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

[CaseySJ]

Oh sorry I didn’t tell but I ordered the Alpine Ridge because Titan is out of stock and I wanted all to arrive on Tue

If I’m understanding I’m missing that USB header. Maybe it comes a similar cable with the motherboard? Otherwise do you know which cable should I order?

The GC-Alpine Ridge has a much simpler connection scheme. It just needs the THB_C cable, which comes in the box.

 

[DarrenM]

Hi! Me again. So in my hack I have a Radeon VII Sapphire 16GB - I'm going to replace it, but could you tell me what I should replace it with? I'm running Mojave 10.14.6.

Something that would work flawlessly would be great, thanks

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi! Me again. So in my hack I have a Radeon VII Sapphire 16GB - I'm going to replace it, but could you tell me what I should replace it with? I'm running Mojave 10.14.6.

Something that would work flawlessly would be great, thanks

That’s a somewhat open-ended question. Need some constraints:

• What problems are you seeing with the Radeon VII?
• Are you looking for a different brand of Radeon VII that might not exhibit the problems you’re seeing with the Sapphire? Or a different model?
• Will you be using it for video editing or any activity requiring high-performance GPU computing?
• Are you okay with less than top-level performance?
• What are some of the features or benefits you’d like to see? Or budgetary constraints?

Of course, at this time the choices are very limited:

• Only AMD GPUs
  • If anyone has a budget for a dGPU, I will always recommend that over the iGPU.
• Only the RX 4xx, RX 5xx, RX Vega, and Radeon VII are supported by Mojave.
• We expect the new Navi-based RX 5700 and RX 5700XT to be compatible in the fall with the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina (not a guarantee, but a good possibility). So if you can wait, then this might be a good choice.

 

[joevt]

You may be right -- I think joevt provided a link to a hardware forum in which such a card was plugged into an outboard PCIe chassis connected via TB. It would be nice to have first-hand confirmation so I can reliably add this to the build guide.

Just remember that a GC-ALPINE RIDGE or GC-TITAN RIDGE in such an external chassis or riser will probably not allow PCIe tunneling for the non-display features of the Thunderbolt display so go with a motherboard that supports the add-in card.

I'm thinking on ordering the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi + Titan Ridge and call it a day. I've seen a few builds from users (this one and this other one) that got the Titan Ridge working, so in theory should be fine.

Oh sorry I didn’t tell but I ordered the Alpine Ridge because Titan is out of stock and I wanted all to arrive on Tue

GC-ALPINE RIDGE is not listed as compatible with any Z390 motherboards so you might not be able to use the non-display features of the Thunderbolt display.

 

[joevt]

Not to make too fine a point of it, but the Designare Z390 does not require any of these cables and we save ourselves one internal PCIe slot! So there are certainly some advantages and disadvantages.

The cables are a one-time inconvenience. With the Designare Z390, you loose 4 PCIe lanes that could be used for a PCIe slot. Maybe instead of adding another PCIe slot, other motherboards will add more USB or SATA or Ethernet or NVMe or something.

But I would like to see confirmation that two DP-In connections will send two DP streams to the LG 5K for a true 5K picture.

There are many threads that show this is possible. I don't have an LG 5K, but I have a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter and a dual cable Dell UP2715K 5K display.

 

[DarrenM]

That’s a somewhat open-ended question. Need some constraints:

• What problems are you seeing with the Radeon VII?
• Are you looking for a different brand of Radeon VII that might not exhibit the problems you’re seeing with the Sapphire? Or a different model?
• Will you be using it for video editing or any activity requiring high-performance GPU computing?
• Are you okay with less than top-level performance?
• What are some of the features or benefits you’d like to see? Or budgetary constraints?

Of course, at this time the choices are very limited:

• Only AMD GPUs
  • If anyone has a budget for a dGPU, I will always recommend that over the iGPU.
• Only the RX 4xx, RX 5xx, RX Vega, and Radeon VII are supported by Mojave.
• We expect the new Navi-based RX 5700 and RX 5700XT to be compatible in the fall with the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina (not a guarantee, but a good possibility). So if you can wait, then this might be a good choice.

Its my computer still crashes with a change of display port cable, so looking at hardware issues?

I'm pretty new to all of this so I would need a link to an actual product so I know I'm buying the right one (pretty please).

Some video work, mostly graphics, exhibition, big catalogues (proper big!), displays websites etc.

around the £600 mark would be great, benefits just to work.

if a new card doesn't do anything for me, I'll purchase a new monitor - if you know a good one, let me know as well! thanks

 

[CaseySJ]

The cables are a one-time inconvenience. With the Designare Z390, you loose 4 PCIe lanes that could be used for a PCIe slot. Maybe instead of adding another PCIe slot, other motherboards will add more USB or SATA or Ethernet or NVMe or something.

