed Thunderbolt controller can behave oddly in Windows. What does "oddly" mean? One can only answer this question for themselves because it's impossible to predict how the flashed controller will interact with the motherboard's firmware, with Windows, and with specific Thunderbolt devices. In our flashing guides we include warnings that behavior in Windows can be unpredictable.

If you use one of the on-board Thunderbolt ports to connect the LG UltraFine 5K, the computer will send a 4096x2304 signal to the monitor, and the monitor will scale it up to 5120x2880. This is because the Z490 Vision D contains a single DP-In port. But two DP-In ports are needed for full native 5120x2880.

Note also this warning at the top of Post #1:

View attachment 504465


macOS can route video signal from AMD GPU to the Thunderbolt Bus once you connect a video cable from the AMD GPU to the DP-In port on the rear IO panel. It cannot route the signal "internally" from a discrete GPU. It may also be necessary to change Platform ID to 0x3E9B0007 (non-headless for iGPU), but first see what happens if you leave Platform ID the way it is (0x3E980003).


An external cable is necessary. However, if you just set iGPU to 0x3E9B0007 (non-headless) then the iGPU will route its video output "internally" to the Thunderbolt ports.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

• You will not get true 5K. For true 5K you will need a GC-Alpine Ridge card or GC-Titan Ridge card and connect two DP-In ports to two video output ports on the AMD GPU. Even then, the LG UltraFine may not turn on in BIOS, may not turn on in OpenCore Picker, and may even require hot-plug to turn on in macOS. The monitor may not even wake from sleep, or the on-board devices may not work.

Once again:

View attachment 504465

Hi Casey,

Thanks for your reply. that is sad news indeed. Frankly, I don't care about Thunderbolt much because I don't current have any other such device. I just want to drive that display at full 5K, using Thunderbolt or otherwise. Is there any other way it is possible that you know of? I have searched for a lot of articles and there isn't any correct answer for our case. People have success using that 2 cables method and a Gigabyte Thunderbolt Card, but nothing yet with Vision D I could find for, why Gigabyte couldn't simply put two DisplayPorts in there for full functionality?

I read full specs of DisplayPort 1.4, in theory it can drive a 5K@60 display with 10-bit colors, I'm wonder will single cable from GPU to DP-In of motherboard will be sufficient for such a signal? Has anyone tried that? What's the max resolution one could get?

If it doesn't work, other thing I could think of is simply get Gigabyte discrete card for Thunderbolt and using it to drive the display. Will having two Thunderbolt chips be a problem in our case? I also saw that, on the system which lack Thunderbolt header for that Gigabyte card, hot plugging won't be supported, and/or other features which I don't know of yet. In that case, I could have to change the entire motherboard
Is there any other know method which is cheaper? Like a simple chip which can take two DP-In signals and convert it to Thunderbolt signal?

Thanks!
Regards

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi Casey,

Thanks for your reply. that is sad news indeed. Frankly, I don't care about Thunderbolt much because I don't current have any other such device. I just want to drive that display at full 5K, using Thunderbolt or otherwise. Is there any other way it is possible that you know of? I have searched for a lot of articles and there isn't any correct answer for our case. People have success using that 2 cables method and a Gigabyte Thunderbolt Card, but nothing yet with Vision D I could find for, why Gigabyte couldn't simply put two DisplayPorts in there for full functionality?

We can certainly use a GC-Alpine Ridge or GC-Titan Ridge on the Z490 Vision D. Of the two, the older GC-Alpine Ridge is preferred as it seems to be more reliable and also accommodates the current version of the LG UltraFine 5K.

I read full specs of DisplayPort 1.4, in theory it can drive a 5K@60 display with 10-bit colors, I'm wonder will single cable from GPU to DP-In of motherboard will be sufficient for such a signal? Has anyone tried that? What's the max resolution one could get?

As I stated, a single cable from GPU to DP-In will result in 4096x2304. That's the maximum resolution (or frame buffer) that will be sent to the LG 5K. The LG 5K will then upscale it to match the screen resolution of 5120x2880.

If it doesn't work, other thing I could think of is simply get Gigabyte discrete card for Thunderbolt and using it to drive the display. Will having two Thunderbolt chips be a problem in our case?

Not a problem at all. My Z490 Vision D is already set up this way.

I also saw that, on the system which lack Thunderbolt header for that Gigabyte card, hot plugging won't be supported, and/or other features which I don't know of yet. In that case, I could have to change the entire motherboard

Hot plugging is supported even without Thunderbolt header. No need to change motherboard. We will need a F/F jumper wire to force power to the Thunderbolt add-in-card (which is one of the functions of the Thunderbolt header that this board does not have).

Is there any other know method which is cheaper? Like a simple chip which can take two DP-In signals and convert it to Thunderbolt signal?

Nope!

 

[dsingh]

We can certainly use a GC-Alpine Ridge or GC-Titan Ridge on the Z490 Vision D. Of the two, the older GC-Alpine Ridge is preferred as it seems to be more reliable and also accommodates the current version of the LG UltraFine 5K.

I see. I will keep that in mind when purchasing!

Not a problem at all. My Z490 Vision D is already set up this way.

Ah, that sounds good. Btw, do you own that 5K monitor? Just wondering why did you have to use two Thunderbolt chips. What problem did you had?

Thanks a lot!