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[SUCCESS] 5K Resolution with AMD RX580, Dell UP2715K and Sierra 10.12.5

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XQC

Joined
Mar 4, 2013
Messages
132
Motherboard
GA Z170 UD3
CPU
i7 6770K
Graphics
AMD RX580
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
Yesterday I made the switch from Nvidia 970/1070 to AMD RX580 (Sapphire RX 580 8G Nitro+)

This is my first AMD card ever and I started hackintoshing in 2013.
I bought the 5K Dell UP2715K last year and although it was working with the 970, there was this annoyance with power cycling the monitor with every reboot, otherwise it wouldn't run in 5K mode.

The real problems began with the 1070 and Sierra though. First I had to wait nearly one year for Pascal drivers. But with Sierra a new bug was introduced: The mouse cursor will be stuck to different symbols in the left panel of the monitor.

So I had the choice A: Stay with El Capitan, but can't use 1070 GPU. Choice B, upgrade to Sierra, enable the 1070 and live with the annoying mouse cursor bug. But since we're close to the sixth point release of Sierra and Nvidia still didn't fix this issue, I doubt that the bug will be fixed soon.

So I had the final choice C: Switch to AMD. Luckily for me, it was newly found that the RX580 will be natively supported in High Sierra 10.13!

First, getting 5K to work is a real PITA with this thing, because there's so little documentation on the internet with AMD, Macs and 5K monitors. I had to spent (literally!) a whole day figuring out a working solution. I had basic acceleration, but the two panels of the UP2715K are recognized as two different monitors.

Having said that, 5K works with my hackintosh now 100% without any issues - no power cycling, no mouse cursor bugs! Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice the 1070's GPU power, but I rather take the 30-40% performance cut for a working 5K solution without any bugs or hassles!

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.54.47.png Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.55.29.png
DISCLAIMER:
- I won't start at the beginning – I'll assume that you know how to use Clover Configurator and you got the basic acceleration working with your helper card and your AMD GPU (Thread)
- I won't give support in this thread, I just wanted to share for others how I got it to work.
- I know that there are other ways to enable 5K with AMD GPUs (described by @LostVector and @Azimuth1 in other threads), but these methods didn't work for me!

My hardware:

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3
- Intel i7 6700K Skylake (Intel HD530 GPU)
- AMD RX580 (Sapphire RX 580 8G Nitro+)

Step 0:
Required / Recommended Apps:
Textmate, Kext Utility, Clover Configurator
Make a backup of AMD9510Controller.kext from S/L/E and your Clover configuration, just in case.

Step 1:
SMBIOS:
The only SMBIOS configs that worked for me were either MacMini(7,1) or MacPro(6,1)! Obviously I would go for the MacPro config. I had no luck with iMac(17,1)!

Step 2:
Editing the Info.plist in AMD9510Controller.kext. I use Textmate, because it allows you to directly edit and save the file in the S/L/E folder (use with caution though).
Besides adding 0x67DF1002 for basic acceleration, the crucial part is to switch both CFG_USE_AGDC values to true. It seems that this is the MST switch to merge both panels of the monitor to one display.
After editing, you have to open Kext Utility and it will refresh the Kernel cache automatically.

Step 3:
Copy the according settings from these Clover Configurator screenshots. These are the only relevant settings for getting 5K to work. I didn't use any on-the-fly kext patches.

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.39.14.png

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.39.27.png

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.39.36.png

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.39.46.png

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 13.40.06.png

After a restart, I got the full 5K glory shining upon me!

Bildschirmfoto 2017-06-21 um 14.27.03.png

Bonus (optional):
Enabling all 36 cores of the RX580 (otherwise capped at 16 cores):
1. download this script: https://www.theitsage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/enable-baffin-CUs.sh_.zip
2. Terminal: chmod +x enable-baffin-CUs.sh
3. Terminal: sudo ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh baffin 36
4. Reboot.
 
Last edited:
@Azimuth1
If you tell me how to do it, sure.
 
@Azimuth1
If you tell me how to do it, sure.

Sure! you can go here and you will find the link to download DPCIManager.

When you open it you will have the screenshot:

Screenshot 2017-06-21 23.15.39.png
in the line that I have underlined in green - which refers to the GPU - you will notice a little eye on the left. If you click on it, it will make the dump of your GPU BIOS. It might freeze all the machine for a while but afterwards you will find a file .rom on your desktop. That's your video BIOS. Zip it and put it online wherever you want so that I can download it. Thank you so much!
 
Zip it and put it online wherever you want so that I can download it. Thank you so much!
I attach it here. What's the purpose? :)
 

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@XQC
I notice the screensnap showing resolution also has 2 Displayport icons. Did you need 2 cables from the RX580?
 
I attach it here. What's the purpose? :)
thank you, 1st of all. The purpose is simple: I do want to continue to research to port mapping with frame buffer personalities inside the AMD*.kext to improve the 5K functionality. As I posted here .
 
@XQC
I notice the screensnap showing resolution also has 2 Displayport icons. Did you need 2 cables from the RX580?
Every 5K monitor at the market right now needs 2 cables, since Displayport 1.2 only supports 4k resolutions at max. So it has two signals which the GPU merges to one 5K display – and that right here is the difficulty with a hackintosh, because at default it actually shows two different monitors in the settings, each at QHD resolution. You need to find the switch hidden deep within the drivers. And since these monitors are pretty niche, bug fixes are not a priority for Apple, Nvidia or AMD.
The only exception is the LG 5K monitor officially advertised by Apple with one thunderbolt cable, but thunderbolt is in turn nearly non-present in the PC market.

My RX580 card has Displayport 1.4 connections which even support up to 8K/60Hz with only one cable, but there's no DP 1.4 monitor in the market yet.
 
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@XQC

In attach you will find your GPU's decoders, just in case you want to follow my guide. BTW do you have any other monitor beside the DELL 5K?
 

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@Azimuth1
Thanks, though I didn't quite understand what benefit your guide has :mrgreen:

Everything's working for me. Luxmark gives me approx. 14000 points and the BruceX benchmark 18 seconds, which even beats the GTX1080.

The only little downside at the moment is that you need the helper card for booting with AMD GPUs, but I can live with that.

Edit: The Dell is my only monitor.
 
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