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[guide] AMD RX 480 8 GB + MSI H110M Gaming + Skylake i5 6500 (macOS 10.12.5)

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Some new things that I ran into:
I do have some issues with my Hackintosh Freezing / crashing on intensive tasks it seems.
while the setup will run fine mostly (with normal use) it crashes frequently / always when using Final Cut Pro. (whole Pc crashes, I have to restart)
Any ideas what the problem could be here ?

Also some fun information for everyone:
It's possible to run Dual Rx480 ( I bought 2 from amazon to see which one I liked better and send 1 back)
While the dual Setup will have no effect on the Open Cl score since Geekbench seems to only test one GPU (you can select which one) There is a decent speed gain for Final Cut Pro (if it doesn't crash)
With the BruceX test (used here in the Forum) render times went down from 18-20 seconds on a single card to 12-14 seconds on the Dual cards.

If that's worth it - not sure...
Re: FCPX crashing / freezing the system: that is a known problem with not-out-of-the-box supported GPUs. FCP tends to be unstable on those, there's little to be done about it unfortunately, though I'd recommend a thorough search through the forum to find a possible workaround. Other than that only official support & an update to FCP are likely needed to resolve those problems.

Re: dual RX480s: it's actually a stock feature of macOS to support multiple AMD GPUs at the same time without any additional configuration besides the drivers, I'd recommend to get a powerful PSU and identical cards for a dual-GPU setup though!!
 
The "Unintentional Hack Pro"
This rig wasn't actually meant for a hackintosh install when I built it in May 2016. However, after Adobe CC stopped working on my Windows 10 install, I was forced to either reinstall Windows 10 or try macOS Sierra. Of course, I accepted the challenge of getting yet another hackintosh up and running!

Things that do work: onboard LAN & IGPU, sleep (when using RX 480) and all USB 2 & 3.0 ports.
Things that don't work: onboard audio (probably an easy fix but I don't need it anyways) & display out during BIOS and boot before login screen (when using RX 480; this can't be fixed).

Note: I was able to update from macOS 10.12.2 to 10.12.3 using the AppStore without major issues. However the update overwrites the AMD Graphics drivers, meaning the procedure outlined at the end of this guide has to be done again. I've updated it to be a little more update-proof!

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 (4x 3,2 GHz)
  • Motherboard: MSI H110M GAMING
  • GPU: HIS Radeon RX 480 (8GB VRAM)
  • RAM: 16 GB Crucial DDR4 Memory Kit
  • Hard drive: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda ES.2 HD (SATA 3 GB/s; the only spare one I had laying around)
  • Power supply: Corsair VS550 (Non-Modular 80+)
  • Case: Corsair Carbide Series 88R (black with window)
Geekbench 4.0.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (64-bit) vs
Geekbench 4.0.4 Tryout for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit)


CPU:

Single-Core Score: 4,311
Single-Core Score: 4,501 (4.4 % better)
Multi-Core Score: 11,971
Multi-Core Score: 12,118 (1.2 % better)
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/1768614
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/1769546


GPU:

OpenCL Compute score: 122,968
OpenCL Compute score 112,445 (8.5 % worse)
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/compute/421804
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/compute/422091

Unigine Valley Benchmark 1.0 on macOS

FPS: 44.7
Score: 1,871
Min FPS: 23.5
Max FPS: 80.4
Settings

Render: OpenGL
Mode: 1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Preset: Extreme HD
For more information & discussion on what and why about the hardware, I'll create a separate post in the user builds section soon. Let's get to the installation, shall we?

UEFI BIOS Settings
Reset to default/optimised default settings (in the save menu). From there, a few things need to be tweaked and, depending on your BIOS version, they can be hard to find. Take your time and get all the options right!
  • Graphics device = IGPU (not PEG!)
  • VT-d = Off
  • Windows 7 installation mode = Off
  • Serial port (Super I/O) = Off
  • EFI Boot = On
  • Secure Boot = Off (if it exists)
  • Fast Boot = Off
  • Set ErP = Enabled
  • Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled
  • (optional) Set boot device to the hard drive you're going to use for macOS
UniBeast
Follow the instructions linked at "Installation Guide" in the top menu to create the UniBeast USB Stick. Make sure to copy MultiBeast and optionally Kext Utility onto it.

