Gigabyte x670 a possible good choice for a hack?

[rhys]

Considering we have the first success below, I'm looking to get mobo & ram asap to complete my 7950x build.

Ryzen 7000 Testing

Can you install Monterey on the SSD from another computer, and try to boot with the last working EFI? Downloading!!!!! ;) It will take a while to download and install, it's a Ryzen 1600AF, it's slow but steady, a rock 🤭 If I see that too much I will go to sleep and tomorrow we continue...

forum.amd-osx.com

It seems the Asus X670E-F has sold out, and also it's pretty darn expensive.

Does anyone think the below board would be a good choice considering its rumored Gigabyte boards allow you to disable IGPU.
I don't really need an expensive board as I won't be overclocking, if anything I'll be undervolting and reducing clocks if needed.

Regarding Wifi, if onboard isn't compatible I'll just use a wifi/bluetooth card from a broken retina macbook pro, and use a pci adaptor.

Let me know if you think there is a better choice. Budget ideally is anything below $350.

GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch - Newegg.com

Buy GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[Middleman]

Considering we have the first success below, I'm looking to get mobo & ram asap to complete my 7950x build.

Ryzen 7000 Testing

Can you install Monterey on the SSD from another computer, and try to boot with the last working EFI? Downloading!!!!! ;) It will take a while to download and install, it's a Ryzen 1600AF, it's slow but steady, a rock 🤭 If I see that too much I will go to sleep and tomorrow we continue...

forum.amd-osx.com

It seems the Asus X670E-F has sold out, and also it's pretty darn expensive.

Does anyone think the below board would be a good choice considering its rumored Gigabyte boards allow you to disable IGPU.
I don't really need an expensive board as I won't be overclocking, if anything I'll be undervolting and reducing clocks if needed.

Regarding Wifi, if onboard isn't compatible I'll just use a wifi/bluetooth card from a broken retina macbook pro, and use a pci adaptor.

Let me know if you think there is a better choice. Budget ideally is anything below $350.

GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch - Newegg.com

Buy GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

I use a few Gigabyte boards myself (B550 Vision D, Z590I Vision D, Z490 Aorus Xtreme, Z170N-WiFi) and I will say that they generally are very good.
Their UEFI BIOS has always been very flexible and I've rarely had any major issues so I'd expect any 670E boards they produce should be good for
hackintoshing also.

As for boards I read Gigabyte will be offering the new X670 AORUS PRO AX at the entry level price of $300 while their X670(E) AERO D will be priced at $400.
So these can be considerations.

https://wccftech.com/gigabyte-x670e...led-flagship-x670-aorus-xtreme-around-500-us/

Generally if I was going to build a new setup based on AMD today I would now go for a Socket AM5 setup. Why? Well because AM4 has really reached the end of its life.
While AMD has been suggesting they will keep making AM4 chips for the foreseeable future (with their model lineup going through a major makeover next year) I don't
think it is really worth getting because PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 has reach their limits. The only exception is if you have a current Ryzen system, that you go for a 5800X3D
as an upgrade. Why? Recently it was shown on JayzTwoCents that actually the 5800X3D was shown on their performance comparison charts on Intel's upcoming Raptor
Lake as a direct competitor CPU (but hidden using cleverly placed graphics). It effectively was saying (indirectly) the 5800X3D is as powerful as Alder Lake and Raptor Lake.
It's a worthy one I think considering you can pick one up now for around $419.99 on Amazon.

 

[ExtremeXT]

I'd wait a few weeks more if you plan to install macOS to not be on the bleeding edge

But if you want to get one right now, I think a Gigabyte one will be fine, since we've seen that ASUS (Zen 4) and MSI (Zen 3) boards have issues in macOS, I'm curious to see how the Gigabyte boards will hold up.

The board linked looks fine, but don't forget to update the BIOS once you get it. Let's hope the TSC issue is an ASUS specific bug!

- ExtremeXT

 

[ExtremeXT]

@rhys Curious to see if your Gigabyte board will also have the PCI lane issues like the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI board...

 

[rhys]

I'll order it soon..

 

[rhys]

@rhys Curious to see if your Gigabyte board will also have the PCI lane issues like the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI board...

Weird that it seems to be working in Big Sur though..
Gigabyte just sold on on Newegg

 

[ExtremeXT]

Weird that it seems to be working in Big Sur though..
Gigabyte just sold on on Newegg

Yeah, it's a weird bug, some motherboards just have broken PCI lanes for some reason on Monterey+...

 

[rhys]

The gigabyte is back in stock, order placed..

GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch - Newegg.com

Buy GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5 LGA 1718 AMD X670 ATX Motherboard with 5-Year Warranty DDR5, Quad M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C, AMD WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, M.2 EZ-Latch with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[rhys]

Well according to the specs, the pcie slots are pcie4 (which I'm fine with) so maybe it'l be different in Monterey.
We'll see..

PCI Express 4.0 x16	1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x16 (PCIEX16) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
Other Slots	Chipset: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x4 (PCIEX4) 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 3.0 and running at x2 (PCIEX2) Support for AMD CrossFire™ technology (PCIEX16 and PCIEX4)

 

[ExtremeXT]

Well according to the specs, the pcie slots are pcie4 (which I'm fine with) so maybe it'l be different in Monterey.
We'll see..

PCI Express 4.0 x16	1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x16 (PCIEX16) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
Other Slots	Chipset: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x4 (PCIEX4) 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 3.0 and running at x2 (PCIEX2) Support for AMD CrossFire™ technology (PCIEX16 and PCIEX4)

Only the GPU slot will likely work on macOS.... but hopefully Gigabyte doesn't have the PCI-E issue.

 

[Middleman]

Only the GPU slot will likely work on macOS.... but hopefully Gigabyte doesn't have the PCI-E issue.

I think it is more than that.

Let me show you something. This is a screengrab of the PCI specs of the current Mac Pro:



As you can see the slots are defined as Gen 3 PCIe. Since Apple doesn’t have a PCIe 4 based product (and doesn’t use PCIe in the new Apple Silicon designs afaik) that leaves us with only one possible conclusion. There’s no support for PCIe 4.0 in macOS. Which means if you plan to make a fully working hackintosh you must choose a board that has PCIe 3.0 at the very least.

 

[ExtremeXT]

I think it is more than that.

Let me show you something. This is a screengrab of the PCI specs of the current Mac Pro:

View attachment 7585

As you can see the slots are defined as Gen 3 PCIe. Since Apple doesn’t have a PCIe 4 based product (and doesn’t use PCIe in the new Apple Silicon designs afaik) that leaves us with only one possible conclusion. There’s no support for PCIe 4.0 in macOS. Which means if you plan to make a fully working hackintosh you must choose a board that has PCIe 3.0 at the very least.

I think it'll run in compatibility mode as PCI-E Gen 3, it worked for the other person... They used a PCI-E Gen 5 GPU and it worked, at least on Big Sur.

 

[Aluveitie]

@Middleman macOS works perfectly fine with PCIe gen 4. I've been running my hack with a PCIe gen 4 GPU and SSD since end of 2019 and never had any issues in that regard.
Also, Apple Silicon uses PCIe to connect storage, USB etc.