MBP 1,1-10,2 Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)

[tschuuuls]

Just tried your tutorial. With only the 10.12.3 kexts I idled around 21W, then I loaded the X3000 kext from 10.12.5 and dropped to 14W and in the time I wrote this the Macbook idles at 7.19W.

AWESOME! Coconut battery calcuates Time until Empty to be 10h and 58minutes
Before I barely hit 2hs.

EDIT: And in MacsFanControl (program I use for temps) I can see the GPU is completely off now GPU Diode sits at 21°C while the CPU still sits at 48°C (faily warm ambient temps in here).

 

[SirMeowington5]

My MacBook appears to have gotten confused at some point after restoring a Time Machine backup because doing /System/Library/Extensions/ followed by ls in recovery mode shows me that all of the AMD kexts still exist in a folder somewhere, but browsing that directory while logged in doesn't show any of them. When I open the boot manager I can see my OS partition show up twice for some reason as well... My HDD only has one partition, and it's the one that the OS is installed on so idk what's going on there...


That aside, after some struggle (because of the laptop being confused) I managed to move over those three kexts into the Extensions folder and kextstat confirms them loaded at login. I then proceeded to manually load the AMDRadeonX3000 kext but so far I am noticing no significant difference in temperature. Idle is at 50C right now (opposed to 53C before loading the kexts) which is almost the same as when I manually loaded all of the kexts.

I checked out coconutBattery and idle discharge dropped from 24 Watts to 15.5 Watts after loading the kexts.

Also, looking at your coconutBattery screenshot, your iStat shows that the GPU temperature monitor isn't working. Mine is and shows the GPU Die - Analog at 16C. Is there any reason why your iStat doesn't read GPU temperature and mine does? Is that an indicator of the fix being successful?


EDIT: Okay, quick update. I let the computer sit idle for a bit longer and eventually the idle temperature dropped down to 46C. Watching a YouTube video in full screen (around %15 CPU usage) I'm sitting around 60-63C. It's not stellar performance but that's about 10C better than before so at least it's something. I'm going to see how it continues to function tomorrow throughout the day.

Discharge while watching YouTube is 30 Watts, and a full charge lasts about 3 hours (94.6% capacity).

GPU 16C Idle / 35C while watching YouTube.
CPU 46C (maybe) Idle / 58C while watching YouTube.
What could be causing the GPU temp to rise when it's not being used?

EDIT 2: Ehhh, idk what's going on. After a couple more videos GPU temp has risen to 40C, CPU temp has risen to 65C and overall temp is back up to 70C...

Guess the fix didn't work after all...

The key for me was to put the penrive installer kexts 1.4.8 (AMDLegacySupport.kext, AMD6000Controller.kext, AMDFramebuffer.kext) on /System/Library/Extensions.

If I do not put these kexts in /System/Library/Extensions, then the temperature does not drop much when manually loading AMDRadeonX3000.kext.

I installed Sierra 10.12.3 and then did the update for 10.12.5.

I think when kexts 1.4.8 (AMDLegacySupport.kext, AMD6000Controller.kext, AMDFramebuffer.kext) are placed in /System/Library/Extensions, then certain keys are enabled at boot time in files related to temperature.

1 - Load Automatic

/System/Library/Extensions

AMDLegacySupport.kext - 1.4.8 - pendrive installer Sierra 10.12.3

AMD6000Controller.kext - 1.4.8 - pendrive installer Sierra 10.12.3

AMDFramebuffer.kext - 1.4.8 - pendrive installer Sierra 10.12.3


2 - Load Manual

/kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5 - from Sierra 10.12.5 Combo Update

cd /kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5

sudo kextload AMDRadeonX3000.kext

[doublepost=1499453238][/doublepost]

Yes that's right.

I only used the pen drive installer kexts AMD 1.4.8 (AMDLegacySupport.kext, AMD6000Controller.kext, AMDFramebuffer.kext)because they did not lock before the login screen at normal boot (IOConsoleUsers IOScreenLockState).

AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1


The problem with battery life (2 hours) is that the AMD video card has not been turned off or using minimum force values.