Installation
Before installing, remove the RX 480 (or whatever card you're using if it's not supported out of the box) and connect your display to a video port on the motherboard. Install as usual per the "Installation Guide". First reboot should work without a hitch and you'll be able to complete the setup as usual. When asked about network connectivity, choose "My computer doesn't connect to the internet". This is true because the LAN drivers are still missing! Also skip iCloud setup for the same reason.

Post-Installation using MultiBeast
Run MultiBeast with the following checked:
  • Quick Start > UEFI Boot Mode
  • Drivers > Audio > ALC887/888b
  • Drivers > Audio > 100 Series
  • Drivers > Network > IntelMausiEthernet v2.2.0
  • Customize > Graphics Configuration > Intel HD 530
  • Customize > System Definitions > iMac 17,1
Let MultiBeast do its thing and reboot afterwards to make sure the system still boots and the new drivers are working (you should have graphics acceleration and working LAN). For me the audio didn't work but since I use an USB audio card that's not something I'm going to bother with for the time being.

Post-Install using Clover Configurator
To get iCloud, iMessage and App Store working 100%, you'll need to change your hardware identifiers using Clover Configurator. I've adapted the instructions from this ****** post.
  1. Open CloverConfigurator and mount your EFI partition
  2. Open your config.plist
  3. In the Rt Variables section, make sure everything is clear.
  4. Go to the SMBIOS section and click on the magic wand. Select iMac icon, then iMac 17,1 from the dropdown. On the two buttons that read "shake", click a few times to generate a random serial. Copy the serial number and click ok.
  5. Go to https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ and search for the serial number that was generated. If you get an error message, that is good. It means you aren't using a serial number assigned to a real Mac. If you don't get an error, repeat step 4 and search for the new serial instead until you get an error.
  6. Open terminal and run "uuidgen".
  7. Copy this UUID and paste it in the "SmUUID" field in the SMBIOS section.
  8. In the "Board Serial Number" field, paste in your system serial number (the one that you just looked up on Apple's website) and add 5 random hex digits (numbers 0-9 and letters a-f) to the end to reach a total of 17 characters. The reason for step 7 and 8 is to keep your ROM (last 12 digits of the UUID that was generated) and MLB (Board Serial Number) values constant and unique on each boot of the OS. If the values change from boot to boot, iMessage will notice and fail to activate and there is potential that Apple will notice and blacklist your UUID, serial, or Apple ID. All Clover-generated ROM and MLB values are automatically blacklisted, as well.
  9. Export/save config.plist and reboot! (it you're also installing the RX 480, don't reboot yet, keep reading!)

Custom Post-Install for the RX 480
This card is great but unfortunately not yet supported out-of-the-box in macOS. However there's a simple way to get it to work. To enable full acceleration and Metal support, we need to add the RX 480’s PCI ID to AMDRadeonX4100.kext. I discovered a way to do this via a .plist edit on a blog of a legit Apple user who put a RX 480 into a Mac Pro (adapted from there):
  1. In Finder, press Shift+cmd+G and type "/System/Library/Extensions/". Hit Enter to open the Extensions folder. Now copy AMDRadeonX4100.kext to the Desktop or wherever you keep your hackintosh drivers.
  2. Right-click the copy of the .kext and select Show Package Contents, now open Contents and open Info.plist in a text editor of your choice. Find the line just below
    <key>IOPCIMatch</key>
    and, inside the <string>, add: 0x67DF1002.
  3. Save the edited info.plist and drag'n drop the modified AMDRadeonX4100.kext onto Kext Utility.app to install it.
  4. Open Clover Configurator > Graphics and set Inject EDID = On, FB Name = Dayman, ig-platform-id = 0x1912, Load VBios = Off, Patch Bios = On, Inject Intel = Off, Inject ATI = On. In Acpi, set "Fix Display" On and in Devices, set Fake ID > ATI to 0x67DF1002. In Boot, set darkwake=8, timeout to 2 and enter the name of your macOS boot disk in "Default Boot Volume".
  5. (thanks to user Mork_vom_Ork) Go to Kernel and Kext Patches -> ForceKextsToLoad, add "\System\Library\Extensions\AMDRadeonX4100.kext" and "\System\Library\Extensions\AMD9500Controller.kext".
  6. The following "code" (by user @Mork_vom_Ork) enables all GPU Cores in the RX 4XX cards. By default only half of them would be used. I added some lines to make sure "AMD RX 480" is displayed in "About This Mac". It is kind of a lot to type, so better copy & paste the following directly into the config.plist file after
    <key>KextsToPatch</key>
    <array>

    using a text editor (TextEdit comes preinstalled ;)):

