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

[CaseySJ]

@CaseySJ I spoke too soon. It doesn’t appear to be working but I’m sure it was previously on 10.15.7.
Could it be Bios related?
I don’t think I had tried it since updating to F9i from F8.

We've noticed that flashed GC-Titan Ridge cards don't work properly with Thunderbolt devices that support "USB-C Alt Mode" connections. These alt mode devices are designed to operate with both Thunderbolt ports and USB-only ports (i.e. USB-C ports that only support USB protocol).

Please try a Thunderbolt-only device if you have one. For example, CalDigit and OWC Thunderbolt 3 docks are Thunderbolt-only devices and they should still work.

 

[jrhillma]

Hi, @CaseySJ, the BIOS update to F9i went just fine. Several reboots, everything worked. I decided to tackle the transition from Clover to OpenCore today. I followed this guide (0.6.3 mini-guide). Downloaded the .zip file, copied to the USB drive (freshly erased and reformatted per instructions), renamed the directory to "EFI". Used HackinDROM to upload my existing (Clover) config.plist from my boot EFI partition, selected the Z390 Designare OC 063 AMD GPU - CaseySJ option, downloaded the modified config.plist and copied it to the USB EFI partition in the OC directory.

On reboot, F12 then spacebar followed by double-clicking on Reset NVRAM. Rebooted again, F12, OC booted, selected my OSX boot disk and it froze at the apple screen with a progress bar that filled in maybe about 1/8". Let it sit for a long time, with no progress. Rebooted back in to OSX from Clover, modified the boot args in the OC config.plist to include "-v" and went through the boot process with OC again.

Here is where the system is hanging:

The OC troubleshooting guide suggests it's something to do with TSC. Before I go screwing around with stuff and making this worse, do you have any experience with this issue? Suggestions?

 

[gazzmanzx6]

We've noticed that flashed GC-Titan Ridge cards don't work properly with Thunderbolt devices that support "USB-C Alt Mode" connections. These alt mode devices are designed to operate with both Thunderbolt ports and USB-only ports (i.e. USB-C ports that only support USB protocol).

Please try a Thunderbolt-only device if you have one. For example, CalDigit and OWC Thunderbolt 3 docks are Thunderbolt-only devices and they should still work.

I don’t have any USB-C Alt Mode devices so I know it’s not that.
I’ve only tried it so far with an Apple FireWire adapter.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi, @CaseySJ, the BIOS update to F9i went just fine. Several reboots, everything worked. I decided to tackle the transition from Clover to OpenCore today. I followed this guide (0.6.3 mini-guide). Downloaded the .zip file, copied to the USB drive (freshly erased and reformatted per instructions), renamed the directory to "EFI". Used HackinDROM to upload my existing (Clover) config.plist from my boot EFI partition, selected the Z390 Designare OC 063 AMD GPU - CaseySJ option, downloaded the modified config.plist and copied it to the USB EFI partition in the OC directory.

On reboot, F12 then spacebar followed by double-clicking on Reset NVRAM. Rebooted again, F12, OC booted, selected my OSX boot disk and it froze at the apple screen with a progress bar that filled in maybe about 1/8". Let it sit for a long time, with no progress. Rebooted back in to OSX from Clover, modified the boot args in the OC config.plist to include "-v" and went through the boot process with OC again.

Here is where the system is hanging:


The OC troubleshooting guide suggests it's something to do with TSC. Before I go screwing around with stuff and making this worse, do you have any experience with this issue? Suggestions?

After installing BIOS F9i please confirm whether the following were done:

• Configured BIOS parameters according to Post 1, starting with F7 (Load Optimized Defaults)
• Set CFG-Lock to Disabled in the Boot section

 

[CaseySJ]

I don’t have any USB-C Alt Mode devices so I know it’s not that.
I’ve only tried it so far with an Apple FireWire adapter.