Certainly. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s up to us to understand the implications and make the appropriate decision. (With the on-board Titan Ridge, I have already added more USB and Ethernet ports via my OWC Dock. Nice thing about Thunderbolt is the ability to add just about anything else to the system, including external NVMe arrays and 10Gbit Ethernet and SATA ports.)

There are many threads that show this is possible. I don't have an LG 5K, but I have a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter and a dual cable Dell UP2715K 5K display.

Because I would like to provide a definitive answer once and for all to this long-nagging question, I would like to see someone perform the experiment with the Designare Z390, an add-in Alpine Ridge or Titan Ridge card, and the LG 5K.

 

[DarrenM]

another question I'm looking at console, and does the below look worrying?

Aug 17 15:25:56 DazNews-iPro efilogin-helper[1129]: objc[1129]: Class EFILWLogging is implemented in both /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/EFILogin.framework/Versions/A/EFILogin (0x7fff91611050) and /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/EFILogin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/efilogin-helper (0x10cc0cd68). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
Aug 17 15:25:56 DazNews-iPro efilogin-helper[1129]: objc[1129]: Class EFILWLogging is implemented in both /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/EFILogin.framework/Versions/A/EFILogin (0x7fff91611050) and /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/EFILogin.framework/Resources/EFIResourceBuilder.bundle/Contents/MacOS/EFIResourceBuilder (0x10cca4958). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
Aug 17 15:25:56 DazNews-iPro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent): Unknown key for integer: _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit
Aug 17 15:25:58 DazNews-iPro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[1120]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by com.apple.preferences.users.remo[1120]
Aug 17 15:26:00 DazNews-iPro xpcproxy[1135]: libcoreservices: _dirhelper_userdir: 529: bootstrap_look_up returned (ipc/send) invalid destination port
Aug 17 15:26:08 DazNews-iPro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.AmbientDisplayAgent[232]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by com.apple.AmbientDisplayAgent[232]

 

[YossarianKen44]

The system configuration looks correct:

• PCIe SATA card is attached to RP03 and shows 4 ports, of which one is connected to a Western Digital 500GB SSD.
• WiFi card is attached to RP21 and is also configured correctly.
• Bluetooth is attached to HS11 and also has the correct child/sub-child device tree. And it has the 20703 firmware (which is good).

Because the two cards are configured correctly and functional in macOS, the choppy WiFi behavior you're experiencing might be due to RF interference. The RSSI and Noise values you posted previously are not only normal, but rather good.

• Are you experiencing poor WiFi behavior right now?
• Were you experiencing poor WiFi behavior when you reported the RSSI and Noise values?
• If not, then please check and report the RSSI, Noise, and Tx Rate values while experiencing slow or choppy WiFi performance.
  • Also please try reorienting the antennas on the WiFi card. I find that a "V" shape orientation of any 2 antennas can improve reception.
  • Another option would be to purchase umbilically attached antennas instead of direct-attached antennas in order to move them farther away from RF sources inside the computer. Two examples of such an antenna (search term is "wifi rp-sma antenna"):
    • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JVDNDCR/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
    • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R298P4D/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Thank you so much again CaseySJ. My WiFi has been weird. The other morning I couldn't connect at all. When I got home from work and tried the download and upload speeds were very slow. At the time of writing the original post, the speed
was a little better but upload was taking forever to attach the IOregistry so I had to copy and upload from my laptop.

I've done as you suggested and spread the antennas a bit wider and it seems to make a difference. I am so used to mac/apple land with none of these poles sticking out that I didn't think they made much difference. Not that I want more wires but I think I will take your suggestion and get an umbilical. This one has three antennas (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NKD6VS6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20)
I have also found there is a 6 port SATA card that I will swap out. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S8CB398/?tag=tonymacx86com-20)

Thank you so much again for all your efforts.

 

[CaseySJ]

Thank you so much again CaseySJ. My WiFi has been weird. The other morning I couldn't connect at all. When I got home from work and tried the download and upload speeds were very slow. At the time of writing the original post, the speed
was a little better but upload was taking forever to attach the IOregistry so I had to copy and upload from my laptop.

I've done as you suggested and spread the antennas a bit wider and it seems to make a difference. I am so used to mac/apple land with none of these poles sticking out that I didn't think they made much difference. Not that I want more wires but I think I will take your suggestion and get an umbilical. This one has three antennas (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NKD6VS6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20)
I have also found there is a 6 port SATA card that I will swap out. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S8CB398/?tag=tonymacx86com-20)

Thank you so much again for all your efforts.

You just pointed us to 2 very good peripherals:

• A 3-pole umbilical antenna. I’ll purchase one myself! [update: order placed]
• A PCIe x4 SATA card with Mac compatibility. In the build guide you will see that the suggested SATA cards are all x1, so I’ll add this to the list.