 

[tschuuuls]

I checked out coconutBattery and idle discharge dropped from 24 Watts to 15.5 Watts after loading the kexts.

Also, looking at your coconutBattery screenshot, your iStat shows that the GPU temperature monitor isn't working. Mine is and shows the GPU Die - Analog at 16C. Is there any reason why your iStat doesn't read GPU temperature and mine does? Is that an indicator of the fix being successful?

I use Macs fan control and it continues to show the GPU Diodes. Nothing to worry about I think.

I idled at round about 15W yesterday with only the X3000 kext loaded. That folder thing is weird. Do you have System integrety protection still on? Try turning it off and then cd to the extentions folder and run rm -rf AMD* and check if the kexts are gone.

 

[SirMeowington5]

They are gone, if I just do /System/Library/Extensions/ and ls they show up, but if I more accurately do /Volumes/HD/System/Library/Extensions/ they aren't there, which is what actually browsing that folder while in Sierra shows too.

Also if they were truly still there I wouldn't be able to login.

I use Macs fan control and it continues to show the GPU Diodes. Nothing to worry about I think.

I idled at round about 15W yesterday with only the X3000 kext loaded. That folder thing is weird. Do you have System integrety protection still on? Try turning it off and then cd to the extentions folder and run rm -rf AMD* and check if the kexts are gone.

 

[tschuuuls]

They are gone, if I just do /System/Library/Extensions/ and ls they show up[...]

/System is probably the recovery partition at that point

 

[SirMeowington5]

Yeah, that's what I figure. It's just that I didn't have to do specify /Volumes/HD/ the other several times I've done it so far.

/System is probably the recovery partition at that point

 

[tschuuuls]

Yeah, that's what I figure. It's just that I didn't have to do specify /Volumes/HD/ the other several times I've done it so far.

Does your GPU get detected with the old kexts in the Extentions and the x3000 kext loaded? Check system profiler. Without kexts it only saw a HD 6xxx, now it correctly identifies it as a 6770M.

 

[SirMeowington5]

Ah, smart of you to think to check that. Yes, now in the System Information it is indeed showing 6770M again and not 6xxx like it was before.

So I guess the fix partially worked, it just hasn't gotten the temperatures under control for whatever reason.

Does your GPU get detected with the old kexts in the Extentions and the x3000 kext loaded? Check system profiler. Without kexts it only saw a HD 6xxx, now it correctly identifies it as a 6770M.

 

[tschuuuls]

So I guess the fix partially worked, it just hasn't gotten the temperatures under control for whatever reason.

Which X3000 kext are you using? I am using the one extraced from the combo update. I can upload it for you to test, if you want.

 

[SirMeowington5]

I'm using 1.5.1 as recommended by nsgr, I can try out the other ones when I wake up.

No need to upload, I've already downloaded and extracted every version during all this testing throughout these past couple of days

Which X3000 kext are you using? I am using the one extraced from the combo update. I can upload it for you to test, if you want.

 

[tschuuuls]

I'm using 1.5.1 as recommended by nsgr, I can try out the other ones when I wake up.

The GPU is detected in System Profiler, even without loading the X3000 kext. In "get info" my X3000.kext has the version 1.51.8

 

[nsgr]

My MacBook appears to have gotten confused at some point after restoring a Time Machine backup because doing /System/Library/Extensions/ followed by ls in recovery mode shows me that all of the AMD kexts still exist in a folder somewhere, but browsing that directory while logged in doesn't show any of them. When I open the boot manager I can see my OS partition show up twice for some reason as well... My HDD only has one partition, and it's the one that the OS is installed on so idk what's going on there...


That aside, after some struggle (because of the laptop being confused) I managed to move over those three kexts into the Extensions folder and kextstat confirms them loaded at login. I then proceeded to manually load the AMDRadeonX3000 kext but so far I am noticing no significant difference in temperature. Idle is at 50C right now (opposed to 53C before loading the kexts) which is almost the same as when I manually loaded all of the kexts.

I checked out coconutBattery and idle discharge dropped from 24 Watts to 15.5 Watts after loading the kexts.