BIOS F9i should not impact the GC-Titan Ridge, but it is always possible to revert back to F8 (but this will require unlocking MSR 0xE2 once again). Because your Designare Z390 has on-board Thunderbolt, those ports should still work. Are you using the GC-Titan Ridge to drive a Thunderbolt monitor (i.e. with two DP-Ins)?

 

[jrhillma]

After installing BIOS F9i please confirm whether the following were done:

• Configured BIOS parameters according to Post 1, starting with F7 (Load Optimized Defaults)
• Set CFG-Lock to Disabled in the Boot section

Yes and Yes. I just re-did both, to be sure. Same hang point in OC boot.

EDIT: Scratch that, missed the XHCI Handoff. Fixed. Booted via OC just fine. Now to copy my DSDT over to the OC EFI partition so I can get my USB ports back. Then figure out how to upgrade to 0.6.4. Once that is succesful, it's off to Big Sur!

EDIT2: Booting via OC from Mac boot disk, all USB ports and everything else seems to work!

EDIT3: OC updated to 0.6.4 on both USB and boot disk successfully. I'm celebrating with a Manhattan. Big Sur will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[imcalledandy]

Hi @CaseySJ. Happy New Year.

I've been following your guides on how to enable TB3 Hotplug / full functionality because I found when I updated to Big Sur, only one of my 2 eGPUs was working. In Catalina, both worked great - from cold boot, but that's all I needed, really.

Anyway. I thought I'll take the plunge and so I've successfully flashed the Firmware but now Big Sur will not boot.

I get the following error: IOThunderboltEEPROM::getDROM - Error getting DROM from I/O Registry (0xe00002be)

I've booted into my working Catalina Backup and I can see that the Thunderbolt Device Tree shows the Thunderbolt Bus but the speed is 20GB/s

Hotplug must be working because both ports recognise the eGPU enclosures when plugged in but the graphics cards within do not show up in Graphics/Displays.

Because I can't boot into it, my process is to modify the Big Sur EFI from Catalina.

I added a modified .aml for the thunderbolt DROM, but I must have gone wrong somewhere at that stage because of the error.

I'd really appreciate some help from you (or anyone in this amazing community) to figure out where I'm going wrong.

Please let me know what you need from me by way of files and screenshots and I can provide them.

Edit: I'm using OpenCore, Mac Pro 7,1.

Best regards,
Andy

 

[mattbatt]

@CaseySJ Hi Casey, this concerns disk write speeds on TWO hackintoshes:
Hack A:2 year old, i9-9900k, Designare z390, Vega Frontier - upgraded from Majove to Catalina
Hack B: brand new, i9-9900k, Designare z390, 5700 XT - straight Catalina build

Both run a 500GB WD Blue SN550 NVMe Internal SSD in slot 2

Hack A Mojave:
Write: 2,750, read: 2,800

Hack A Catalina (clean install):
Write: 2,600, read: 2,850 THEN the write continues to drop as the test runs, going to about 1,100 MB write

Hack B Catalina:
Write: 1,450, read: 2,600 THEN the write continues to drop as the test runs, going to about 550 MB write

Both are running same install, same firmware, same BIOS settings.

Thoughts?

 

[Omanu]

After flashing, Thunderbolt may not work fully under Windows and Linux. It may be necessary to boot to macOS first, then warm boot to Windows and Linux.

Does flashed TB3 fully Compatible with windows as before flashing?

 

[gazzmanzx6]

BIOS F9i should not impact the GC-Titan Ridge, but it is always possible to revert back to F8 (but this will require unlocking MSR 0xE2 once again). Because your Designare Z390 has on-board Thunderbolt, those ports should still work. Are you using the GC-Titan Ridge to drive a Thunderbolt monitor (i.e. with two DP-Ins)?

Hi @CaseySJ It was just a thought about the BIOS. I may have a go at reverting to F8 to see if it works.
The Thunderbolt ports on the Designare are working fine. I just use the add in card for experimentation so it is not a problem. Just trying to pin down the reason for the change.