Hardware acceleration woes — H264 & HEVC unavailable

[klebba]

Hi there,

VideoProc reports that H264 & HEVC are unavailable on my system; after reading several threads here I'm still not sure what I'm missing. I'm using iMac19,1 with iGPU set to "auto" in BIOS — boot args include "shiki-id=Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94" and "shikigva=80"

System info:

• i7 8700k
• Gigabyte Z390 Aorus ULTRA
• Radeon Pro W5700

Kexts:

• AppleALC
• IntelMausi
• Lilu
• SMCProcessor
• SMCSuperIO
• VirtualSMC
• WhateverGreen

Am I using the correct SMBIOS setting for my system?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jaymonkey]

@klebba,

VideoProc is just a GUI wrapper for the MacOS VideoToolBox API which will use Intel Quick Sync when using a SMBIOS (such as iMac19,X) that expects the IGPU to be enabled and configured as "Headless".

On a Hackintosh system the IGPU should be set to Enabled in the BIOS (not auto) as should Multi-Monitor Support if the option is there. You may also need to manually configure the IGPU PlatformID as Headless if WEG's auto detect / auto configure feature fails to do it for you.

See the Headless IGPU PlatformID's section in Chapter 4 of this guide for more info :-

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins

An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-in's Last Update: 22nd Jan 2021 (Add note about OpenCore config.plist modifications) About this Guide Note: This guide was written when Clover was the boot loader of choice as such the config.plist examples in this guide are mostley Clover specific ... if...

www.tonymacx86.com

Alternatively you can force the VideoToolBox API to use the dGPU for H264/H265 encode/decode by switching to the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS and disabling the IGPU in the BIOS. You should also remove all Shiki boot argument.

Note: The MacOS Sidecar feature will not work when using the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS as it relies on a T2 chip.

Cheers
Jay

 

[slim.jim]

Also note, VideoProc won't detect your card, but it will still work, unless it has AMD in the name. You can rename the card to something like AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT in Clover device properties.

 

[klebba]

Thanks @jaymonkey & @slim.jim — I will give this a try and report back. My main goal is to get Sidecar working; right now I can connect but only see a black screen. I’m using a card from osxwifi.com so I expect this should be possible with my system hardware. Would you agree?

 

[slim.jim]

Thanks @jaymonkey & @slim.jim — I will give this a try and report back. My main goal is to get Sidecar working; right now I can connect but only see a black screen. I’m using a card from osxwifi.com so I expect this should be possible with my system hardware. Would you agree?

Sidecar 100% requires the iGPU to be enabled and working.

 

[klebba]

@slim.jim thanks -- I guess what I'm trying to ask is whether or not the CPU+GPU+mobo in my system should be able to work with Sidecar. From what I have read my system is compatible, but I was hoping to have confirmation from an expert...

Update: I changed the iGPU BIOS setting from "auto" to "enabled" and then macOS failed to boot:




I presume this means I need to configure a Headless iGPU PlatformID, which I'm reading about now...

 

[klebba]

After much fiddling I'm still not able to boot with iGPU enabled. Can you point me in the right direction based on these error messages? Thanks in advance!

 

[slim.jim]

After much fiddling I'm still not able to boot with iGPU enabled. Can you point me in the right direction based on these error messages? Thanks in advance!

Do you have PEG set as primary?

 

[klebba]

PCIe 1 is my primary; that's the w5700 pro — is that what you're asking?

 

[klebba]

Interestingly Adobe Lightroom Classic reports that hardware acceleration is enabled, even when the iGPU is set to "auto"