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

[CaseySJ]

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.

Hello @imcalledandy,

Welcome to the forum! Was the Thunderbolt firmware flashed when you were running Catalina, or did you flash the firmware after upgrading to Big Sur? Because the eGPUs were working in Catalina, I assume firmware was flashed back then?

• What are the makes/models of the two eGPUs?
• Which one works in Big Sur and which one does not?
• What are the makes/models of the GPUs inside each eGPU chassis?

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

Please clarify if you flashed the firmware after upgrading to Big Sur or it was flashed earlier when you were running Catalina?

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

This just means that the Thunderbolt SSDT you're using is not properly set up. Please post the following files:

• IORegistryExplorer --> File --> Save As...
• The Thunderbolt SSDT you're currently using

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

This is typically resolved by fixing the Thunderbolt SSDT (see above).

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.

Please clarify whether (a) both graphics cards in both eGPUs do not show up or (b) one of the graphics cards in one of the eGPUs shows up?

• Is this in Catalina?
• Your first sentence states that both eGPUs were working in Catalina...

As you can see, it's vitally important to provide details clearly. I always encourage everyone to use bullet lists instead of lengthy paragraphs.

 

[CaseySJ]

@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?

Hello @mattbatt,

Some immediate thoughts:

• Is the WD Blue SN550 installed in the same M.2 slot on both motherboards?
• Read/write performance will degrade as the drive warms up. Hence it's normal to see diminishing speeds when stress tests are run back-to-back.
• Have you considered temporarily moving the WD Blue SN550 from Hack A into the same M.2 slot on Hack B?
  • Or vice-versa?

 

[CaseySJ]

Does flashed TB3 fully Compatible with windows as before flashing?

It depends on the type of Thunderbolt device you connect. Some work better than others with a flashed controller, and some do not work at all.

If you do flash the firmware, simply test all of your Thunderbolt devices under Windows. If the results are unacceptable you can always flash the original firmware back.

 

[CaseySJ]

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.

The Apple Firewire adapter should work with flashed GC-Titan Ridge. Does it work when connected to one of the on-board Thunderbolt ports?

 

[gazzmanzx6]

The Apple Firewire adapter should work with flashed GC-Titan Ridge. Does it work when connected to one of the on-board Thunderbolt ports?

It works fine with the on-board ports which aren’t flashed.

 

[vitoludo]

Hi @CaseySJ,
(despite I know that is not recommended to use a modified firmware file and use it in another motherboard)
does any of these modified firmware could potentially be used to flash the onboard GA-X99P-SLI thunderbolt chip?
Gigabyte Designare Z390 and B550 Vision D Motherboards
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Xtreme Motherboard
Gigabyte Z490 Vision D Motherboard

Thank you

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi @CaseySJ,
(despite I know that is not recommended to use a modified firmware file and use it in another motherboard)
does any of these modified firmware could potentially be used to flash the onboard GA-X99P-SLI thunderbolt chip?

Hello @vitoludo

The GA-X99P-SLI contains an Alpine Ridge controller so we cannot flash the firmware using the files for Z390, B550, and Z490 motherboards because they contain Titan Ridge.

However, Thunderbolt bus can be activated on most ("most" does not mean "all") Alpine Ridge controllers with just a SSDT. We have done this for several motherboards in this post.

If you'd like to try this, please do the following:

• State which version of macOS you're running
• State whether you're using Clover or OpenCore
• Provide your motherboard's "System DSDT" -- do this from Hackintool

• Provide your IOReg dump (IORegistryExplorer --> File --> Save As...)

Finally, please understand:

• All I can do is help you to activate Thunderbolt Bus
• If some devices do not connect on cold boot, I cannot help you
• If some devices do not connect on warm boot, I cannot help you
• If hot plug does not work, I cannot help you
• If one port works, but not the other, I cannot help you
• If USB-C ports don't work, I cannot help you
• If some devices do not reconnect on wake-from-sleep, I cannot help you
• If you encounter any other problems with Thunderbolt devices, I cannot help you

I can only help you activate Thunderbolt Bus. The rest is up to macOS's drivers, the motherboard BIOS, the device itself, etc. Still interested?

 

[jrhillma]

@CaseySJ just checking in to report success updating to Big Sur. Thank you, again, so much for your detailed how-to guides and endless support.

 

[Stork]

Hi, @CaseySJ!

I've bought a flashed Titan Ridge TB 3 card (eBay) to add to my ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z370 HERO X Motherboard (MyHero II build). I'm trying to figure where to start as the MyHero II motherboard does not have any on-board TB3 controller. I've tried searching your two GB descriptions for a usable SSDT, but couldn't find one. Do you have a guide or recommendation how I should start out after I install the card? TIA.

MyHero II is currently running Mojave using Clover. However, I'm going to update to Catalina with OC *real soon now*.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi, @CaseySJ!

I've bought a flashed Titan Ridge TB 3 card (eBay) to add to my ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z370 HERO X Motherboard (MyHero II build). I'm trying to figure where to start as the MyHero II motherboard does not have any on-board TB3 controller. I've tried searching your two GB descriptions for a usable SSDT, but couldn't find one. Do you have a guide or recommendation how I should start out after I install the card? TIA.

MyHero II is currently running Mojave using Clover. However, I'm going to update to Catalina with OC *real soon now*.

Hello @Stork,

If you have the Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge card, we can use a simple jumper wire to connect the top and middle pins of the rear J1 header (the one with 5 pins oriented vertically). When holding the card such that the gold PCIe pins are facing the floor, simply bridge the top and middle pins. This forces the card to power on when the motherboard lacks a Thunderbolt header.

A single female/female jumper wire is needed. The item below from Amazon is a bit overkill, but provides all three types of wires in a single low-cost package:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MU0IMFF/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

As for the SSDT, let's determine the root port of the Thunderbolt card by running IORegistryExplorer and exporting the file (File --> Save As...).