R9 380 fully work in Sierra

[Bor]

r9 380 (a.k.a r9 285) used to work OOB on Yosemite, but became very problematic after El Capitan release booting to black screen. Finally, I managed to make it work under Sierra without any compromises. Graphics acceleration, OpenCL, Metal, sleep, audio via DP...all tested & confirmed to be working. In short, I had to do some ACPI patching, to get video out from my card. I still have to use my iGPU as a helper card, but fortunately NOT in "headless" mode. So I got image output & full acceleration from my iGPU too, don't have to blind boot or switch monitor cables during boot time. You know, it just works

 

To confirm that everything works properly, I used FractalArchitect4 (its OpenCL & Metal built-in test tool), OpenGL Extensions Viewer, GeekBench (OpenCL), Final Cut X (OpenCL? Metal?) and After Effects (2017 version use GPU for compositing & accelerating some filters). I tested dGPU & iGPU separately. They work in each scenario properly, stabile & as fast as expected.

 

Below are details of my machine and config.

 

My specs:

cpu i7 4790 (iGPU HD 4600)

motherboard Gigabyte Z97-D3H

mem 16 gb 1600 Mhz

MSI r9 380 4gb - four ports (DP, HDMI, DVI, DVI), exactly matches layout of framebuffer Lagotto 

Couple SSD & hard drives

Clover v4097

 

First, BIOS settings. I tried to list only important ones.

 

'M.I.T.' section, choose Advanced Memory Settings (XMP) - set 'Enhanced Stability'

 

'BIOS Features' section

Intel Virtualisation Technology: OFF

VT-d: OFF

Windows 8 Features: Other OS

Storage Boot Option Control: UEFI Only

 

'Peripherials' section

Initial Display Output: IGPU

Intel Processor Graphics: Enabled

Intel Processor Graphics Memory Allocation: 64M

DVMT Total Memory Size: MAX

XHCI Hand-off: Enabled

EHCI Hand-off: Enabled

 

CLOVER SETTINGS

ACPI>DSDT>Patches  

These are hex values for patches that you need to create. This part is crucial to get video output from r9 380!

'Rename PEG0 to GFX1'- find:50454730 replace:47465831

'Rename GFX0 to GFX2' - find:47465830  replace:47465832 

 

In Devices>FakeID>IntelGFX put this value '0x04128086' 

In Graphics inject both Intel & AMD. 

In FBName use 'Lagotto' - this framebuffer is native for Tonga, r9 380/r9 285 cards

In Ig-platform-id put value '0x0d220003'

 

I use SMBIOS of iMac 15,1 (CPU, iGPU & dGPU are very close to my rig). If you will use my attached config.plist, don't forget to fill SMBIOS section accordingly. I removed it to keep out personal data. 

 

 

This thread was very useful to me while putting all pieces together:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/308025-no-graphics-usb-audio-after-wake/page-19

 

 

Thanks to all Insanelymac contributors & people willing to share their experience, I couldn't do it without this great community!

 

config_REFERENCE.plist.zip

[Max.1974]

Thank You!!! @Bor I have interest in this GPU, you think is better than RX480? 

[Bor]

By better, You mean faster or more compatible? RX480 is sure faster, about 35-45% (depends on use case). Regarding compatibility, I think right AIB model of RX 480 is better choice. Apple put RX 580 - that have same chip as RX 480 - into their VR development kit. For this reason I think driver support for this card will be very good in future.

 

I'm happy with performance of r9 380 both at work/media stuff & games, but I would choose r9 380 against RX 480 only if it would be a LOT cheaper.

 

R9 380 vs RX 480 (1080p & 1440p Benchmarks) - Comparison:

[Max.1974]

By better, You mean faster or more compatible? RX480 is sure faster, about 35-45% (depends on use case). Regarding compatibility, I think right AIB model of RX 480 is better choice. Apple put RX 580 - that have same chip as RX 480 - into their VR development kit. For this reason I think driver support for this card will be very good in future.

 

I'm happy with performance of r9 380 both at work/media stuff & games, but I would choose r9 380 against RX 480 only if it would be a LOT cheaper.

 

R9 380 vs RX 480 (1080p & 1440p Benchmarks) - Comparison:

Thank you Bor, very nice !!! Im sure that RX 480 is more compatible, but for now we need iGPU helper card for up on Hack. 

Im not sure, but you need helper card for R9 380 too? 

Regards!!!

[Bor]

I still have to use my iGPU as a helper card, but fortunately NOT in "headless" mode. So I got image output & full acceleration from my iGPU too, don't have to blind boot or switch monitor cables during boot time.

 

[xcvista]

Do you have any idea how to make this work when a helper video card is not available? I have almost the same system but a different processor:

 

* Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H

* CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3 (this CPU does not have an iGPU)

* RAM: 32GB

 

Currently I have a GTX 1060 3GB in there but that card can be underperforming than my R9 380 due to its VRAM. Any ideas?

[Bor]

@xcvista

Since I created this thread, a lot has changed. Some good people created kext that massively improves support for AMD cards on hackintosh machines. It is possible to use AMD GPUs without helper cards

 

Kext is called Whatevergreen, and it needs to be used together with Lilu kext. You need to put those kexts in Clover "Other" folder and prepare SSDT file according to your machine (they cover it in FAQ and provide samples of patches).

 

Here is thread covering this topic, start with Cyberdev's post #575:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/312582-amd-polaris-ids-on-sierra-high-sierra/page-29

 

Link to Lilu & it's plug-ins:

https://github.com/vit9696/Lilu

 

Whatevergreen FAQ/Manual:

https://github.com/vit9696/WhateverGreen/blob/master/Manual/FAQ.en.md

[Loloflat6]

Thank's : fully working on High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D34a) too !

[arquicion]

Hello!

 

Do you think this could work on High Sierra as well?

Thanks!