[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CaseySJ]

...
I plugged the GC-Titan Ridge card in the PCIEX8 slot of the Designare because my PCIEX4 slot is currently blocked by a piece of water-cooling tubing. I think it should be plugged in the PCIEX4 to run from PCH since there's already the internal Alpine Ridge running on the CPU.

I'll try disabling the internal thunderbolt controller and/or using the PCIEX4 on PCH to see if I can get full Thunderbolt functionality but there's hope !

That's a good idea. After disabling on-board Thunderbolt, please run IORegistryExplorer to see if the GC-Titan Ridge appears somewhere in the device tree. If unsure, simply select File --> Save As... and post that file.

 

[Gompy]

I'm happy to report that my LG Ultrafine 5K (2019) is now working at full 5K : 5120x2880@60Hz thanks to a GC-Titan Ridge PCIe card (with 2 DP inputs coming from the Radeon VII, 1 TB3 output to the display) :

Great!

Is the USB also working: Webcam, Speakers?


thanx!

 

[CaseySJ]

A beginers question about thunderbolt 3. Regarding video output through thunderbolt 3 port:

• Is it possible to output video through thunderbolt port with this setup (Designare, RX580, etc...)?
• If yes, is better than standard DisplayPort in the GPU?
• And, how can it be done? is the GPU sending video to MB and MB send it through thunderbolt port?

Just trying to understand

• Yes it's possible to output video through the Thunderbolt port. This can be done in two ways:
  • With iGPU. In this case we need to set Platform ID to 0x3E9B0007 to enable video output from the iGPU.
  • With AMD dGPU. In this case we need to connect DisplayPort cable from AMD GPU to DP-In port on the rear IO panel. This is the preferred method.
• There is no difference in image quality between a Thunderbolt connection and a direct DisplayPort connection. Thunderbolt simply carries one or two DisplayPort streams over a Thunderbolt cable.
  • However, a Thunderbolt monitor usually provides some extra features such as USB ports, speaker, and camera.
  • A single Thunderbolt cable can provide all of these connections (DisplayPort video, USB ports, speaker output, microphone input, and camera).

 

[CaseySJ]

I am about to pull the trigger on a build like this (Thank you @CaseySJ !)

I looked through the list of Thunderbolt 3 Experiences, but could not find any listings for the older Apollo Twin Solo MK1. I did notice the listing for the Apollo Twin Duo MK1 and that keep my hopes up.

The manual for this Apollo Twin Solo MK1 lists it as being compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 and specifically states that “Apollo Twin can be connected to a Thunderbolt 1 or Thunderbolt 2 port” and “Apollo Twin can be connected to compatible Thunderbolt 3 equipped computers via a qualified Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter.”

I currently run another two other Apollo Twin Solo MKI. One on a Gigabyte Z170 Designare through an Apple thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 cable and one on a Gigabyte Z370XP SLI motherboard with a Gigabyte GC-Alpine Ridge rev2 Thunderbolt 3 add-on card through an Apple thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 cable with no other issues than I had to active the Thunderbolt interface in Windows before I could use it in MacOS.

I did read through some of this massive thread including the part about Intel not allowing Legacy Mode and am currently not sure if the Apollo Twin Solo Mk1 will actually work with the thunderbolt interface on the Gigabyte Designare Z390.

Does anybody Thunderbolt savvy have any clue if this Apollo Twin Solo MK1 will work with the Gigabyte Z390 Designare?

There's a very good chance that the Apollo Twin Solo Mk1 will work with this board. But of course, if anyone has direct knowledge of this, please let us know...

 

[DazzboDuck]

OK This was Crystal Disk results

 

[aitor451]

• Yes it's possible to output video through the Thunderbolt port. This can be done in two ways:
  • With iGPU. In this case we need to set Platform ID to 0x3E9B0007 to enable video output from the iGPU.
  • With AMD dGPU. In this case we need to connect DisplayPort cable from AMD GPU to DP-In port on the rear IO panel. This is the preferred method.
• There is no difference in image quality between a Thunderbolt connection and a direct DisplayPort connection. Thunderbolt simply carries one or two DisplayPort streams over a Thunderbolt cable.
  • However, a Thunderbolt monitor usually provides some extra features such as USB ports, speaker, and camera.
  • A single Thunderbolt cable can provide all of these connections (DisplayPort video, USB ports, speaker output, microphone input, and camera).

Well explained. Thank you.

 

[DazzboDuck]

I am about to pull the trigger on a build like this (Thank you @CaseySJ !)

I looked through the list of Thunderbolt 3 Experiences, but could not find any listings for the older Apollo Twin Solo MK1. I did notice the listing for the Apollo Twin Duo MK1 and that keep my hopes up.

The manual for this Apollo Twin Solo MK1 lists it as being compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 and specifically states that “Apollo Twin can be connected to a Thunderbolt 1 or Thunderbolt 2 port” and “Apollo Twin can be connected to compatible Thunderbolt 3 equipped computers via a qualified Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter.”

I currently run another two other Apollo Twin Solo MKI. One on a Gigabyte Z170 Designare through an Apple thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 cable and one on a Gigabyte Z370XP SLI motherboard with a Gigabyte GC-Alpine Ridge rev2 Thunderbolt 3 add-on card through an Apple thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 cable with no other issues than I had to active the Thunderbolt interface in Windows before I could use it in MacOS.

I did read through some of this massive thread including the part about Intel not allowing Legacy Mode and am currently not sure if the Apollo Twin Solo Mk1 will actually work with the thunderbolt interface on the Gigabyte Designare Z390.

Does anybody Thunderbolt savvy have any clue if this Apollo Twin Solo MK1 will work with the Gigabyte Z390 Designare?

What I can tell you is that I am testing this Audio interface under both macOS and Windows, and its plug and play under Windows.Although I have yet to prove that the plug and play aspect works under macOS, some have encountered difficulties with plug n play as a hackintosh.

 

[CaseySJ]

OK This was Crystal Disk results

Those are excellent results.

 

[CODYQX4]

@CaseySJ Looks like newest OcQuirks now supports a plist so no more need to recompile to change quirks.

 

[CaseySJ]

@CaseySJ Looks like newest OcQuirks now supports a plist so no more need to recompile to change quirks.

Quite right!! We just need to configure OcQuirks.plist and copy it into the drivers folder. Will test this soon and update the Catalina Mini-Guide. Will also create a new post here.