iMac Pro X299 - Live the Future now with macOS 10.14 Mojave [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[pieropontra]

See above @izo1 pointed out the differences about it.

I got a similar card from FENVI T19 bought on AliExpress, it has the same Broadcom BT 4.0 chip. Do anybody here have some info about newer 5.0 real man chips? Anyway my card works fine, a part from some sporadic issues with pointer speed. Dunno if it's related to interferences or drivers. Anyone notices something similar? I also have to disable network switch on to let sleep wake work fine.

 

[EricTheHalfABee]

Following up on @kgp announcement about Radeon VII, it seems that full support is available in 10.14.5 Beta.

Confirmed. It was plug and play with yesterday's update in my Asus Prime X299 Deluxe system. OpenCL bench comparison scores are of a RX-480 (top number - 127,645) vs the VII (150,426). I will play with it this weekend and update if any issues appear. VGTab also appears to open with this card. Games and everything else that wasn't working are now. Wish I had time to test right now to check for acceleration, etc. Just to clarify - the VII is in the system alone (no helper card).

 

[DD1040]

A big thank you to KGP for leading this guide, and the High Sierra x299 guide.

following #2539/#2540
I currently have the WS x299 Sage

And, I'd like to change to gain either onboard 10g or thunderbolt; as well as have closer alignment with the guide or that more works oob.

The shortlist is:

1. WS Sage 10g (due to excellent docs/discussion here and point about cost of 2xIntel 10g), from the threads:
2. GA Designare (2x onboard thunderbolt), or the
3. ASRock X299 Pro Gaming XE (onboard 10g). If possible I'd particularly appreciate if @Rulebreaker01 could comment on his Asrock.

I was ready to pull the trigger today on the GA Designare via https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07826HGQJ/?tag=tonymacx8603-21 as it seemed easiest to have a vanilla install, and is part of the guide; but then read one of the comments about how installing more m.2 drives could block the sata ports. This led to looking more closely at the Asrock, and even considering jumping ship to the Asus c422 Sage 10g.

The machine will be primarily used for FCPX/DaVinci with a dual boot Win10. I prefer vanilla installs with the lifting done in clover. Any guidance or experience would be most appreciated.

kind regards, D

 

[djlild7hina]

A big thank you to KGP for leading this guide, and the High Sierra x299 guide.

following #2539/#2540
I currently have the WS x299 Sage

And, I'd like to change to gain either onboard 10g or thunderbolt; as well as have closer alignment with the guide or that more works oob.

The shortlist is:

1. WS Sage 10g (due to excellent docs/discussion here and point about cost of 2xIntel 10g), from the threads:
2. GA Designare (2x onboard thunderbolt), or the
3. ASRock X299 Pro Gaming XE (onboard 10g). If possible I'd particularly appreciate if @Rulebreaker01 could comment on his Asrock.

I was ready to pull the trigger today on the GA Designare via https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07826HGQJ/?tag=tonymacx8603-21 as it seemed easiest to have a vanilla install, and is part of the guide; but then read one of the comments about how installing more m.2 drives could block the sata ports. This led to looking more closely at the Asrock, and even considering jumping ship to the Asus c422 Sage 10g.

The machine will be primarily used for FCPX/DaVinci with a dual boot Win10. I prefer vanilla installs with the lifting done in clover. Any guidance or experience would be most appreciated.

kind regards, D

Curious why you don’t just add a Titan ridge adapter to your sage?

 

[izo1]

I got a similar card from FENVI T19 bought on AliExpress, it has the same Broadcom BT 4.0 chip. Do anybody here have some info about newer 5.0 real man chips? Anyway my card works fine, a part from some sporadic issues with pointer speed. Dunno if it's related to interferences or drivers. Anyone notices something similar? I also have to disable network switch on to let sleep wake work fine.

The one I recommended has a BT 4.2 Broadcom BCM94360CS2, not a 4.0 chip. There’s various versions available, and some look exactly the same but are not the BCM94360CS2.

As far as BT 5.0 or recent ones from real Macs, Apple is using soldered on custom chips and I personally have looked hard to find one that was in a module we could use, but nothing is available yet. Maybe someone else has more insight somewhere...

 

[pieropontra]

The one I recommended has a BT 4.2 Broadcom BCM94360CS2, not a 4.0 chip. There’s various versions available, and some look exactly the same but are not the BCM94360CS2.

As far as BT 5.0 or recent ones from real Macs, Apple is using soldered on custom chips and I personally have looked hard to find one that was in a module we could use, but nothing is available yet. Maybe someone else has more insight somewhere...

I'm unable to find a PCIE adapter + BCM94360CS2 combo, is it possible sto swap the old BCM94360 for the newer BCM94360CS2 on my own PCIE adapter? Do you have some tips where to buy a cheap and reliable BCM94360CS2 (+ reliable PCIE adapter)? Thanks mate.

 

[DD1040]

Hi, @djlild7hina
Fair question on 'just adding a titan ridge to my sage'

The sage differs just enough from both original reference Asus x299 Prime Deluxe, and the Sage 10g, that one can't just drop in what is working from KGP's github especially with reference to the guides point e.9 Asus Pci device implementation; the WS Sage always requires just a little more tweaking.

