How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[flymovies]

I have the same behavior with my Vega 64, I have it watercooled so I can't tell about the high fan speeds but its leds are always blinking like crazy, have you found a fix for that?

With 10.13.4 (17E199) it is now recognized as "Radeon RX Vega 64" without any SSDT or kext.

I have the same and no fix until now. The card is being recognized correctly, but the utilization during normal system operations seems to be beyond normal. I am running the liquid version of the Vega Frontier Edition, so I don't hear so much noise. Still, the machine is more silent when I open the video (you hear the fan of the AIO spinning down).

 

[kgp]

I keep getting a “macOS can’t be installed on this computer” error when I try to upgrade through the AppStore.

I click download and restart, then i select install from in clover, it starts installing, reboots, then I select the install image again in clover. After a while it comes to the install gui and gives me the error. No explanation.

I know the guide is being updated, so I can wait for that, I’m just excited to see that .4 in About this Mac.

Not facing any issue when directly upgrading via the Appstore..

 

[kgp]

I love the Vega FE. I wish I moved to AMD earlier. I was always an nVidia head because of CUDA in certain pro apps and gaming (sometimes) under Windows. You should 100% go with AMD because you will pull your hair out with nVidia and their current drivers. If you do any graphic work go with AMD. You don’t need a Vega FE. Honestly I had a RX560 4GB before this and it worked fine for dual monitors. It’s a good budget card. You can also go with the RX580. I just wanted a higher end Vega card because I’m coming from higher end nVidia cards and want to make sure I get the most possible as I plan to move to 4K monitors soon.

The fact that it’s supported OOB without waiting for drivers is a game changer for me. It’s basiclally a Vega 64 with 8GB more HBM2 RAM. Btw I opened the shroud and unplugged the LED light as I’m always annoyed by those things. I like clean setups.

AMD also has pro drivers on the windows side of you need it and you can switch between the adrenaline (gaming) drivers if you need. All works well.

My only complaint would be that it runs very hot. You need cool air to be hitting it and if are ever to do any gaming on it on the Windows side you should underclock the memory a little bit and boost the fans with WattMan.

Other than that it works beautifully under macOS. And with 10.13.4 WhateverGreen is not required anymore so future is looking great.

I picked up the card for $700 locally from CraigsList from a guy who mined with it for a week. Card was new and I have had no issues

I sold my liquid cooled 2x980Ti’s for $900 together so it all came out to be more than a good deal for me.

I just wish I had the Liquid Cooled Vega FE but that thing was ridiculously pricey everywhere. Maybe one of these days I can buy it when it’s available because I prefer LC versions of GPUs instead of blower style coolers. Those run hot and throttle way too much to my liking.

I don’t want to do a full on water cooled system because I upgrade components all the time like CPU and GPU and don’t want to deal with any liquid dripping. So I prefer AIO coolers.

I disagree with your above conclusions, my friend.. don't take it personally. But I think it is time to shed some light onto darkness.

1.) My Gigabyte Nvidia AORUS GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB 11 GB Xtreme Edition just works flawless with macOS High Sierra.

2.) I have never seen such a misery GPU like the Vega for 800-1000$ that is not even able to provide a proper native boot screen resolution. The ASUS splash screen is a simple mess and one is not able to follow the boot messages when booting macOS in verbose mode. ATI totally messed up the Vega firmware. The boot resolution is a simple no-go and apparently there is no workaround to fix this issue.

My Nvidia GPU just works flawless with my LG 38 inch, the Vega doesn't. After login to macOS, everything works fine although VegaGraphicsFixup.kext still seems mandatory. In any case, Vega's boot performance is simply a nightmare.. I would have never expected such lousy performance by such pricy piece of hardware, which just turns my 1000$ LG 38 inch into crap.

Sorry for being that frankly and for not being able to share your conclusions and overall Vega enthusiasm...

