- Joined
- Jul 21, 2011
- Messages
- 379
- Motherboard
- Zbook G5 17"
- CPU
- i7
- Graphics
- AMD WX-4170
- Mac
Back to testing and Big Sur works in UMA mode! (same as Catalina cant make it work with WX-4170)
Also, finally figured out a nice workaround for WX-4170 compute using laptop display without snow.
Method only works in Mojave:
Bios in Hybrid Mode.
igfxgl=1 bootflag (forcing no metal on IGPU)
and UMA framebuffer patches even though outputs are being run by WX card.
Results
OSX is forced to only use WX for OpenGL and Metal, but uses IGPU to drive main laptop display.
Benchmarks are similar to hdmi screen mirror dongle trick, so very usable.
But I added PolarisBoost Kext to make them better, but soon figured it was not safe, as it was forcing the GPU clock to stay at 1.200 Ghz all the time, even on idle, and that made the GPU temp under load very bad, so I edited the polarisboost kext and removed the force max flags.
Success!
Benchmarks are almost the same as with external outputs.
Something funny is that H265 encoding using handbrake is still being handled by the IGPU, maybe I can adjust my AppleGVA edits to also force H264 encodes and decodes on IGPU, but keep all metal and compute on the ATI card.
Using the UMA framebuffer edits is to avoid KP if connecting external monitor after the laptop wakes from sleep. It seems like the conectors somehow revert to IGPU, which is very weird. Before sleep, external screens are handled by GPU, but after sleep, they are now handled by IGPU. And that explains why I was getting a KP when plugging external display on hybrid after sleep. Probably also breaks HDMI audio out, but haven't tested yet.
Will continue to troubleshoot this one, but it looks like an DSDT edit.
Also I find that if I plug a monitor (before sleep) and run benchmarks on the external screen while on batt power, something weird happens and performance drops substantially. I tried different framebuffers but this one seems to be ATI related.
Could be Polarisboost helps on internal screen but screws externals?
I'm thinking AGDP related
A nice side effect of this is that CPU temp is lower, so now using this (undervoltable) old Bios that keeps fans spinning faster at lower temps is a bit less noisy.
Also, finally figured out a nice workaround for WX-4170 compute using laptop display without snow.
Method only works in Mojave:
Bios in Hybrid Mode.
igfxgl=1 bootflag (forcing no metal on IGPU)
and UMA framebuffer patches even though outputs are being run by WX card.
Results
OSX is forced to only use WX for OpenGL and Metal, but uses IGPU to drive main laptop display.
Benchmarks are similar to hdmi screen mirror dongle trick, so very usable.
But I added PolarisBoost Kext to make them better, but soon figured it was not safe, as it was forcing the GPU clock to stay at 1.200 Ghz all the time, even on idle, and that made the GPU temp under load very bad, so I edited the polarisboost kext and removed the force max flags.
Success!
Benchmarks are almost the same as with external outputs.
Something funny is that H265 encoding using handbrake is still being handled by the IGPU, maybe I can adjust my AppleGVA edits to also force H264 encodes and decodes on IGPU, but keep all metal and compute on the ATI card.
Using the UMA framebuffer edits is to avoid KP if connecting external monitor after the laptop wakes from sleep. It seems like the conectors somehow revert to IGPU, which is very weird. Before sleep, external screens are handled by GPU, but after sleep, they are now handled by IGPU. And that explains why I was getting a KP when plugging external display on hybrid after sleep. Probably also breaks HDMI audio out, but haven't tested yet.
Will continue to troubleshoot this one, but it looks like an DSDT edit.
Also I find that if I plug a monitor (before sleep) and run benchmarks on the external screen while on batt power, something weird happens and performance drops substantially. I tried different framebuffers but this one seems to be ATI related.
I'm thinking AGDP related
A nice side effect of this is that CPU temp is lower, so now using this (undervoltable) old Bios that keeps fans spinning faster at lower temps is a bit less noisy.
Last edited: