<< Solved >> i9-9900k, Asus Maximus XI Hero, Rx580 8Gb Pulse, Random Freezes

[skroutz999]

Hi everyone I built a new system 2 months ago mainly for video editing/photography work. This is my 4th hackintosh since 2013.
First of all system specs and bios settings:

Intel i9-9900k
Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390
G.Skill 16GB 3200mhz 16-18-18-38 RGB
Sapphire Rx580 8Gb Pulse
Samsung 970 EVO 500Gb
Samsung 850 EVO 250Gb
Dell U2413 1920x1200
Dell U2417h 1920x1080
Nzxt Kraken X62 AIO


BIOS Settings

VT-d - Disable
CFG-Lock - Disable
Secure Boot Mode - Disable
OS Type - Other OS
XHCI Handoff - Enabled
Above 4G Decoding - Enabled


2 Months ago...


At beginning of building this system my motherboard was Asus Prime Z-390-Aand gpu was Sapphire Rx580 8Gb Nitro+
After many successful installations using different methods, my main problem which is random freezes, remains until today.
Its not the 1st forum Im talking about my issue... I have write in many different places, trying many different methods, kexts, drivers, settings inside macOS/bios.

Important to know is that under Windows 10 everything is working great, including stress tests for cpu/gpu/ram/disks etc.

Also Random Freezes are present in both High Sierra 10.13.6 and Mojave (10.14 - 10.14.3)

The Nightmare!


Random freezes..! You don't know when it will happen...
In most cases I have found that happens in idle mode, especially when Im not doing anything. Everything except the mouse cursor freezes. If music or audio is playing when it happens, it continues play.
Around mouse cursor a green square glitch box is showing up. Only Reset works.
This issue drove me mad and almost got me crazy. Depression... where the issue lies? motherboard? gpu? ram? psu? where?!?!?!
So after many many attempts I took the decision to sell my Asus Prime Z390-A and buy Maximus XI Hero... and so I did! The result was 2 days later to have the 1st freeze again. Exactly the same as before! Its not motherboard related ofc... there are a few people that I already found to have success stories with the same motherboards! Nevermind I don't regret for my choice.

So, the procedure again... posts, settings, lots of reading, drivers, kexts, different clover builds etc. No Happiness!

Second conclusion was that most people use Pulse editions of Amd gpus cause they are the most stable. Very little info I had discovered about Nitro editions so far... that led me to pull the plug again, sell the Nitro and buy the Pulse Edition. OMG!

In reality and inside of my mind I knew that I would experience freezes again! They are here to stay.... Nightmare! So Pulse didn't work out for me either.

Temporary solution


A friend of mine lend me his Asus gtx1050 2Gb to test it for a couple of weeks. Nevertheless all my previews builds were based with Nvidia GPUs and never had any issues.
I installed High Sierra 10.13.6, enabled CSM in Bios cause otherwise only 1/2 monitors was working under HS. For 10 Days I didn't have any freezes at all!!!
Why? so many people are using these days rx580s to have native support under new MacOS... why it's not working for me!
For a second something crossed my mind... it may be that with gtx1050 I had CSM enabled... but I have it disabled with Rx580 otherwise I cannot boot at all. Cannot pass Apple logo loading screen!

HEVC, Hardware accelaration is working.
Fcpx BruceX test is giving me 14secs.
Geekbench also provides good results for cpu/ram 36900/6658.
OpenCL 143000, Metal 141000.
Heaven lastly is giving good score compared to other systems with same gpus.
Custom SSDT with all usbs working great.
Sleep/Wake works w/o issues.

If I can get rid these random freezes and rest my mind finally! Damn it... depression!


Many times crossed my mind to go back to win... but I can't! I love macOS... its the only way for a photographer/videographer! Prores, fcpx, immediacy, design, esthetics, os philosophy! I've been using windows machines since 11 years old and now Im 36. After 2013 windows died for me. Don't get me wrong, on my 3ssd I have them installed but very rarely I will use them. They work mostly as a backup machine in case I have to deliver a work to a client and something goes wrong with macos.

Stork you have experience with Asus motherboards, can you help please?

UPDATE (23/02): I bought also a new Corsair Rm850x 80+ Gold (2018 v2) psu to test with my system. Unfortunately I had freezes again... so it's not psu/voltage related. The searching for a "cure" continues...

All Settings I have used from CLOVER/BIOS/Geekbench etc.

UPDATE (17/4): I have ordered Gigabyte Z390 Dsignare and also the same Ram as CaseySJ uses on his build. When I will have the items on my hands I will follow step by step his guide and share the results. Fingers crossed.

 

[THAVAMPHOTO]

i want your efi folder plz , can you upload plz . . i am going to build up to this parts

 

[s01861218]

I also facing this problem 100% same like you...
I tried many many many methods, but issue still happen..
Need to big^n help~~><

 

[glofter1]

Did you overclock CPU ? memory more them XMP setup ??