    <dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>Change_#_of_RX4x0_CUs-(C)_by_okrasit_2016</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>SLgCAAAAAQAAAEiJQ1THQ3wIAAAA</data>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>SLgEAAAAAQAAAEiJQ1THQ3wSAAAA</data>
    </dict>
    <dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>Remove_CU_limit_of_RX4x0-(C)_by_okrasit_2016</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>D0LIiYuAAAAARIizmQAAAESIcyA=</data>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>kJCQiYuAAAAARIizmQAAAESIcyA=</data>
    </dict>
    <dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>Change_init_from_BAFFIN_to_ELLESMERE-(C)_by_Fl0r!an_2016</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>6EmF/v++SAEAAEyJ9w==</data>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>6EbkAAC+SAEAAEyJ9w==</data>
    </dict>
    <dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>PP_DisablePowerContainment=1</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>InfoPlistPatch</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AMD9500Controller</string>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>PGtleT5QUF9EaXNhYmxlUG93ZXJDb250YWlubWVudDwva2V5PjxpbnRlZ2VyPjA8L2ludGVnZXI+</data>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>PGtleT5QUF9EaXNhYmxlUG93ZXJDb250YWlubWVudDwva2V5PjxpbnRlZ2VyPjE8L2ludGVnZXI+</data>
    </dict>
    <dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>Change "R9xxx" to "RX 480" by CONATH</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>
    OSB4eHgAQVRZLFBhcnQjAA==
    </data>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AMD9500Controller</string>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>
    WCA0ODAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
    </data>
    </dict>


    SAVE and open the config.plist in Clover Configurator, go to Kernel and Kext Patches section to double-check the new patches are listed!
  • Shut down your computer and unplug the power!
  • Install RX 480 into the first slot on the motherboard.
  • Power computer on and go to BIOS to make sure the graphics adapter is still set to iGPU, not PEG. This seems contradictory but is very important!
  • Power off, remove display cable from the motherboard and attach it to the RX 480!
  • Turn the computer back on & wait for the system to boot. No signal is fed to the display until the login screen appears. You should hear the RX 480's fan make a hiss as it enables 20x warp mode full acceleration.
  • Double-check that "About this Mac…" shows the RX 480 as expected. :headbang:
Screenshots of "About this Mac …" are attached! Happy hacking!


Thank you so much for posting this guide. After spending 4 hours on my Hackintosh, I have enable XFX RX 480 on my build. However, I did what you said in part 6 to get all the cores running, but I still have R9 XXX in "About my Mac", and the openCL Geekbench gives me around 60000. I don't know where I did wrong, but I am very happy already.

If it is not too much trouble, do you mind telling me what I might did wrong in the last step? I could not locate where I should put that code in config.plist, so I randomly put in some number in clover configurator and replace them with you code using textedit.

