Please Master guru's here.. Looking for Some help building a new amd hackintosh around avid carbon audio unit

[mrfatcatt]

Hello, I've been putting this off for a while but my 9900 intel cpu that I run Pro tools on is feeling very slow these days. I need to upgrade now. I really want to get a amd 9950x3d and I could use some help. After reading this , im fine with a amd pick and not intel cpu.
https://www.scanproaudio.info/2025/...3d-tested-has-x3d-finally-struck-studio-gold/

I think my biggest issue would be which motherboard to pick because the x870e, i really dont know which boards have efi ready for them. I did some reading and the Hero x870e seem a little over my budget but I will pay the extra money if needed. As @etorix mentions(see below) about 4 months ago a second option would be a x670 but im leaning on a x870e because of the backward compatible with thunderbolt. I would run dual boot and would like to install SEQ or Tahoe down the line. I do like to run windows and gaming a little but the point of this is for pro audio recoding and low latency for audio. I usually buy gigabyte boards, I have no experiance on msi boards and I am always iffy with asus. If i did a 650b motherboard for the less skips to the second chipset what other boards will work besides the Asus ProArt B650 Creator? Efis would be needed. The last Pro art board has issues and I wound up getting a x570 from gigabyte.

My old system is listed below. I would like to use in the new system and the components from my old system. I don't need the fastest m2 drives Mabey just one for recording. I don't need wi-fi .I can buy adapters for pcie slots if needed.

My old system to new!
6800gpu, Rme Aio Pcie, Asus 10g Ethernet card if the tb dont work, Uad pcie dsp card, 3 m2s 1 sata hard drive
1 avid carbon audio unti that can run in thru direct asus 10g ethernet card or thunderbolt to ethernet adapter

Originally @etorix wrote this which still makes things even harder for me to choose a path. Please note my rme card is for windows only and for editing. i may dump it for a usb audio if i dont have enough slots. Just need a basic pro audio for windows to edit fast. My avid carbon is my main unit for pro audio work
Thanks so much anyone gurus!
Mrfatcatt

X670 is, literally, two daisy-chained B650, all going through a single PCIe 4.0 x4 link (Intel is now using PCIe 4.0 x8 for its consumers chipsets). And X870 is a minor design update on X670—so minor that there's no urgency to offer the single chip as B850. This looks like a pitiful marketing trick to have users think they need to buy a new and expensive 800 motherboard with their Ryzen 9000.

See that X670E Gaming Plus block diagram above? On the first chipset, you already have a x4 M.2 slot, plus all the USB and SATA connectivity. Then on the second chipset you have a second M.2 slot, three PCIe slots (x4, x1 and 3.0 x1), the NIC and some more USB. Any network traffic is taking one lane out of the four lanes that the two M.2 drives and the three PCIe slots also need to reach the CPU. If you have your two audio cards in these PCIe slots, there are at the bottom of this chain, sharing traffic with the NIC and USB but it should still fit; now if just one of these two PCIe 4.0 M.2 requires I/0 at the same time, there's not enough bandwith for everyone to operate at nominal rate.
X870 is going to be the same kind of oversubscribed contraption.

If latency matters, I think you should stay clear of X670/X870 and try to have only one hop to the CPU, hence a B chipset.

 

[Edhawk]

Have you tried installing Sequoia on a separate NMVe drive, to test your current system with the new/updated Pro Tools?

You could also look at upgrading the CPU to a Ryzen 9 5950X or similar to see how a 16-core/32-thread CPU performs. These are available from Amazon in the UK for around £250. You would definitely need a good cooler with a CPU of this nature and it would work with your current motherboard etc.

The Asus X570 system in my signature below runs Sequoia really well. Although I don't undertake audio recording on the system.

I would be happy to help with the creation of a new or revision of your current OC EFI.

 

[etorix]

After reading this , im fine with a amd pick and not intel cpu.

Good research work. Though I suppose that this is Windows and there's always a question whether this holds with macOS, which is not even supposed to know about Ryzen.

im leaning on a x870e because of the backward compatible with thunderbolt

Not too sure what you mean here. Thunderbolt 4 support by macOS is flaky with Intel controllers; as far as I know, ASM4242 does not work under macOS. The only reliable, Mac-like, Thunderbolt solution is still a (flashed) GC-TitanRidge AIC—except these are now out of stock, hard to find and overpriced.
Do you need Thunderbolt for genuine Thunderbolt peripherals, or for networking? If the latter, go for a 10G NIC: It will be cheaper and easier to set up.

