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RX 480/470 owners - DO NOT update to 10.12.4 through App Store!

turbineseaplane said:
Anyone in here running a 460 at 4k?

Curious if it performs ok/well/good/great with 4k @ 60hz ?

Thank you for any thoughts!
Click to expand...

Running Sierra and having recently installed a Gigabyte RX460, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125897 , I had a strong Jonesing for a 4k monitor. A few weeks ago while wandering thru Costco I noted the best deal I have seen on a 4k TV... $289 for a 40" Samsung 6290 display. Understanding Costco's generous return policy, I couldn't resist tucking the Samsung under my arm (well... it didn't really fit under my arm, but I was able to carry it out with two hands) and trying it out at the studio. Augmented by several appropriate cables that would reach the 15' from my recording studio machine room to desk, I got right down to testing.

Upon boot up, the picture was immediately enthralling, but I was able to get 4k resolution only at 30Hz, which resulted in mouse lag that's quite noticeable. (I set the display to "Game Mode" to enable fastest response, but lag was still an issue.) 30Hz was the fastest refresh rate available using either HDMI to HDMI or DP to HDMI cabling. After a day's use, I started getting used to the lag, but research had me convinced that the TV and AMD RX460 were both capable of running at 60Hz.

The ultimate solution was found after exploring MacRumors, TonyMac and a TV enthusiast's site. I found mention of two essential items:

SwitchResX software
https://www.madrau.com/support/support/srx_1011.html

Club3D Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 UHD
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017B ... UTF8&psc=1

I connected the TV via DP to HDMI using the $30 Club Active Adaptor linked to above (with 15' HDMI to HDMI cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015O ... UTF8&psc=1 )

Still only 30Hz.

On the Samsung display, I turned on HDMI UHD Color in the Expert Picture settings for HDMI 1. Still 30Hz max.

SwitchResX did the trick... disabling SIP was necessary to install and use the $14 shareware (instructions provided at the linked SwitchResX page), but once I got SwitchResX installed and running, set the startup to 60Hz, rebooted, and selected 60Hz in System Preferences>Displays, I had a fantastic looking 40" 4k monitor with tons of real estate (almost 4x the two displays it replaces) that responded perfectly to my mouse movements. Reenabled SIP when all was done.

I also tried using SwitchResX without the Active Adaptor, but was not able to get beyond 30Hz.

I am doing audio work, so GPU load is not heavy, but the RX460 drives the 4k TV and a Dell 1080 display (via DVI) perfectly. My productivity has been significantly enhanced.
 
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theitsage said:
Thank you for update. Do you recall if doing macOS update this way was faster than through the App Store?
Click to expand...

Can't say that it's faster per se. The "Finding available software" takes a very long time for me for some reason (I have a feeling I have a problem with updates as there is quite a delay sometimes. Once it starts installing it *does* seem to be faster at that point...
 
Ok, so I’m just posting in here to retain visibility for those with RX4** who are looking to update. Has anybody noticed any changes?
 
Interested. I have a RX480 ready to be installed.

I currently have a MacPro 5.1 with 10.12.3 (16D32) and a flashed PC HD7950 which is working flawlessly with boot screen and bootcamp win10.

I have to:

- disable SIP - run the scripts - install the new GPU - then upgrade via terminal
- disable SIP - run the scripts - install the new GPU - keep 10.12.3
- update to 10.12.4 - disable SIP - run the scripts - install the new GPU

Am I going to have issues in Win10 bootcamp after everything is done?
 
Last edited:
theitsage said:
Absolutely. Update through Terminal with "sudo softwareupdate -i -a". Make all kext changes prior to restart and all is well. I ran triple RX 480 to test just now and BruceX finished within 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

I dont get it. Same process we did before or?
 
theitsage said:
Absolutely. Update through Terminal with "sudo softwareupdate -i -a". Make all kext changes prior to restart and all is well. I ran triple RX 480 to test just now and BruceX finished within 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

Is it safe to update with the old GPU in and then to the all kext changes and then change the GPU?
 
ugru said:
Is it safe to update with the old GPU in and then to the all kext changes and then change the GPU?
Click to expand...