Here is my part:
<key>KernelPm</key>
<false/>
<key>KextsToPatch</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>Change_#_of_RX4x0_CUs-(C)_by_okrasit_2016</string>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>Find</key>
<data>SLgCAAAAAQAAAEiJQ1THQ3wIAAAA</data>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
<key>Replace</key>
<data>SLgEAAAAAQAAAEiJQ1THQ3wSAAAA</data>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>Remove_CU_limit_of_RX4x0-(C)_by_okrasit_2016</string>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>Find</key>
<data>D0LIiYuAAAAARIizmQAAAESIcyA=</data>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
<key>Replace</key>
<data>kJCQiYuAAAAARIizmQAAAESIcyA=</data>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>Change_init_from_BAFFIN_to_ELLESMERE-(C)_by_Fl0r!an_2016</string>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>Find</key>
<data>6EmF/v++SAEAAEyJ9w==</data>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AMDRadeonX4100</string>
<key>Replace</key>
<data>6EbkAAC+SAEAAEyJ9w==</data>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>PP_DisablePowerContainment=1</string>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>InfoPlistPatch</key>
<true/>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AMD9500Controller</string>
<key>Find</key>
<data>PGtleT5QUF9EaXNhYmxlUG93ZXJDb250YWlubWVudDwva2V5PjxpbnRlZ2VyPjA8L2ludGVnZXI+</data>
<key>Replace</key>
<data>PGtleT5QUF9EaXNhYmxlUG93ZXJDb250YWlubWVudDwva2V5PjxpbnRlZ2VyPjE8L2ludGVnZXI+</data>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Comment</key>
<string>Change "R9xxx" to "RX 480" by CONATH</string>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>Find</key>
<data>
OSB4eHgAQVRZLFBhcnQjAA==
</data>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AMD9500Controller</string>
<key>Replace</key>
<data>
WCA0ODAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
<key>SMBIOS</key>



Also, I need to point out my final cut pro will crash after using RX 480. I will switch to a previous version later and see if that works.

Again, Thank you!
 
Thank you so much for posting this guide. After spending 4 hours on my Hackintosh, I have enable XFX RX 480 on my build. However, I did what you said in part 6 to get all the cores running, but I still have R9 XXX in "About my Mac", and the openCL Geekbench gives me around 60000. I don't know where I did wrong, but I am very happy already.

If it is not too much trouble, do you mind telling me what I might did wrong in the last step? I could not locate where I should put that code in config.plist, so I randomly put in some number in clover configurator and replace them with you code using textedit.



Also, I need to point out my final cut pro will crash after using RX 480. I will switch to a previous version later and see if that works.

Again, Thank you!

Hi superic,
you're welcome. It looks like you put the code in the wrong part of the plist. Please upload your config.plist file here, I'll check it for you and add the patches at the right part of the file. (I made the same mistake when first setting it up but figured it out)

Final Cut Pro might not work reliably until it is updated with support for the RX 480. I don't know a lot about it though, so you might want to search the forum for general FCP advice on unsupported GPUs. Adobe Creative Suite including Premiere Pro work perfectly.
 
Hi superic,
you're welcome. It looks like you put the code in the wrong part of the plist. Please upload your config.plist file here, I'll check it for you and add the patches at the right part of the file. (I made the same mistake when first setting it up but figured it out)

Final Cut Pro might not work reliably until it is updated with support for the RX 480. I don't know a lot about it though, so you might want to search the forum for general FCP advice on unsupported GPUs. Adobe Creative Suite including Premiere Pro work perfectly.

I was working very late at night and I made it work. I was too tired so I did not reply you last night. I got a 125160 score on Geekbench and I am very satisfied. Thank you so much for this comprehensive guide. Here is my system build in case anyone needs it.

Mobo: Gigabyte Z170XP SLI
CPU: i7-6700k
iGPU: HD 530
GPU: XFX RX480 (I got it from Best Buy)

For audio fix, I simply install drivers in multibeast and set inject audio to 1 in clover configurator.

What is not working now:
1. Sleep/Wake
If I put the system to sleep and move the mouse or keyboard, it wakes normally. However, if I waited a extended period of time, I can't wake it up.
2. Final Cut Pro 10.3.2
So you were right, the new version does not support RX 480, so I am trying to find a FCPX 10.2.3 to see if that works with RX 480.
3. Loading Apple Screen
This is not a big issue that impacts me but I think I should point it out. When I boot up my Hackintosh, during the loading page of an apple logo, it flashes to multiple apple logo for one second and then boot into the system. I am not sure what cause the problem but it doesn't affect anything.

If anyone has a similar build to mine, your guide will work for them! BTW, your guide fix my iMessage as well, that is a huge bonus haha. I really appreciated your work and I will get another RX 480 to test in this week. Thank you Conath.
 