 

[glofter1]

other question . did you have water cooler ? plug in USB ?

 

[Cito]

Hi @skroutz999
I just registered here to let you know that I'm experiencing exactly the same problems as you do
For a while I thought I'm the only one.

When I was on High Sierra 13.2 for most of the time I manage to work just fine although on the beginnings I had some troubles with random freezes which was very annoying. I know your pain

Now ( about two weeks ago) I decided to go for Mojave OS and cannot figure it out with this graphic card.
I think I've tried everything, different SMBIOS, configurations etc. According to all the guides I'm doing everything right, and it's working (benchmarks and H264/265 support and so on. Until it's gonna freeze

But I finally figured out what exactly is causing those freezes ! The temperature...
I have installed HWMonitor and all FakeSMC sensors kexts so I can monitor all the temps of my hardware including GPU.
As you probably know, the fans in RX580 are running until login window. Once the drivers will load fans will stop.
People write that it's just because ATI did that for the comfort of silence and and fans will start running under some pressure.
After lots of testing I've noticed that system freezes or have graphic glitches when it reaches 50 C. (48-51) exactly in the moment when the GPU fan is turning on for just a second. I think this moment of turning the fans causes some electrical shortcut or something and it is causing the system to freeze or generate graphic artifacts. That's why you never know when, sometimes just in idle state, or while web browsing. One it's get heat up cause fans are not spinning and it will reach 50 C it will start crashing.

So I did some research and eventually installed Windows10 on separate drive.
I thought that maybe my GPU bios is out of date and I have to update and Win10 is the only way to do it and examine my GPU. I've installed all the drivers and on Windows10 my RX580 works perfectly because of native drivers. My bios was actually up to date !

What I wanted to find out was about the fans if that was true that they wont start until certain point. And yes they wont until the temp will reach 40 C (according to the original bios values). I even manage to customize the bios of my GPU setting up fans to start at 35 C and so on to keep it cooler. I flashed modified bios using ATIflash successfully and on Windows worked as set.

When I logged back to Mac OS Mojave fans didn't start at all after GPU past 40 C. And again system freeze at 50 C (after playing on YT some 4K 60fps footage for a while to heat them up faster) just when fans suppose to start.
Now I don't know why Mac OS is somehow bypassing GPU Bios and using it's own drivers settings for this card. And apparently for this model, Mojave sets the fan spinn point at 50 C which this card is not handling very well, obviously causing system conflict.

Unfortunately my knowledge about Mac OS graphic drivers is very limited, I would even say none to find out how to correct temperature values to keep this GPU cooler.
I'm so pissed off cause this card should work OOTB and have native support and so far is causing me such a pain...

 

[Cito]

[ SOLVED ]
Finally, I've found the solution !

I've read somewhere that some people were changing their SMBIOS to iMac Pro which is weird cause it's not even close to the hardware that I'm using, especially CPU which I have i7-8700K and in this smbios is Intel Xeon W-2140B. But I switched to this smbios anyway for test and voila ! It's working.

I made some tests playing 4k hdr 60fps videos on YT, cinebench, Bruce test in FCP, and some graphic work in Ligtroom and it's working very solid. Once the GPU reaches 50 C temperature fans starting to spin but not freezes, glitches, flickering etc. Pure stability.

For some unknown reasons iGPU intel 630 is not working well with RX580 on the smbios definitions like 18,1 18,2 18,3 14,1 8,1 that I've tested. But with iMac Pro it's working !

I hope this solution will work for you as well.

Still tough I'm not happy that Mac OS is keeping GPU temperatures so high before it will run the fans. I would like to change it to keep it cooler but don't know how...

 

[Cito]

UPDATE
Actually not solved. The freezes still exist, just much rarer.
A this moment I removed WEG kext and in Clover I checked the option to load VBios. So now GPU fans are spinning and keeping it cool. I will test it for few days and see...

 

[skroutz999]

Hello guys!! It has passed some time from my last post, and I was missing looking to find a solution to my problem! I will answer to everyone's post separately. Thank you very much for your support!
So first of all, THAVAMPHOTO here is my EFI folder.

 

[skroutz999]

Hi glofter1, I didn't overclock my cpu, and I'm using just XMP I settings for my RAM. (I tried also XMP II but without luck.) Also, yes, my AIO water cooling solution which is Nzxt Kraken X62 has a 3 pin connector and also a mini USB to SATA connector. I thought 10 days ago that I found what the issue was for me. In both Prime Z390-A and Maximus XI Hero I had connected my AIO cooler to "AIO Pump" connector on the motherboard. I checked the manual of Kraken X62 and found out that I had to plug the 3pin connector to "CPU FAN" and not to the "AIO PUMP". From the manual on both Asus motherboards the volts that these connectors provide are the same with the difference that when you use "AIO PUMP" connector, the pump works always on max speed! Nevertheless I was happy for 7 days w/o any freezes, and then they showed up once again!