Also, looking at your coconutBattery screenshot, your iStat shows that the GPU temperature monitor isn't working. Mine is and shows the GPU Die - Analog at 16C. Is there any reason why your iStat doesn't read GPU temperature and mine does? Is that an indicator of the fix being successful?


EDIT: Okay, quick update. I let the computer sit idle for a bit longer and eventually the idle temperature dropped down to 46C. Watching a YouTube video in full screen (around %15 CPU usage) I'm sitting around 60-63C. It's not stellar performance but that's about 10C better than before so at least it's something. I'm going to see how it continues to function tomorrow throughout the day.

Discharge while watching YouTube is 30 Watts, and a full charge lasts about 3 hours (94.6% capacity).

GPU 16C Idle / 35C while watching YouTube.
CPU 46C (maybe) Idle / 58C while watching YouTube.
What could be causing the GPU temp to rise when it's not being used?

EDIT 2: Ehhh, idk what's going on. After a couple more videos GPU temp has risen to 40C, CPU temp has risen to 65C and overall temp is back up to 70C...

Guess the fix didn't work after all...

GPU is working but with minimum values and sometimes zero.

The key to lowering the GPU Die Analog is the AMDRadeonX3000.kext and consequently lowering the value of the CPU Die Analog.

I'm going to put a print screen sequence on the temperatures of the GPU Die Analog and CPU Die Analog (before and after loading the AMDRadeonX3000.kext).

 

[tschuuuls]

GPU is working but with minimum values and sometimes zero.

The key to lowering the GPU Die Analog is the AMDRadeonX3000.kext and consequently lowering the value of the CPU Die Analog.

You mean the GPU is active but running on minimal Core/Memory clocks?
With my laptop idling at 7W i kinda doubt its active as the Intel only 13" model idles at round about the same power draw.

EDIT: iStatMenu confirms my assumption, GPU VCore is at 0V and GPU power draw at 0A. These might be misreads though, as we are not exactly running a "default" driver

 

[SirMeowington5]

Ah, I just remembered. Without any kexts loaded, I believe it was correctly being reported as a 6770m, but only after I was loading the various versions of kexts through terminal (i.e. the wrong ones, and after login) did it read as a 6xxx.

So that either means that my current combination of 1.4.8 and 1.5.1 kexts should be the correct ones for my machine.

Or it could simply be reporting correctly again because the kexts are being loaded automatically at startup instead of me loading them manually through terminal.

1.51.8 is the same as 1.5.1. If you browse the contents of the kext and check the version.plist it'll give you both values.

The GPU is detected in System Profiler, even without loading the X3000 kext. In "get info" my X3000.kext has the version 1.51.8

[doublepost=1499474854][/doublepost]My GPU VCore is 0.00v, but watching a YouTube video in fullscreen pushes the temperature up from 6C idle up to 30C.
My CPU temperature sits at about 63C (sometimes inexplicably rising to 70C) while watching videos in full screen.

GPU is working but with minimum values and sometimes zero.

The key to lowering the GPU Die Analog is the AMDRadeonX3000.kext and consequently lowering the value of the CPU Die Analog.

I'm going to put a print screen sequence on the temperatures of the GPU Die Analog and CPU Die Analog (before and after loading the AMDRadeonX3000.kext).

 

[tschuuuls]

My GPU VCore is 0.00v, but watching a YouTube video in fullscreen pushes the temperature up from 6C idle up to 30C.

You have to keep in mind the GPU and CPU share a heatsink. Mine sits at round about 50°C with the analog sensor measuring 25°C (which is kinda low considering even my SSD is at 32°C).

EDIT: I changed my thermal paste earlier this week, my cpu idles at 45-50°C.

 

[SirMeowington5]

Are you saying your CPU sits at about 50C with your GPU at 25C?

If yes then we have very similar thermal performance atm.

You have to keep in mind the GPU and CPU share a heatsink. Mine sits at round about 50°C with the analog sensor measuring 25°C (which is kinda low considering even my SSD is at 32°C).

EDIT: I changed my thermal paste earlier this week, my cpu idles at 45-50°C.