Cheers,

KGP

 

[kgp]

Where did you get your info from?
My Vega is totally flawless on the boot. Crystal clear and high resolution on my 34" Dell.
I could point you to many posts by people who have sold their Nvidia and got the Vega and who have never been happier.
It's just a shame that you've chosen to come back and immediately start slagging off posters and hardware that you don't like. I must say it was a much more civilised and happy thread, and probably more informative and helpful while you were away.

I just installed a iMac Pro system with a Vega Frontier for a client. I am not slagging off posters and hardware. This is not at all my intention. If you know a solution for the boot resolution issue, please go ahead and let me know about solutions.

The rest of your comments I simply try to ignore... in any case you are no one to tell me to stay away from my own thread...

Others are apparently allowed to permanently slag Nvidia GPUs.. But when I blame the Vegas, you blame on me, perfect.

Cheers,

KGP

 

[kgp]

Hi all,
Been following this thread for the last few days and I am excited to start my own first x299 build.
What is stopping me from spending money is Thunderbolt 3 functionality / issues / hot plug things, because TB 3 is
important for me. Happened to came across this thread.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/ssdt-for-thunderbolt-3-hotplug.248784/

Is this applicable to x299 boards discussed here?. KGP is going to update his guide, may be
this can also be included in the updated guide.

Mcity

We already reached TB hot plug long time before this new thread, which apparently lacks some reference. The guide update will contain a more detailed explanation in how to achieve the latter.

 

[izo1]

I disagree with your above conclusions, my friend.. don't take it personally. But I think it is time to shed some light onto darkness.

1.) My Gigabyte Nvidia AORUS GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB 11 GB Xtreme Edition just works flawless with macOS High Sierra.

2.) I have never seen such a misery GPU like the Vega for 800-1000$ that is not even able to provide a proper native boot screen resolution. The ASUS splash screen is a simple mess and one is not able to follow the boot messages when booting macOS in verbose mode. ATI totally messed up the Vega firmware. The boot resolution is a simple no-go and apparently there is no workaround to fix this issue.

My Nvidia GPU just works flawless with my LG 38 inch, the Vega doesn't. After login to macOS, everything works fine although VegaGraphicsFixup.kext still seems mandatory. In any case, Vega's boot performance is simply a nightmare.. I would have never expected such lousy performance by such pricy piece of hardware, which just turns my 1000$ LG 38 inch into crap.

Sorry for being that frankly and for not being able to share your conclusions and overall Vega enthusiasm...

Cheers,

KGP

You can disagree, that's fine. Doesn't make your opinion any more superior

I'm not a hobbyist, I'm a professional graphic artist. The only reason I use a Hackintosh (along with real Macs) is because Apple does not have a high end system that I want. I have a workflow that has issues with nVidia in general (and also many others are complaining about it as well).

For Vega, I have native boot resolution during BIOS and during Apple boot screen on my 2560x1440p (Apple Cinema Display) monitor. Are your issues with 4k displays? I don't have a 4k display or else I would test for you.

I have direct access to Apple engineers who work on Metal 2/Open CL and they have issues with nVidia as well and have told me so.

Apple is mainly optimized for AMD. Even their nVidia based older Macs have issues with nVidia + High Sierra.

I have 0 issues with the Vega FE and it works better than 980Ti's or 1080Ti's/1080 that I had before for testing purposes under High Sierra. No drivers needed and everything is fluid and no lag whatsoever.

My daily workload consists of having most Adobe applications open (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Bridge) and OpenCL is being utilized fully, Chrome with multiple tabs open (30+), Davinci Resolve, etc.....nVidia would always slow down to a crawl due to bad drivers. This is why I have 64GB of RAM because this is my workflow and has been for 10+ years now including when using real Mac Pros (Cheesegrater and TrashCan). 128GB is on the horizon soon as memory prices drop.

Sierra was another story. nVidia worked fine for me and was rock solid. Not having to install any drivers for the GPU upon each system update is really good for me.

I love nVidia, especially CUDA, but I was tired of performance issues in High Sierra and getting as close as to a real Mac is always my intention with Hackintoshes. Also nVidia is obviously better in terms of raw performance and low power usage. In general, nVidia is way ahead of AMD in terms of gaming performance. Compute performance AMD is doing pretty well.