Since it's a known fact that RX480 can work with 10.12.4. I will say how / when you do the update / mod kext doesn't really matter. As long as you can do that, the new GPU should work properly. But I personally will prefer the terminal method, that's much less work to do. And if you have an old GPU as backup, then you don't need to worry about black screen even if something goes wrong. Also, better make sure you have proper backup, just in case you are forced to downgrade back to 10.12.3 (e.g. Unstable driver in 10.12.4).
 
No issues updating to 12.4 on a 460, right? Planning on doing that today but want to confirm first.
 
Save this as a note for reference:

Install MacOS without reboot

————

{text in curly braces are notes and instructions. Lines starting with 'sudo' should be written or copy pasted into Terminal and then press Enter. There are no row breaks intended—continuous lines of code with spaces as written below.}

sudo softwareupdate -i -a

{when you press enter it will take a while to download and install the updates. The window keeps you informed of the progress.}

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX4100.kext/Contents/Info.plist

{add 0x67DF1002 to IOPCIMatch}

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/Info.plist

{add 0x67DF1002 to IOPCIMatch}

sudo LC_ALL=C /usr/bin/sed -i '.bk' 's@AMD R9 xxx@AMD RX 480@g' /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD9510Controller

sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD9510Controller.bk ~/tmp/

sudo /Applications/Kext\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Kext\ Utility

{If the app isn't found at this location, just start manually. Wait a few minutes until it is probably finished, then quit}

sudo reboot

----------------- now you're finishes with step 1.


Enable all CUs Baffin


{Below, ./ means file path. It's simplest to just pull the enable-baffin-CUs.sh script (not included in this post—find elsewhere!) into the Terminal window from Finder. In this case, don't write the ./ extra. Write the following lines in Terminal and press enter}

chmod +x ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh

sudo ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh ellesmere 36

{now start Kext Utility again to repair permissions. Quit when done and reboot}

-------------- now you're finished with step 2 and you are DONE.
 
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Would there be any performance advantage to updating to 10.12.4? Even though I've got a AMD 480/4GB I feel like i'm not getting that much of a performance boost in After Effects and Motion compared to my 2015 MacBook Pro with the R9.
 
AndreeOnline said:
Enable all CUs Baffin


{Below, ./ means file path. It's simplest to just pull the enable-baffin-CUs.sh script (not included in this post—find elsewhere!) into the Terminal window from Finder. In this case, don't write the ./ extra. Write the following lines in Terminal and press enter}

chmod +x ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh

sudo ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh ellesmere 36

{now start Kext Utility again to repair permissions. Quit when done and reboot}

-------------- now you're finished with step 2 and you are DONE.
Click to expand...
Where is the script pls?
 
Quote from Cochrane's universal computer compendium (published 2050): "Mac Pro: Archaic computer system from the early years of the century, which started as a powerful, yet affordable platform and was quite popular during it's first years in the market, despite significant price increases.

After that, support from the producing company ->Apple started to dwindle. Slowly but surely the Mac Pro became nothing more than a glorified ->Hackintosh. At first, many second-hand users still preferred the Mac Pro over a genuine ->Hackintosh for its (a tad) better compatibility. When ->Apple started to actively hinder operation of modified Mac Pro systems, eventually the user base shrank significantly.

The last incarnation of the Mac Pro received a massive redesign, which significantly hampered internal modifications. Even though it offered an improved external connectivity, the majority of ->modders preferred to switch to completely self-built ->Hackintoshes, after ->Apple eventually ceased support for their complete line of ->desktop computers."
 
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theitsage said:
I did 10.12.4 on my NAS Mac Pro which has an ASUS RX 460 2GB. No issues and update went smoothly.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Can confirm - just updated now with no discernible differences - Sapphire Nitro RX 460 4gb OC.

On a side note - update did nothing to cure my special lady friend's dislike of the blue glow emanating from inside my Mac Pro cheese grater...
 