 

[nsgr]

You mean the GPU is active but running on minimal Core/Memory clocks?
With my laptop idling at 7W i kinda doubt its active as the Intel only 13" model idles at round about the same power draw.

1 - Load automatic /System/Library/Extensions - idle - kexts 1.4.8 from pendrive installer Sierra 10.12.3

without load AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1

CPU Die Analog: 48 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 44 Celcius

AMD6000Controller.kext

AMDFramebuffer.kext

AMDSupport.kext

http://i68.tinypic.com/50kyo4.png

http://tinypic.com/r/50kyo4/9

01-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-without-amdradeonx3000-kext-2017-07-07-21.14.57


2 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update - 1 minute after load

CPU Die Analog: 47 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 17 Celsius

http://i66.tinypic.com/106fpde.png

http://tinypic.com/r/106fpde/9

02-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-1-minute-after-2017-07-07-21.16.29.png


3 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update- 3 minutes after load

CPU Die Analog: 36 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: _ (zero)

http://i68.tinypic.com/2h2o5qt.png

http://tinypic.com/r/2h2o5qt/9

03-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-3-minutes-after-2017-07-07-21.21.02.png


4 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update- 4 minutes after load - with Chrome open page forum Macrumors

CPU Die Analog: 41 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 3 Celsius

Now with page open forum Macrumors - Tiny Pic - 7 tabs open in Crome

CPU Die Analog: 48 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 14 Celsius

http://i68.tinypic.com/122ydn7.png

http://tinypic.com/r/122ydn7/9

04-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-with-chrome-open-4-minutes-after-2017-07-07-21.24.14.png


Update:

Now with:

Chrome open pages 7 pages - forum Marumors - Tinipic

Firefox open 1 page tab

CPU Die Analog: 52 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 18 Celsius

 

[SirMeowington5]

Your CPU temperatures are still slightly lower than mine (between 5 to 10C), but I think I would actually be confident enough to say that the fix has worked for me. It would be nice to have them as low as yours but at this point there isn't much more to try and I'm just happy to have them drop at all.

So for anyone else who is going to try this, I believe it's safe to say that there is a difference between having the 3 kexts auto load and loading them manually with the X3000 kext.

Edit: I'm also happy to see that now that the GPU isn't pulling it's max power the whole time, my battery actually charges properly. Before it was sometimes even discharging while having multiple chrome tabes open, YouTube playing and Discord open.

1 - Load automatic /System/Library/Extensions - idle - kexts 1.4.8 from pendrive installer Sierra 10.12.3

without load AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1

CPU Die Analog: 48 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 44 Celcius

AMD6000Controller.kext

AMDFramebuffer.kext

AMDSupport.kext

http://i68.tinypic.com/50kyo4.png

http://tinypic.com/r/50kyo4/9

01-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-without-amdradeonx3000-kext-2017-07-07-21.14.57


2 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update - 1 minute after load

CPU Die Analog: 47 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 17 Celsius

http://i66.tinypic.com/106fpde.png

http://tinypic.com/r/106fpde/9

02-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-1-minute-after-2017-07-07-21.16.29.png


3 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update- 3 minutes after load

CPU Die Analog: 36 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: _ (zero)

http://i68.tinypic.com/2h2o5qt.png

http://tinypic.com/r/2h2o5qt/9

03-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-3-minutes-after-2017-07-07-21.21.02.png


4 - After load manual AMDRadeonX3000.kext - 1.5.1 Sierra 10.12.5 Update- 4 minutes after load - with Chrome open page forum Macrumors

CPU Die Analog: 41 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 3 Celsius

Now with page open forum Macrumors - Tiny Pic - 7 tabs open in Crome

CPU Die Analog: 48 Celsius

GPU Die Analog: 14 Celsius

http://i68.tinypic.com/122ydn7.png

http://tinypic.com/r/122ydn7/9

04-kext-amd-1.4.8-load-with-amdradeonx3000-kext-load-with-chrome-open-4-minutes-after-2017-07-07-21.24.14.png

 

[nsgr]

Your CPU temperatures are still slightly lower than mine (between 5 to 10C), but I think I would actually be confident enough to say that the fix has worked for me. It would be nice to have them as low as yours but at this point there isn't much more to try and I'm just happy to have them drop at all.

