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X299 Big Sur Support

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I've got to ask this because I see all the time things like "I use MacPro7,1 because it most closely matches my hardware" or "I don't use iMacPro1,1 because its 2 years old" when referring to an X299 build.

I always understood it was best to pick an SMBIOS of a machine that most closely matches your hardware and CPU architecture, and well, all X299 builds, regardless of 7th, 9th or 10th gen CPU's are basically based on Skylake-X. Even 10th gen CascadeLake-X is much closer to Skylake-X than it is CascadeLake-W in the MacPro, despite its name, and we have 4 vs 6 channel amongst other things which is definitely most closely matching the 2017 iMac Pro - should we not be primarily using iMacPro1,1 with X299?

I mean I'm no expert on what MacOS actually does with SMBIOS and how it affects performance, stability hardware support etc, this is a genuine question of curiosity as it just doesn't seem to make sense to me based on my historical understanding of best-practice (if there is such a thing with a Hackintosh).

Actually what I'd really love is if someone could explain exactly how and what MacOS does with the SMBIOS variable - that would be super interesting if anyone knows!
 
Here is an updated BASE-EFI 0.6.5 for ASUS X299 boards. I haven't tested it yet but it should work

Some notes:
  1. Recommended to use one of the latest BIOS (From Nov 2020 recent)
  2. Enable 4G Encoding, Disable CSM, Disable MSR Lock
  3. Config.plist
    1. MacPro7,1 SMBIOS
    2. Edit TSCAdjustReset.kext with (# of Threads - 1) Currently set to 35 for 7980XE, 9980XE, 10980XE
    3. Added RestricEvents.kext to disable the MacProMemoryNotification Error
    4. agdpmod=pikera is Enabled in boot-args
    5. USBInjectAll and XhciPortLimit is enabled.
a small note to 3.2: you can also change to "CpuTscSync.kext", so you don't need to edit anything, cause the kext knows your cpu and do the things o its own... (you will find it on acidanthera). Works for me perfect.
 
a small note to 3.2: you can also change to "CpuTscSync.kext", so you don't need to edit anything, cause the kext knows your cpu and do the things o its own... (you will find it on acidanthera). Works for me perfect.
We have already discussed this point here : #1,143

The TSCAdjustReset.kext more specific four our X299 platform see on Github TSCAdjustReset.
Provided by interferenc : "On x299 and Skylake-X, the CPU has an invariant TSC, meaning it will NOT get out of sync. The problem with x299/Sklylake-X is that something (probably the BIOS, or even the CPU itself) writes to the TSC of some of the cores, and thus the TSCs are not in sync upon cold or warm boot. The IA32_TSC_ADJUST MSR holds the value of how much each core was adjusted. Writing 0 this register rolls back any previous changes. So TSCAdjustReset.kext does exactly that. It can even be unloaded after it did its job."

But if your choice does the trick ... you are free with it. ;)
 
a small note to 3.2: you can also change to "CpuTscSync.kext", so you don't need to edit anything, cause the kext knows your cpu and do the things o its own... (you will find it on acidanthera). Works for me perfect.

I've always been used to using TSCAdjustReset from kgp's days but updated the EFI for CpuTscSync.
 
And how it goes?

So far I haven't notice any differences. But like @Loloflatsix mentioned, this was discussed in previous posts


1,143 to 1,148
 
Hey everyone, just updated to the "newest" 11.2 (full version) today and after restarting it a couple of times, everything works still. Again, no problems at all. Still having issues with Kensington TrackballWorks app that doesn't work at all. Just had to get SteerMouse (for $20). Oh well. At least everything else is kickin' it!
 
So far I haven't notice any differences. But like @Loloflatsix mentioned, this was discussed in previous posts


1,143 to 1,148

Same for me,
it works :thumbup:
Of course CpuTscSync.kext works : it's the rebranded and actualised version of VoodooTSCSync.kext by the Acidanthera team.
TSCAdjustReset.kext is also a version of VoodooTSCSync.kext with appropriate adjustments for X299 processors.
At the beginning I tried RehabMan's VoodooTSCSync.kext and It worked fine too.
I'm old school and like the "medocs" ( Google it, it's French word) I prefer the Magic Potion :lol:
 
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Interesting. I am getting Power to report on IPG but the scale seems to be wrong - unless I am mistaken I would have expected the power draw to be north of 200Watts under load on the X299 ...for example my Z390 (i7 - 8 core) draws about 180W on a benchmark test like CB. My SMBios is iMacPro1,1.
Unless you set non default power limit(s) in BIOS or change any settings related to overclocking, the power draw graph in IPG should not exceed the limit of your CPU. In your case it is 165W when stock. At least that is my understanding and experience with other (non X299) stock CPUs.

In my case, when starting IPG, the gray line marks the top of the scale at 140W. Only when i start a heavy load the scale in IPG expand above this 140W line dynamically and shows the power draw graph above it.
I set power limits for the CPU in BIOS to keep the temps in check but let all cores turbo up to 4.5GHz. That kind of mimics the apple way in their MacBook(Pro)s.

This screenshot was taken during a Cinebench run.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-01-22 um 23.23.35.png
 
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