Hence, to be more productive with time, the goal is either to match directly the Sage 10g like you and KGP have; or to go with something that appears to support more OOB. That's why my switch shortlist includes the Gigabyte Designare ex, and the Asrock Pro Gaming XE; its also why I am particularly interested in any feedback from @Rulebreaker01.

Getting the respective thunderbolt, or 10g ports on board also helps compensate a bit for having less PCIe slots on either the Gigabyte or Asrock. That said, both have internal USB 2.0 headers which the Asus are missing, and the GA, also supports RDimm and LRDimm 32 modules which could bring memory to 256g, (the last point is of interest as the HP z820 I put together, is being used for audio where the virtual instruments love to eat memory). Ideally, I could replace the HP, and go to a pair of twin builds with one having 256gb of ram. Crucial seems to think this is possible, as does the gigabyte manual. Researching it though, some of the GA boards have lost the functionality to use rdimms and lrdimms after bios version 8. The larger memory is part of what has me considering the WS Sage 422 10g; which even appears more similar in layout and spec to the x299 Sage 10g, than is the plain x299 sage.

My reservation with onboard 10g, and part of the initial decision to go with plain WS Sage over the 10g version, was when Apple pushed the Aquantina update in 10.13.3; it was unclear about the possibility of being bricked... I didn't want to get stuck with a 10g card that couldn't be used on board. Being able to change a card seemed easier than swapping a board; and less risky than finding the rig just wouldn't be working one day. (I also don't have a current install of 10.13.3 to roll back; so not sure how good the Asrock is with Aquantia 10g for someone coming late to the game.)

So, it'd be great to hear about GA Designare, and Asrock Pro Gaming XE.

d

 

[djlild7hina]

Hi, @djlild7hina
Fair question on 'just adding a titan ridge to my sage'

The sage differs just enough from both original reference Asus x299 Prime Deluxe, and the Sage 10g, that one can't just drop in what is working from KGP's github especially with reference to the guides point e.9 Asus Pci device implementation; the WS Sage always requires just a little more tweaking.

Hence, to be more productive with time, the goal is either to match directly the Sage 10g like you and KGP have; or to go with something that appears to support more OOB. That's why my switch shortlist includes the Gigabyte Designare ex, and the Asrock Pro Gaming XE; its also why I am particularly interested in any feedback from @Rulebreaker01.

Getting the respective thunderbolt, or 10g ports on board also helps compensate a bit for having less PCIe slots on either the Gigabyte or Asrock. That said, both have internal USB 2.0 headers which the Asus are missing, and the GA, also supports RDimm and LRDimm 32 modules which could bring memory to 256g, (the last point is of interest as the HP z820 I put together, is being used for audio where the virtual instruments love to eat memory). Ideally, I could replace the HP, and go to a pair of twin builds with one having 256gb of ram. Crucial seems to think this is possible, as does the gigabyte manual. Researching it though, some of the GA boards have lost the functionality to use rdimms and lrdimms after bios version 8. The larger memory is part of what has me considering the WS Sage 422 10g; which even appears more similar in layout and spec to the x299 Sage 10g, than is the plain x299 sage.

My reservation with onboard 10g, and part of the initial decision to go with plain WS Sage over the 10g version, was when Apple pushed the Aquantina update in 10.13.3; it was unclear about the possibility of being bricked... I didn't want to get stuck with a 10g card that couldn't be used on board. Being able to change a card seemed easier than swapping a board; and less risky than finding the rig just wouldn't be working one day. (I also don't have a current install of 10.13.3 to roll back; so not sure how good the Asrock is with Aquantia 10g for someone coming late to the game.)

So, it'd be great to hear about GA Designare, and Asrock Pro Gaming XE.

d

The Thunderbolt implementation on the sage/sage 10GB is identical and the SSDT changes are very minor. You could also get a USB card with an internal USB header or an adapter that converts internal USB to route it outside the case. But switching to the other boards or even the c422 series to support more ram makes sense. The sage 10G doesn’t use the Aquantia 10.13.3 flash method and there are some native 10g pci cards out there. Just my two cents but best of luck on whatever you decide!

 

[izo1]

I'm unable to find a PCIE adapter + BCM94360CS2 combo, is it possible sto swap the old BCM94360 for the newer BCM94360CS2 on my own PCIE adapter? Do you have some tips where to buy a cheap and reliable BCM94360CS2 (+ reliable PCIE adapter)? Thanks mate.

Yeah I tried to do that with my OSXWifi card (Upgrading the module) but had trouble so I just picked up that other card and don’t have to worry about the bt stuff anymore

I figure since this new card was all shielded up and everything I didn’t have to worry about interference etc.

 

[bundog]

Thanks for your information. I also have a VII runs no problem on Z390 with IGPU enabled, though I don't see any improment in Davinci Resolve referring to vega64.But when switched to X299 without IGPU on board, VII works badly ,poor performance,much slower than Vega64
Does you know why? I implemented KGP's x299-VII.SSDT,bt the way.