[Guide] Dell XPS 13 9360 on MacOS Sierra 10.12.x - LTS (Long-Term Support) Guide

[jkbuha]

If I want to use your configuration for my I5-7200u, are there any necessary steps besides switching to my CPUFriend kext? Cheers!

No, there shouldn't be any additional steps, just swap out the CPUFriend and CPUFriendProvider kexts in OC/Kexts and you should be good to go.

Note to whoever's coming from Clover to OpenCore. You need to do the following first:

1) Remove all alien/injected kexts in L/E and S/L/E
2) Reset NVRAM on first boot

 

[Richylitschy]

No, there shouldn't be any additional steps, just swap out the CPUFriend and CPUFriendProvider kexts in OC/Kexts and you should be good to go.

Note to whoever's coming from Clover to OpenCore. You need to do the following first:

1) Remove all alien/injected kexts in L/E and S/L/E
2) Reset NVRAM on first boot

Tried the config and swapped also the kexts responsible for WIFI (as I run the DW1560) in the folder and the config.plist.
However, I can’t seem to get the WIFI working with the config. Any idea?
Further, the keyboard layout of the command key swapped hahah that took me a few seconds to realise.

 

[jkbuha]

Tried the config and swapped also the kexts responsible for WIFI (as I run the DW1560) in the folder and the config.plist.
However, I can’t seem to get the WIFI working with the config. Any idea?
Further, the keyboard layout of the command key swapped hahah that took me a few seconds to realise.

Yeah I map the Dell keyboard with the exact layout as my MacbookPro. So CMD/Alt are swapped...
Just put back your original Voodoo kexts and you should be fine.

With the DW1560 you'll need to change a few SSDT patches. I don't have the exact steps, but @the-darkvoid's repo should have the most updated patches for you.

 

[egore]

Ok, so after a few days migrating to OpenCore, I've fine-tuned @ebaymic60 's config and corrected a few things for the i7-8550U as well as some other elements (CPU optimisation, sleep/wake, brightness keys). Still need to figure out how to boot Windows natively, but macOS Big Sur B9 and Kali Linux work perfectly.

Great job! I've been using your setup (with a few tweaks) as of recent and am quite pleased with how the machine is performing. Please share any further advances/tweaks you've done since!

 

[jkbuha]

Great job! I've been using your setup (with a few tweaks) as of recent and am quite pleased with how the machine is performing. Please share any further advances/tweaks you've done since!

Need to optimise performance further - Geekbench scores have dropped from Clover. So something needs to be improved. That said, it works perfectly stable, just need to optimised.

 

[Mrgeque]

Need to optimise performance further - Geekbench scores have dropped from Clover. So something needs to be improved. That said, it works perfectly stable, just need to optimised.

how are you undervaluing/overclocking CPU? I recently migrated to OpenCore from clover and experienced some performance drops as you've mentioned. After some trial and error I've got the performance I once had in clover, in OpenCore Now. VoltageShift -90mv cpu -75mv Gpu -90mv cache. Also, does anyone know how to remove acidanthera from my motherboard and bios info?

 

[jkbuha]

Could you share your OC folder here? I'd like to take a look at your DSDT patches, as I'm missing a couple this end. My current GB scores are 4000/11000 respectively, so about 20-30% drop from yours, down from 5500/17500 on Clover.

With regards to undervolting - I use either setup_var in UEFI (which you can use from my zip above) or voltageshift kext (which works perfectly in Big Sur). I can undervolt CPU/GPU around -150mV and that produces additional performance gains. I've also modified the TDP threshold so the 8550u TDP limit increases from 15W to 28W, thereby increasing the performance ceiling.

Once I'll take a look at your OC.zip I can produce a new final build with the required kext(s) and/or setup_var parameters to modify.

 

[Mrgeque]

Could you share your OC folder here? I'd like to take a look at your DSDT patches, as I'm missing a couple this end. My current GB scores are 4000/11000 respectively, so about 20-30% drop from yours, down from 5500/17500 on Clover.

With regards to undervolting - I use either setup_var in UEFI (which you can use from my zip above) or voltageshift kext (which works perfectly in Big Sur). I can undervolt CPU/GPU around -150mV and that produces additional performance gains. I've also modified the TDP threshold so the 8550u TDP limit increases from 15W to 28W, thereby increasing the performance ceiling.

Once I'll take a look at your OC.zip I can produce a new final build with the required kext(s) and/or setup_var parameters to modify.

you were getting 5500/17500 in clover in MacOS? wow I only have seen those scores in linux. I will gladly share my OC folder as soon as I get back home. reminder, I'm using dell Inspiron and not XPS9360. also my power limit is set to 44w. not sure how you achieved 28w, but that could possibly be an issue. don't quote me on that since I really don't know.

