The Dell OptiMac Big Sur/OpenCore Thread - For 7020/9020 Optiplex Desktops

[trs96]

I updated 9020 USFF to boot from Opencore following your EFI. It has the right graphics and full acceleration. Everything worked in Catalina so I moved on to Big Sur and Monterey. However, Chrome, Brave, and apps like Dropbox are missing text and images.

Try turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome and see if it helps.

How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On and Off in Chrome

Here are step by step instructions for enabling or disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome. Also see a definition and why you might need acceleration.

www.lifewire.com

 

[FranzWerfel]

Try turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome and see if it helps.

How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On and Off in Chrome

Here are step by step instructions for enabling or disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome. Also see a definition and why you might need acceleration.

www.lifewire.com

Is there a way to do that without being able to see the settings page? Are there in any tweaks to the Intel graphics that might work?

I tried this in terminal, but the command doesn't work:

1. defaults write com.google.chrome HardwareAccelerationModeEnabled -integer n
   Where n is 1 or 0. 1 will enable Hardware Acceleration. 0 will disabled it.

Removed Chrome and all Application files. Reinstalled. I could see the address bar, could enter the address for settings, and could disable hardware acceleration. That worked. Thanks for the kick in the pants.

But is this normal for the 9020s (mine dates from 2019)?

 

[trs96]

Are there in any tweaks to the Intel graphics that might work?

If this only happens in Chrome/Brave etc. and doesn't in Safari I don't believe it has anything to do with Intel graphics. Those browsers were fully working in Catalina. So that leaves the cause as a problem with Chrome and Big Sur/Monterey.

 

[trs96]

But is this normal for the 9020s (mine dates from 2019)

I only have the 7020/9020 SFF and MT. Never purchased a 9020 USFF. I can't report any problems with 3rd party browsers like Chrome. I've used it quite extensively too. Never seen any graphical glitches with it.

I tested HD4400 graphics once and there were many graphical glitches. That's why I suggest in the golden build to not use the Intel i3 CPUs that have HD4400. Examples are the i3-4130, 4150 and 4160.

Avoid the HD4400 versions such as the i3-4150 and i3-4160. To learn more about which i3s will work see: Using an i3 CPU with your Dell OptiMac

 

[FranzWerfel]

I only have the 7020/9020 SFF and MT. Never purchased a 9020 USFF. I can't report any problems with 3rd party browsers like Chrome. I've used it quite extensively too. Never seen any graphical glitches with it.

I tested HD4400 graphics once and there were many graphical glitches. That's why I suggest in the golden build to not use the Intel i3 CPUs that have HD4400. Examples are the i3-4130, 4150 and 4160.

This USFF 9020 has HD 4600 graphics. That is why Monterey was possible. So far, the only difference between OSX 12 and Big Sur is a momentary lagginesa after booting up. (I'm looking around now to see if anyone has dealt with this minor flaw.)

Unlike joostiphone, I found a compatible wifi card with BT that works and allows for handoff. The antennae are modded to fit on the back. Onward. (I better update my profile to include this hack.)

 

[joostiphone]

I updated 9020 USFF to boot from Opencore following your EFI. It has the right graphics and full acceleration. Everything worked in Catalina so I moved on to Big Sur and Monterey. However, Chrome, Brave, and apps like Dropbox are missing text and images. I saw this problem in previous attempts to upgrade with Clover. So, I cannot find anyone yet with a similar problem. Perhaps you have a suggestion? The attached shows Chrome with Facebook page. They all look like this. It's really weird.

I think this has to do with unlocking the CFG and increasing the DVMT. Please do that according the beginpost to see if that fixes the problem.

 

[FranzWerfel]

I think this has to do with unlocking the CFG and increasing the DVMT. Please do that according the beginpost to see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks very much for your quick response. Since this is Ms. Werfel's Dell 9020 and she is now winging her way back, I went back to Clover and her Catalina setup and then worked from there, keeping Catalina because Chrome didn't have a problem. But, when I found out she didn't have HDMI sound and you did, I updated the AppleALC, Lilu, and Whatevergreen in her EFI folder. That made her old Clover 5022 unbootable. So, I decided to move on to Opencore.