So for anyone else who is going to try this, I believe it's safe to say that there is a difference between having the 3 kexts auto load and loading them manually with the X3000 kext.

Edit: I'm also happy to see that now that the GPU isn't pulling it's max power the whole time, my battery actually charges properly. Before it was sometimes even discharging while having multiple chrome tabes open, YouTube playing and Discord open.

Did you run the permissions on all the AMD kexts?

Remember chmod 755 and chmod root: wheel

This is necessary if copying the kexts, the permissions have not been preserved.


sudo chmod -R 755 AMD6000Controller.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMD6000Controller.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDFramebuffer.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDFramebuffer.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDSupport.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDSupport.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDRadeonX3000.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDRadeonX3000.kext


Watching Yotube videos in full screen also raises the temperature for me. Before load AMDRadeonX3000.kext, temperature = 70C / 85C - Youtube videos.

After load AMDRadeonX3000.kext = 50C / 60C - Youtube videos.

 

[SirMeowington5]

No, I didn't alter the permissions, but if I can see them loaded in kextstat and they're already making a difference, will fixing the permissions help them make even more of a difference?

Can I fix the permissions while they're already loaded?

Did you run the permissions on all the AMD kexts?

Remember chmod 755 and chmod root: wheel

This is necessary if copying the kexts, the permissions have not been preserved.


sudo chmod -R 755 AMD6000Controller.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMD6000Controller.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDFramebuffer.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDFramebuffer.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDSupport.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDSupport.kext


sudo chmod -R 755 AMDRadeonX3000.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel AMDRadeonX3000.kext

[doublepost=1499477708][/doublepost]Oh okay, well in this case I think that our thermal performance is actually almost identical, definitely not a 10C difference like I thought earlier.

Watching Yotube videos in full screen also raises the temperature for me. Before load AMDRadeonX3000.kext, temperature = 70C / 85C - Youtube videos.

After load AMDRadeonX3000.kext = 50C / 60C - Youtube videos.

 

[nsgr]

No, I didn't alter the permissions, but if I can see them loaded in kextstat and they're already making a difference, will fixing the permissions help them make even more of a difference?

Can I fix the permissions while they're already loaded?

Change permissions before load kexts AMD.

Permission 755 - change to executable.

The kexts AMD are executbles. Example:

/System/Library/Extensions/AMD6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD6000Controller

You have to make the permissions set to 755 and root: wheel according to the above procedure.

If needed, also do AMDLegacyFramebuffer.kext and AMDLegacySupport.

Update:

Did you put this kexts in /System/Library/Extensions ?

AMDLegacySupport.kext

AMD6000Controller.kext

AMDFramebuffer.kext

Update:

Permission 755

 

[SirMeowington5]

Yeah, those are the ones I put in to /System/Library/Extensions and kextstat shows them as loaded. I think that if there was a problem with the permissions they wouldn't get loaded so it must be okay without fixing them.

Edit: Oh no, sorry, not LegacySupport. Just Support, there are no Legacy files in any of the installers (only 10.12.5 OS install).

Permission 775 - change to executable.

The kexts AMD are executbles. Example:

/System/Library/Extensions/AMD6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD6000Controller

You have to make the permissions set to 755 and root: wheel according to the above procedure.

If needed, also do AMDLegacyFramebuffer.kext and AMDLegacySupport.

Update:

Did you put this kexts in /System/Library/Extensions ?

AMDLegacySupport.kext

AMD6000Controller.kext

AMDFramebuffer.kext

 

[nsgr]

Yeah, those are the ones I put in to /System/Library/Extensions and kextstat shows them as loaded. I think that if there was a problem with the permissions they wouldn't get loaded so it must be okay without fixing them.

Edit: Oh no, sorry, not LegacySupport. Just Support, there are no Legacy files in any of the installers (only 10.12.5 OS install).

Note the "x" and the root: wheel.

ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/ | grep AMD

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:28 AMD6000Controller.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:30 AMDFramebuffer.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:30 AMDSupport.kext


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMD6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 7955632 Jul 6 12:28 AMD6000Controller


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDFramebuffer.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 282944 Jul 6 12:30 AMDFramebuffer


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDSupport.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1456512 Jul 6 12:30 AMDSupport



ls -la /kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5/ | grep AMDRadeonX3000

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Apr 28 02:15 AMDRadeonX3000.kext


ls -la /kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5/AMDRadeonX3000.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 6754704 Apr 28 21:51 AMDRadeonX3000

 

[SirMeowington5]

ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/ |grep AMD

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Dec 10 2016 AMD6000Controller.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Dec 10 2016 AMDFramebuffer.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Dec 10 2016 AMDSupport.kext



ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMD6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 7955760 Dec 10 2016 AMD6000Controller



ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDFramebuffer.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 282992 Dec 10 2016 AMDFramebuffer



ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDSupport.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1456608 Dec 10 2016 AMDSupport



ls -la /AMD_1.5.1_Kexts/ | grep AMDRadeonX3000

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Apr 28 07:15 AMDRadeonX3000.kext



ls -la /AMD_1.5.1_Kexts/AMDRadeonX3000.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 6754704 Apr 29 02:51 AMDRadeonX3000

Note the "x" and the root: wheel.

ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/ | grep AMD

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:28 AMD6000Controller.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:30 AMDFramebuffer.kext

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 6 12:30 AMDSupport.kext


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMD6000Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 7955632 Jul 6 12:28 AMD6000Controller


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDFramebuffer.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 282944 Jul 6 12:30 AMDFramebuffer


ls -la /System/Library/Extensions/AMDSupport.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1456512 Jul 6 12:30 AMDSupport



ls -la /kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5/ | grep AMDRadeonX3000

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Apr 28 02:15 AMDRadeonX3000.kext


ls -la /kexts-1.5.1-sierra-update-10.12.5/AMDRadeonX3000.kext/Contents/MacOS/

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 6754704 Apr 28 21:51 AMDRadeonX3000

 

[nsgr]

My MacBook appears to have gotten confused at some point after restoring a Time Machine backup because doing /System/Library/Extensions/ followed by ls in recovery mode shows me that all of the AMD kexts still exist in a folder somewhere, but browsing that directory while logged in doesn't show any of them. When I open the boot manager I can see my OS partition show up twice for some reason as well... My HDD only has one partition, and it's the one that the OS is installed on so idk what's going on there...


That aside, after some struggle (because of the laptop being confused) I managed to move over those three kexts into the Extensions folder and kextstat confirms them loaded at login. I then proceeded to manually load the AMDRadeonX3000 kext but so far I am noticing no significant difference in temperature. Idle is at 50C right now (opposed to 53C before loading the kexts) which is almost the same as when I manually loaded all of the kexts.

I checked out coconutBattery and idle discharge dropped from 24 Watts to 15.5 Watts after loading the kexts.

Also, looking at your coconutBattery screenshot, your iStat shows that the GPU temperature monitor isn't working. Mine is and shows the GPU Die - Analog at 16C. Is there any reason why your iStat doesn't read GPU temperature and mine does? Is that an indicator of the fix being successful?


EDIT: Okay, quick update. I let the computer sit idle for a bit longer and eventually the idle temperature dropped down to 46C. Watching a YouTube video in full screen (around %15 CPU usage) I'm sitting around 60-63C. It's not stellar performance but that's about 10C better than before so at least it's something. I'm going to see how it continues to function tomorrow throughout the day.

Discharge while watching YouTube is 30 Watts, and a full charge lasts about 3 hours (94.6% capacity).

GPU 16C Idle / 35C while watching YouTube.
CPU 46C (maybe) Idle / 58C while watching YouTube.
What could be causing the GPU temp to rise when it's not being used?

EDIT 2: Ehhh, idk what's going on. After a couple more videos GPU temp has risen to 40C, CPU temp has risen to 65C and overall temp is back up to 70C...

Guess the fix didn't work after all...

During the clean install, did you erase your Sierra partition (hard disk) with diskutil before installing again?

I think you can have two Sierra installed in the same partition.

That would explain you having two Sierra in the bootmanager.