6800gpu, Rme Aio Pcie, Asus 10g Ethernet card if the tb dont work, Uad pcie dsp card, 3 m2s 1 sata hard drive

So that would boil down to:
GPU x16 (or open x8 slot)
NIC x4 (x8)
2 x1 PCIe slots for RME and UAD audio cards
3 M.2
I still take SATA as a given in the consumer realm (although there are now server boards without any).

Feeding that into my favourite price engine, Gigabyte B850 Eagle Ice appears to tick all your boxes, including manufacturer: x16, with plenty of space space for the GPU without blocking other ports, one x4 (x16 physical) in between the two x1 slots, plus 3 M.2 and 4 2 SATA (once x1 slots are populated). And many other (black) Gigabyte B850 with the same physical layout but with three x1 slots (in x16 mechanical), which would require finding a x1 10G NIC that is supported/supportable under macOS.
No guarantee that the board is hackable, but this looks like a good start.

 

[mrfatcatt]

@Edhawk

Have you tried installing Sequoia on a separate NMVe drive, to test your current system with the new/updated Pro Tools?

Yes, I have 2 systems , my intel 990 is all workings with carbon just slow.. My x570s just runs audio, non avid carbon, this system works Sonoma but my efi doesn't work on upgrading to sequoia. @caseyj tried to help me before but we had no luck figuring why the install would crash. I didnt wanna bother him after a while. I can send that efi to you but that is a different situation and a very outstanding one as well.

You could also look at upgrading the CPU to a Ryzen 9 5950X or similar to see how a 16-core/32-thread CPU performs. These are available from Amazon in the UK for around £250. You would definitely need a good cooler with a CPU of this nature and it would work with your current motherboard etc.

Thanks, but this amd is fine and im looking to replace my old intel not this system because the intel system runs Avid carbon.

I would be happy to help with the creation of a new or revision of your current OC EFI.

EFI. Awesome ill add my amd efi and see what you find.

@etorix

Not too sure what you mean here. Thunderbolt 4 support by macOS is flaky with Intel controllers; as far as I know, ASM4242 does not work under macOS. The only reliable, Mac-like, Thunderbolt solution is still a (flashed) GC-TitanRidge AIC—except these are now out of stock, hard to find and overpriced.
Do you need Thunderbolt for genuine Thunderbolt peripherals, or for networking? If the latter, go for a 10G NIC: It will be cheaper and easier to set up.

Wait.. let me see if I understand you correctly, the asm242 is in all the new x870e boards and that wont work in mac os? Avid carbon will connect 2 ways in my intel system 390 designer is the mobo.
#1 tb to apple ethernet adapter . Which woks fine on my intel system
#2 the avid carbon ethernet goes directly in my ASUS 10g pcie card. This second method works as well again in my intel board.

If I dont/cant use thunderbolt to connect to avid carbon because there is no support for tb4 on mac os then my best situation is to use my asus 10g Ethernet pcie adadapter on a new board???

So that would boil down to:
GPU x16 (or open x8 slot)
NIC x4 (x8)
2 x1 PCIe slots for RME and UAD audio cards
3 M.2
I still take SATA as a given in the consumer realm (although there are now server boards without any).

Feeding that into my favourite price engine, Gigabyte B850 Eagle Ice appears to tick all your boxes: x16, with plenty of space space for the GPU without blocking other ports, one x4 (x16 physical) in between the two x1 slots, plus 3 M.2 and 4 SATA. And many other (black) Gigabyte B850 with the same physical layout but with three x1 slots (in x16 mechanical), which would require finding a x1 10G NIC that is supported/supportable under macOS.
No guarantee that the board is hackable, but this looks like a good start.

You have the correct layout like before. Yes!

So yeah any board recommendations is what i worry about because this upgrade will be 1200-1500 and I have to have it working in hackintosh. I dont know if others are willing to help on a unsupported board.. Could be a nightmare building it only to have it not work.. Why are we going back to 850? Is that still a 1 jumped cycle with audio with the cpu? Let me try and rephrase the x670e and x870e are split and the 650 and 850 chipsets are not split? i went to your builder site but its all Europeans boards. I am in America so i don't know if that builder site will work for me. i have a extra tb add on control from gigabyte. Ill add the photo. i don't think i modded it. I think i tried to carbon working on this amd x570s once as a experiment but i don't remember if it worked.

Sorry alot of questions here, hence the frustrations. very spefic set up i need
thanks

 

[mrfatcatt]

@Edhawk
efi and a photo of system info, if you want this is a new thread let me know so not to confuse.

 

[etorix]

Let me try and rephrase the x670e and x870e are split and the 650 and 850 chipsets are not split?