I used your Monterey EFI and System folder as a starting point. The HDMI works, the Dropbox is clear and readable, but Chrome wasn't. So, I followed your suggestion above and unclocked CFG and increased DVMT.

But Chrome was still virtually textless and jpegless again. Since I knew how to find Advanced Settings "blindsided" and the the switch was visible to turn off hardware acceleration, now Chrome is usable again.

But I think this is a just a workaround.

Probably I need to try something else so that hardware acceleration can be enabled again. (I don't notice any difference, but . . .)

That said, I could probably do an upgrade to Big Sur now. (But there isn't much gain and more loss. You can't watch Apple Movies, can you?)

Again, a thousand thanks.

P.S. Still all good with hardware acceleration disabled in Chrome. In Catalina, the problem doesn't extend to the Dropbox app. But has anyone experienced the initial mouse lag with Opencore that wasn't apparent in Clover?

 

[trs96]

Monterey testing on the Optiplex 7020/9020 Desktops
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I've done a minimal amount of testing with a few different SMBIOS for Monterey and it does work with either iMac17,1 or iMac16,2. These are the Late 2015 iMacs. iMac17,1 is Skylake based and 16,2 is Broadwell. The latter uses only iGPU for graphics. If you only have iGPU, then iMac16,2 is the better choice but 17,1 works too. The Broadwell i5 and i7 CPUs have Intel Iris Pro 6200 graphics. If you have a supported AMD card then use iMac17,1.

How about the Late 2015 iMac16,1 ? That iMac uses a 1.6GHz laptop CPU (i5-5250U) with HD6000 graphics (Broadwell GT3). So it's not the best match for our Haswell i5 and i7 CPUs.

The Macmini7,1 has an Intel i5-4260U laptop CPU and HD5000 graphics. These integrated graphics are closest to the Haswell HD4600 iGPU which makes the Mac mini system def. another option to try if you won't use any dGPU. From Intel's description you can see the HD4600 gives you half the shaders and TMUs that HD5000 does.

The HD Graphics 5000 was a mobile integrated graphics solution by Intel, launched on May 27th, 2013. Built on the 22 nm process, and based on the Haswell GT3 graphics processor. It features 320 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 4 ROPs. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 200 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1000 MHz.

The HD Graphics 4600 was a mobile integrated graphics solution by Intel, launched on May 27th, 2013. Built on the 22 nm process, and based on the Haswell GT2 graphics processor. It features 160 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 2 ROPs. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 400 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1100 MHz.

Monterey is still a WIP and requires at least OpenCore 0.7.4 to boot on these systems. I used the iGPU, HD4600 graphics and they do still have support. All support for Nvidia Kepler cards has been dropped. Remove that card first if you have one installed. Remember, half the code or more in Monterey is for M1 based Macs. Many of the new features only work with those Macs. There aren't a lot of new features you can use that don't already exist in Big Sur. If you use BT, expect some serious problems in Monterey. Apple is still working on the BT stack and making a lot of changes in this macOS ediition.

I can't fully recommend that you upgrade to Monterey as I've seen a fair number of bugs that are not fixed yet. If you want to experiment, try the attached EFI (OC 0.7.5) on a separate SSD with your main boot drive disconnected. When/if you do fully upgrade to Monterey it will be best to use OC 0.7.6 or newer. I'd expect Pavo's OC Gen-X app to be updated to 0.7.6 soon. Be on the lookout for that.

iMac 15,1 is still the best matching SMBIOS for your Haswell i5/i7 CPU. If you are staying with Big Sur or Catalina keep using that SMBIOS.

 

[trs96]

Monterey does have a long list of new features, most of which are of no interest to me. One I would like, Universal Control, will likely never work on an Intel hackintosh. Have a look at some of these and see what you think. To me they sound like gimmicks more than useful features. "Select a different color for the left and right eye of your Memoji." That's a key feature I really need. Not really.

To see all of them: https://www.apple.com/macos/monterey/features/

 

[satputekuldip]

I've Nvidia GT 710... I want to use one HDMI port from graphics card and one DP port from mother board... How can I achieve this...