I was working very late at night and I made it work. I was too tired so I did not reply you last night. I got a 125160 score on Geekbench and I am very satisfied. Thank you so much for this comprehensive guide.
You're very welcome!
What is not working now:
1. Sleep/Wake
If I put the system to sleep and move the mouse or keyboard, it wakes normally. However, if I waited a extended period of time, I can't wake it up.
Please make sure that hibernation is disabled. You can tell by the output of this in Terminal.app:
Code:
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
If it prints "hibernatemode 0", you're good. Otherwise, run:
Code:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
This will change the way that your hackintosh goes to Sleep to the normal "light sleep" and prevent it from going into hibernation which is unsupported on hackintosh systems (AFAIK). Also make sure you've got the darkwake=8 & dart=0 flags in Clover Configurator => Boot and that your GPU is in the first slot.
3. Loading Apple Screen
This is not a big issue that impacts me but I think I should point it out. When I boot up my Hackintosh, during the loading page of an apple logo, it flashes to multiple apple logo for one second and then boot into the system. I am not sure what cause the problem but it doesn't affect anything.
That's interesting. I don't get any output from the RX 480 before the login screen. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Hi Conath,

I did what you say about hibernate mode and my system was 0. So it did not work for me. However, I tried to check off "put my hard disk to sleep when possible" in the System Preference-Energy Saver. I hope this might work.

The issue about my loading apple screen happened when I removed my RX 480. However, I am going to buy another cable and connect my iGPU slot to monitor. Since I am using dual boot system, I need clover to boot in windows. I hope that works too. :)

I forgot to mention. Final Cut Pro 10.2.3 works in RX 480(to anyone who might need this information).

Edit: checking off "put hard disk to sleep" doesn't work.
 
Last edited:
I did what you say about hibernate mode and my system was 0. So it did not work for me. However, I tried to check off "put my hard disk to sleep when possible" in the System Preference-Energy Saver. I hope this might work.

Edit: checking off "put hard disk to sleep" doesn't work.
Hm, I have that checked and sleep works properly for me. It's probably either a UEFIBIOS setting or your Motherboard not being fully compatible.
The issue about my loading apple screen happened when I removed my RX 480. However, I am going to buy another cable and connect my iGPU slot to monitor. Since I am using dual boot system, I need clover to boot in windows. I hope that works too. :)
You will have to unplug the iGPU cable before macOS starts up because otherwise the RX 480 drivers won't load properly and the iGPU will be used by macOS instead. This is not an issue for Windows, it switches automatically.
I forgot to mention. Final Cut Pro 10.2.3 works in RX 480(to anyone who might need this information).
Great news, I'll message some of the others in this thread who had issues with FCPX.
 
I've also had problems with Final Cut Pro crashing on the modified version and running fine on the reference one.
Hi xoma, according to user superic, his RX 480 works with Final Cut Pro version 10.2.3. Could you try that version and tell everyone if it works for you? Thanks.
 
Hm, I have that checked and sleep works properly for me. It's probably either a UEFIBIOS setting or your Motherboard not being fully compatible.

You will have to unplug the iGPU cable before macOS starts up because otherwise the RX 480 drivers won't load properly and the iGPU will be used by macOS instead. This is not an issue for Windows, it switches automatically.

Great news, I'll message some of the others in this thread who had issues with FCPX.


I change a different RX 480 and the provious setting doesn't work anymore. It doesn't enable full acceleration and I think I misplace the code in step 6. Could you help me to take a look at it? :( I am only getting 87326 in openCL and it shows "R9 XXX"

It seems to work after a few restart. Anyways, I will put my config here in case anyone needs it.
 

Attachments

  • config.plist
    5.5 KB · Views: 261
Last edited:
conath,

I might be asking too many questions. I received my second SSD today and I installed windows on it to play overwatch. Everything works well except for the starting up process.

Since we have RX 480 in the system, we dont see the clover or bios. How can I switch system.

I set the default booting drive to Mac, and here is what I tried.

1. System Preference- Start up Disk- choose windows and restart. It will set the default to windows.
2. Switch the HDMI from RX 480 to onboard HDMI, and choose windows through my bios setting. Switch back to rx 480 when im in windows.

The second one works for me but it is kind of annoying that I have to switch cables every time I want to play games. Do you know any method that allows me to temporally restart from another disk in macOS?(just like the first I tried but only a one time option so that next time I boot, I can go into Mac again.)

Thanks like always.
 
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