I plan to get a real Mac when a new 2018 Mac Pro is announced hopefully. Not having to deal with troubleshooting is always a + for me. I barely have enough time to sleep let alone troubleshoot day to day.

Although this X299 build has been the most stable Hackintosh I've had in a while.

 

[xerox24]

I just saw that the high sierra build 10.13.4 (17E199) is the same in mac 6.1 as in imacpro 1.1.
Now it can be downloaded directly from the appstore....

 

[RuleBreaker01]

The Gaming 7 and Gaming 9 both have a Thunderbolt AIC connector on the motherboard. However, while the Gaming 9 has a TB entry in the bios, the 7 pro doesn't appear to, at least the BIOS doesn't refer to it. Could be a mistake in the manual.
Has anyone used a TB3 card with this motherboard?

 

[kgp]

You can disagree, that's fine. Doesn't make your opinion any more superior

I'm not a hobbyist, I'm a professional graphic artist. The only reason I use a Hackintosh (along with real Macs) is because Apple does not have a high end system that I want. I have a workflow that has issues with nVidia in general (and also many others are complaining about it as well).

For Vega, I have native boot resolution during BIOS and during Apple boot screen on my 2560x1440p (Apple Cinema Display) monitor. Are your issues with 4k displays? I don't have a 4k display or else I would test for you.

I have direct access to Apple engineers who work on Metal 2/Open CL and they have issues with nVidia as well and have told me so.

Apple is mainly optimized for AMD. Even their nVidia based older Macs have issues with nVidia + High Sierra.

I have 0 issues with the Vega FE and it works better than 980Ti's or 1080Ti's/1080 that I had before for testing purposes under High Sierra. No drivers needed and everything is fluid and no lag whatsoever.

My daily workload consists of having most Adobe applications open (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Bridge) and OpenCL is being utilized fully, Chrome with multiple tabs open (30+), Davinci Resolve, etc.....nVidia would always slow down to a crawl due to bad drivers. This is why I have 64GB of RAM because this is my workflow and has been for 10+ years now including when using real Mac Pros (Cheesegrater and TrashCan). 128GB is on the horizon soon as memory prices drop.

Sierra was another story. nVidia worked fine for me and was rock solid. Not having to install any drivers for the GPU upon each system update is really good for me.

I love nVidia, especially CUDA, but I was tired of performance issues in High Sierra and getting as close as to a real Mac is always my intention with Hackintoshes. Also nVidia is obviously better in terms of raw performance and low power usage. In general, nVidia is way ahead of AMD in terms of gaming performance. Compute performance AMD is doing pretty well.

I plan to get a real Mac when a new 2018 Mac Pro is announced hopefully. Not having to deal with troubleshooting is always a + for me. I barely have enough time to sleep let alone troubleshoot day to day.

Although this X299 build has been the most stable Hackintosh I've had in a while.

Yes I have the LG 38UC99-W with 3840 pix x 1600 pix, that's the problem. No other critics or complains about the Vega despite the hampered boot screen resolution. Any other issue apparently can be easily fixed by means of VegaGraphicsFixup.kext or an adequate SSDT.

Glad that you are happy with your Vega and that everything works as expected ...

With respect to it's LG 38UC99-W support I am however quite disappointed. That's all I wanted to state and say. I think it is fair not to exclusively report in favour of outstanding products but also to report about persistent flaws.

Otherwise respective users are easily mislead.. I hope you agree that this is the last thing we want, right?

All the best and nothing for bad, man..

KGP

 

[kgp]

I just saw that the high sierra build 10.13.4 (17E199) is the same in mac 6.1 as in imacpro 1.1.
Now it can be downloaded directly from the appstore....

But apparently only on builds different from iMacPro1,1.. If I download the 10.13.4 (17E199) full package installer from the Appstore on my iMacPro, it's file size is 22.4 MB instead of 5.22 GB...