Same in both generations: X_70 chipset is two B_50 chips, daisy-chained. "E" means the board is manufactured to PCIe 5.0 specifications (not sure if the chipset itself is different, suppose not…).
X_70E is meant to look bigger, meaner so "better", but if you can fit your I/O requirements in a single B_50 chip it will just do the job. And if you're sensitive to latency, less is actually more.
None of your PCIe cards is PCIe 5.0, right? None requires PCIe 5.0, and there never will be a PCIe 5.0 GPU with support in macOS x86. So I think "plain" B850 can just do it, and save you some money in the process.

I only use Geizhals as a convenient way to search with detailed filters on specifications. Usually, hardware that is available in Europe is also available in the USA—if it's not, blame it on the local turmoil with US tariffs… All the hardware comes from Taiwan or China anyway.

i have a extra tb add on control from gigabyte

Good!
But if it's just to connect an Avid device which can also do 10GbE, networking is likely to be easier to set up.
Thunderbolt 3 takes a SSDT customised to your board. And if there's a driver which requires VT-d you're out of luck on AMD.
An Aquantia NIC usually takes a quirk and/or kernel patches to work with macOS.
An Intel X550 NIC (cheap when refurbished) takes IntelLucy.kext by Mieze. And good airflow.

 

[mrfatcatt]

Yes nothing is pcie 5.0, I doubt audio manufactures would do that. People will use pcie ,dante protocol, or avb, but avb is a mess on windows so I dont think will see avid carbon on windows ever. TB Usb comes in after. Its the drivers mostly, and why alot of people use rme. The problem with Rme is i'm not a big fan of their audio converters.

Ok so what 850 boards amd board have working efis? I wish we had a compiled list of working efi amd motherboards by chipset. Maybe there is and im missing it.

 

[etorix]

I wish we had a compiled list of working efi amd motherboards by chipset.

A list of problematic boards could be useful as well.
But I'd work from your connectivity requirements rather than from boards which are known to be working. Unless you're willing to drop some requirements…

Of course there are alternatives (with possible variants): Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi and ROG StrixB650E-F Gaming WiFi have suitable layouts (but you're wary of Asus), and so do MSI Pro B850-P WiFi and B850 Gaming Plus WiFi; AsRock B650M PG Riptide would habve the ports, but you'd need a single-slot GPU, or a cable to deport it, to not block the slot just under it.

 

[Edhawk]

Radeon Pro WX 4100, WX 5100 and WX 7100 would all be suitable single slot AMD GPU's. These all work in Sequoia, so I assume they will continue to work in Tahoe, if you feel inclined to upgrade to the last Intel based release of macOS.

The Radeon Pro WX 4100 & WX 5100 don't require any additional power. For an audio recording system they would provide more than adequate graphics. For a graphics intensive process they would not be so good.

 

[mrfatcatt]

@Edhawk
My 6800 and 5700 amd gpx card work just fine in my system and I game sometimes so im good with current options. I posted my efi. What i would like to ask you is how diffcult efi's are to make working according to the x670 ex870e chipsets compared to to the b650 and b850 minus the usb key mapping.

@etorix I just a deep long ass dive looking at mobos last night. The only b850 board is the gigabyte ice. Everything has wifi in it. I don't see where I can buy it anywhere just yet and we don't know if it works. Ide be willing to give it a shot. It seems like the only other path for system with 4 pcie slot is b650. Mabey we should just go b650 with something that is already working and my problems are solved efiwise? I dont think I found any x670e or x870e with 4 pcie slots.. It just doesn't exist. See what you got? I think there is one ASUS but its very very expensive. Im learning a lot in this process. Also apparently, avid carbon is also working in Tahoe beta 1. Also, there is just no way I can give up my ports, dropping my rme card or uad card for windows is a no no. To replace the uad card with a usb will not work in mac and in mac you need thunderbolt. I dont want to deal with ua's pick one protcol and ua cards have shitty analog to digital converters imo I just want the dsp for mixing. The pcie card works in both and we need the asus 10g card and rme. and the amd gpx. So it has to be 4 pcie!

ty

 

[Edhawk]

@Edhawk
My 6800 and 5700 amd gpx card work just fine in my system and I game sometimes so im good with current options. I posted my efi. What i would like to ask you is how diffcult efi's are to make working according to the x670 ex870e chipsets compared to to the b650 and b850 minus the usb key mapping.

Not any more difficult for one over the other.

1. All these boards will need MimoWhitelist entries generated and added to the config.plist, in order to boot macOS.
2. They will also need the AM5 Kernel patch created by CaseySJ enabled in the config.plist.
3. The B650 boards will need to use SSDT-CPUR.aml.
4. I am not sure if the X670 or X870e boards would need that SSDT. But whichever way it goes that is a simple matter to resolve if it is required.