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AndreeOnline said:
Save this as a note for reference:

Install MacOS without reboot

————

{text in curly braces are notes and instructions. Lines starting with 'sudo' should be written or copy pasted into Terminal and then press Enter. There are no row breaks intended—continuous lines of code with spaces as written below.}

sudo softwareupdate -i -a

{when you press enter it will take a while to download and install the updates. The window keeps you informed of the progress.}

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX4100.kext/Contents/Info.plist

{add 0x67DF1002 to IOPCIMatch}

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/Info.plist

{add 0x67DF1002 to IOPCIMatch}

sudo LC_ALL=C /usr/bin/sed -i '.bk' 's@AMD R9 xxx@AMD RX 480@g' /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD9510Controller

sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD9510Controller.bk ~/tmp/

sudo /Applications/Kext\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Kext\ Utility

{If the app isn't found at this location, just start manually. Wait a few minutes until it is probably finished, then quit}

sudo reboot

----------------- now you're finishes with step 1.


Enable all CUs Baffin


{Below, ./ means file path. It's simplest to just pull the enable-baffin-CUs.sh script (not included in this post—find elsewhere!) into the Terminal window from Finder. In this case, don't write the ./ extra. Write the following lines in Terminal and press enter}

chmod +x ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh

sudo ./enable-baffin-CUs.sh ellesmere 36

{now start Kext Utility again to repair permissions. Quit when done and reboot}

-------------- now you're finished with step 2 and you are DONE.
Click to expand...


I am using Sapphire RX470 4GB

I just did everything twice, and I still dont have acceleration (all animations are going crazy-slow). Just upgraded to 10.12.4.

Anything I missed?
 
Last edited:
Updated to 10.12.4 via App Store...After restart I noticed SIP remains enable with kext disabled (custom SIP config not being touched at all), which is a great decision by Apple Dev.

And now audio is passing thru but as if cheap old tape recorder is being slow-played. Come on Apple you can do better than that!

AndreeOnline said:
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMD9510Controller.bk ~/tmp/
Click to expand...

Thanks for your effort Andree! Wondering what 'moving AMD9510Controller.bk to ~/tmp/' is for. I got "
No such file or directory" as a response after executing that command. Without it however it all seems to be working fine so far.
 
Last edited:
STek ZeNIO said:
Thanks for your effort Andree! Wondering what 'moving AMD9510Controller.bk to ~/tmp/' is for. I got "
No such file or directory" as a response after executing that command. Without it however it all seems to be working fine so far.
Click to expand...

I actually got the same response as you when performing that line of code. But since everything works fine anyway, I don't sweat it.

I also didn't perform this step earlier, when I did the normal updates and changed the .kexts manually. I just added the device ID and ran KextUtility. Then later, I added the script to enable all the CUs.

But the step-by-step guide above was initially posted by someone else and I copied it as a note for reference. I tend to leave instructions intact when posting stuff from other people.

@PiratX Even if you had only done everything once, you wouldn't—per definition—have missed anything. And you say you did everything twice… I'm afraid you leave us nothing to work with.
 
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STek ZeNIO said:
Updated to 10.12.4 via App Store...After restart I noticed SIP remains enable with kext disabled (custom SIP config not being touched at all), which is a great decision by Apple Dev.

And now audio is passing thru but as if cheap old tape recorder is being slow-played. Come on Apple you can do better than that!



Thanks for your effort Andree! Wondering what 'moving AMD9510Controller.bk to ~/tmp/' is for. I got "
No such file or directory" as a response after executing that command. Without it however it all seems to be working fine so far.
Click to expand...

I move that into ~/tmp to preserve the file in case it's needed. I forget that most people probably don't have a home tmp folder created. You can simply `mkdir ~/tmp` to have that backup or you can change `tmp` to whatever you want. Note that `~/` simply means HOME, e.g. `/Users/your_username` or whatever you have your path set to (for example, I use an external volume for my home folder). You can of course also use $TMPDIR which will point to the random path generated under `/var/folders/cb` for your user by the system.
 
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