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

[didii]

Woah, I almost updated mine not knowing about this. Thanks Bozma

 

[jkbuha]

Good observation. Same high scores all round with 2018-001 update. Counter-intuitively, this is the fix for Spectre/Meltdown, so technically there should have been an impact on speculative execution and indirect branch prediction.

 

[rama1981]

Since High Sierra I have bad scores, but a very stable system.
Bios 2.3.1
i7-7500U

 

[oddolivier]

Problems:
- no kextcache output provided. Please provide output of 'sudo kextcache -i /'
- CPU PM not implemented
- NVMe+APFS is a bad idea. install on HFS+J instead.

I thought that if the Intel Power Gadget shows that the CPU Power usage change it means I had power management. That is not correct?

 

[bozma88]

I thought that if the Intel Power Gadget shows that the CPU Power usage change it means I had power management. That is not correct?

Not exactly.
Power management involves a series of hardware and software states to lower power consumption without (ideally) impacting the overall perceived system performance.
For example, in addition to frequency stepping, CPU cores can go to lower power states in which they deactivate part of their circuitry in order to save power.
That applies to CPU, GPU and many other ICs inside the PC.
My build, in its base (post#1) form, does not explicitly activate OS-driven CPU and GPU PM, and that raises Rehabman's observation about PM not being present.
On systems equipped with i7-7500U, this seems the best choice, because the battery lasts 10+ hours, CPU and GPU step correctly and go to low states (up to C7, IIRC), and everything else work like a charm.
Bear in mind that this may lead to other unexpected and still undetected problems.
On 9360 configurations other than mine, explicitly enabling OS-driven HWP may be required to get full performance/stability/better battery life.

 

[bozma88]

Since High Sierra I have bad scores, but a very stable system.
Bios 2.3.1
i7-7500U

View attachment 308878

Very low results, you clearly have a problem with the CPU not boosting its frequency (or other issues like thermal throttling or CPU-eating processes running).

 

[tamerlan4572]

@rama1981 Hey man - something is wrong with your setup for sure I have i5 and better scores on HS 13.2

 

[RehabMan]

I thought that if the Intel Power Gadget shows that the CPU Power usage change it means I had power management. That is not correct?

Your ioreg shows X86PlatformPlugin not loaded, therefore CPU PM is not implemented as we expect for your hardware.
Read here for details:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-native-power-management-for-laptops.175801/

 

[rama1981]

i see the intel power gadget cpu peak is at 2,2 Ghz. Have to check out the problem.

Edit: changed smbios to MacBook Pro 14,1, now all works perfect.
Thank you for the ideas.

 

[marinegr]

Is the first post up to date ? has usb c hot swap issue been resolved ?