Kaby Lake try-out and Pascal upgrade:
Okay, so I took the plunge and updated the BIOS to the latest
F20 version, pending a possible Kaby Lake upgrade.
All went very smoothly by reading:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/psa-gigabyte-f20b-bios-changes.207965/
... and taking things slowly and, I hope, logically.
1) Edited
a copy of my config.plist using Clover Configurator making sure KernelPM and PatchAPIC tick-boxes were ticked as per the guide. Then saved this to my desktop. (Actually I only needed the PatchAPIC one as the other was already ticked).
2) Because I've had trouble with the 10.12.4 Sierra update I'd reverted to 10.12.3 and Clover v2.3k r3766 which is what MultiBeast 9.01 and UniBeast 7.0 use. So I
moved the kexts installed into my EFI/EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other folder to the Library/Extensions folder by copying them to the desktop and using KextBeast to install them. Next, I upgraded Clover to v2.4k r4049 and
added the
EmuVariableUefi-64.efi to the installed drivers64 EFI section of the Clover, Customise pane, while I was at it. It's needed for the F20 BIOS NVRam emulation changes.
Then Rebooted.
The desktop came up fine, so it was time to upgrade the BIOS from F4 to F20.
3) First I prepared an FPT Flash usb memory stick as a back-up in case anything went wrong. This just involved formatting a usb memory stick to FAT32 and copying the FPT files on to it, followed by the previous F4 BIOS renamed to bios.bin as per instructions.
4) Copied my newly modified config.plist into the EFI/EFI/CLOVER directory after renaming the original to config.old etc.
5) Rebooted and used Q-Flash to upgrade the BIOS from a USB memory stick with the new BIOS on it.
6) The system rebooted itself to complete the process and I went into the new BIOS make the usual Hackintosh changes. I saved settings and on reboot chose the F12 option to make sure I was using the correct boot drive.
Everything worked smoothly and there were no hiccups. No need to use the FPT usb stick.
Linked project:
I then installed a new Intel i3-7350k 4.2ghz Kaby Lake CPU, but unfortunately it appears to have been dead-on-arrival. I'm not 100% sure because I didn't have a second one I could test with. But I do know that putting the i3-6320 3.9ghz back in worked perfectly again. So? Faulty CPU or something else? I need feedback from other upgraders I think before I try again.
Second new project was to upgrade the Graphics to Pascal:
I know the GT740 I have is a reliable and proven solution but wanted something more modern which was also affordable. With the recent news that Pascal drivers were being released by Nvidia I took the plunge and ordered a Gigabyte GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5. It's probably the base model in the line and doesn't need an extra power cable.
Initially I installed it in my PC and ran Windows 10 to check it was all working - after my problems with the Kaby Lake i3 above.
I have to say it's a very nice card. The included Windows Gigabyte utilities allow changing the cooling fan curve. The default is to stay turned off until 60-degrees-C, so totally silent until then. Even so, when it does come on it "pulses" in what they call "3D". All very new to me. I adjusted the fan curve to come on from 40-degrees-C to keep the insides of my case cooler.
The worrying part was taking the plunge and booting macOS. I fully expected a black-screen boot and the need to disable the new card, boot from iGPU, install the latest drivers and then see what was what. However I tried a test boot just in case ... And the system booted up in non-accelerated mode without any problems!
To do this I added, -x , to my Clover command-line, and although I'm not sure it works any more, nv_disable=1, too, just in case.
Once running I realised the new Pascal
NvidiaWeb drivers will only work for macOS 10.12.4 , so I had to run the update again. Once done I installed the drivers and rebooted. Everything was fine, but still no acceleration. So I checked my config.plist and for some reason the SystemParameters
NvidiaWeb key had gone (not sure how or when) I edited it back in and rebooted ...
All up and running fine with acceleration! Oh, and very quietly!
Bear in mind mine is the cheapest, slowest GTX 1050
but the drivers still work!
As I write this it's a very quiet room. Just the PSU fan to be heard. The data HD has spun down, the CPU's Noctua is as quiet as ever and the GPU fan is off (yes, it's cold here today!)
So plus-one, minus-one. I'd like to explore another Kaby-Lake CPU but will wait for more feedback on this site from others trying the same. The 7350k has obviously gone back for credit.