@jkbuha could you tell me how to remove the acidanthera from motherboard and bios please?

 

[jkbuha]

you were getting 5500/17500 in clover in MacOS? wow I only have seen those scores in linux. I will gladly share my OC folder as soon as I get back home. reminder, I'm using dell Inspiron and not XPS9360. also my power limit is set to 44w. not sure how you achieved 28w, but that could possibly be an issue. don't quote me on that since I really don't know.

@jkbuha could you tell me how to remove the acidanthera from motherboard and bios please?

Not sure I understand the acidanthera bit. Could you explain exactly what you want to achieve here?

With regards to TDP, I strongly suspect the Inspiron has better cooling techniques than the 9360.

This is a bit offtopic, but the best performance scores on the 9360 (7th and 8th gen) are obtained with the following:

1) Removing the heatsink, cleaning the thermal gunk that's gathered on the CPU/GPU, and replacing it with arctic thermal pads with 1.5mm thickness. The net effect is that the bottom lid becomes a heatsink, but the CPU cooling is phenomenal.

2) Undervolting CPU/GPU/Cache/SystemIO etc using setup_var and/or voltageshift. This is highly processor specific, though you should at least get -50mV (~4-6C) across all chips. The 8th gen can be better undervolted, I'm on -150mV at the moment.

3) Raising the TDP threshold, using setup_var. There are a few combinations that need to be applied, such as unlocking CFG, unlocking TDP_lock, and a few other tricks. They're explained reasonably well elsewhere, but if there's any interest on this forum I could put a rough guide together. However I've found that a stable balance is 28W, as with 44W there's too much up/down clocking leading to a drop in performance. It's worth exploring this again though, and I'll do that once I have an updated OpenCore baseline on which to run tests.

4) Unlocking the 4x PCIe lanes for faster memory and SDD/NVMe throughput. I've explained how to do this a couple pages back, it's a bit risky as you need to use a programmer (and the BIOS chip on this laptop is incredibly difficult to attach to) but there's a significant boost. However, there is a slight hike in temperature, which in reality might also lead to the TDP limits explained in 3).

With regards to overclocking, I recall that the U-series chipsets have their max multiplier locked, so I don't think it's possible to unlock. But if anyone has any additional info on this please get in touch.

 

[Mrgeque]

Not sure I understand the acidanthera bit. Could you explain exactly what you want to achieve here?

With regards to TDP, I strongly suspect the Inspiron has better cooling techniques than the 9360.

This is a bit offtopic, but the best performance scores on the 9360 (7th and 8th gen) are obtained with the following:

1) Removing the heatsink, cleaning the thermal gunk that's gathered on the CPU/GPU, and replacing it with arctic thermal pads with 1.5mm thickness. The net effect is that the bottom lid becomes a heatsink, but the CPU cooling is phenomenal.

2) Undervolting CPU/GPU/Cache/SystemIO etc using setup_var and/or voltageshift. This is highly processor specific, though you should at least get -50mV (~4-6C) across all chips. The 8th gen can be better undervolted, I'm on -150mV at the moment.

3) Raising the TDP threshold, using setup_var. There are a few combinations that need to be applied, such as unlocking CFG, unlocking TDP_lock, and a few other tricks. They're explained reasonably well elsewhere, but if there's any interest on this forum I could put a rough guide together. However I've found that a stable balance is 28W, as with 44W there'swever I think you maybetoo much up/down clocking leading to a drop in performance. It's worth exploring this again though, and I'll do that once I have an updated OpenCore baseline on which to run tests.

4) Unlocking the 4x PCIe lanes for faster memory and SDD/NVMe throughput. I've explained how to do this a couple pages back, it's a bit risky as you need to use a programmer (and the BIOS chip on this laptop is incredibly difficult to attach to) but there's a significant boost. However, there is a slight hike in temperature, which in reality might also lead to the TDP limits explained in 3).

With regards to overclocking, I recall that the U-series chipsets have their max multiplier locked, so I don't think it's possible to unlock. But if anyone has any additional info on this please get in touch.

when I look at your scores on Geekbench your motherboard says Dell Inc. mine says acidanthera.
with regards to heatsink, I didn't change anything, fully stock. however I think you maybe right regarding different cooling on the 2 laptops. xps seems to be closed in like a MacBook. I didn't see many vents. I'm also using MacBook Pro 15,1 smbios. hope this helps @jkbuha could you help me get the HDMI port working? had it working in clover now can't seem to get it in Catalina and open core