The rest of the EFI would be fairly standard for all of the boards you listed, based on the Dortania Ryzen guide. Only kext change would be Ethernet kexts, which would depend on the controller used non the board you purchase, or which PCIe 10G Ethernet adapter you use.

I like these Fenvi 10G Ethernet adapters, as they only require x2 PCIe connection. I have 6 x Fenvi 10G Ethernet cards. The 4 x 10G Ethernet Asus cards I own all require a x4 PCIe connection. I haven't noticed any difference between the Fenvi and Asus 10G adapters over my 10G network.

FENVI 10 Gbit/s PCIE zu RJ45 Netzwerkkarte Marvell AQC113 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express LAN Adapter 10000 Mbit/s für PC Desktop Win10/11 - AliExpress 7

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[etorix]

Radeon Pro WX 4100, WX 5100 and WX 7100 would all be suitable single slot AMD GPU's.

And W6600. Though none would be suitable for the switch to gaming in Windows and my recommendation is rather to keep the current RX6800 and go for ATX size over micro-ATX. With 4 PCIe slots, ATX is a reasonable size. (And the top-of-the-line E-ATX boards are insanely overpriced monsters.)

The only b850 board is the gigabyte ice. Everything has wifi in it. I don't see where I can buy it anywhere just yet and we don't know if it works.

It seems to be a new board, so maybe it has not yet arrived at retail near you? In Geizhals, I actually see two B850 Eagle ICE models, with and without Wifi7: Make your pick. (I'd guess you'd need to swap in an older, compatible, M.2 E-key module for WiFi. Or just use wired networking.)

I am not sure if the X670 or X870e boards would need that SSDT.

Anything B550 and newer, including 600 and 800 series and everything thereafter will need it.
I've read the explanation that X570 was the last chipset designed in-house by AMD (actually X470 was the last full design, and X570 was a minor refresh of it). B550 and all later chipsets are designed by ASMedia. With this change came a rewrite of ACPI tables and the old deprecated Processor() declation, which macOS relies on, was replaced by the current ACPI Device() declation, which macOS does not understand; hence the need for SSDT-CPUR or equivalent (SSDT-PLUG-ALT on Intel). This change in ACPI style will not be reversed.

 

[mrfatcatt]

@etorix
We didnt talk about the e chipset. I didnt realize there was a 650e as well, I guess you get that pcie 5.0 nvme in it? Anyways This ROG StrixB650E-F Gaming WiFi looks like the winner. The board looks really solid and has what I need and it like $250. Alot of these boards 850 boards look cheaply made.
Also there seems to be a weird mix of 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4), 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x1) vs. 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4), 2x PCIe 4.0 x1 amongst all these 3 chipsets.
Also i wanted to ask you about vrm. How much does this matter for you? I just know on high end audio pre amps, the better the power supply the better the sound in general. Not sure for mobos but im sure it matters for clean power. I might pull the trigger this week on it.

 

[etorix]

I have no experience with audio. But the VRMs obviously matter for the intended 9950X3D, which is one of the most power hungry CPUs in the line-up.
You may want to check user reports (any OS) and see whether the intended board can handle the CPU.

a weird mix of 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4), 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x1) vs. 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4), 2x PCIe 4.0 x1

5.0x16 comes from the CPU; the rest comes from the chipset, so we can see that B850 was slightly upgraded to offer all PCIe 4.0 lanes instead of a mix of 3.0 and 4.0. The "x1 or x4 electrical in x16 mechanical" are weirder… but it doesn't hurt that you could potentially use a refurbished x8 Intel X550 NIC in a "x4 in x16" slot.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hello @mrfatcatt,

Let's see if we can help you configure OpenCore for your new system. As I understand it, you have the following new components:

• Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi motherboard
  • This has Intel 2.5Gbps Ethernet so we'll use the new AppleIGC.kext version 1.5
  • This has Realtek 4080 USB audio so we'll use AppleALCU.kext instead of AppleALC.kext
• Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core, 16-Thread processor
• WD Black 2TB SN8100 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD
  • If this is installed in a Gen 5 NVMe slot in the motherboard, I'm not sure if it will be compatible with macOS
  • I recall various problem reports from people attempting to use PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs in Hackintosh
  • To be safe, let's install the WD 2TB drive in M.2_2 slot as shown below; there's a chance this may still not work if macOS is incompatible with the NVMe controller built into the WD SN8100
    
• 64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 DRAM (2 x 32GB modules)
• Which GPU are you using? AMD Radeon 6800 or Radeon 5700 or something else?

To prepare the EFI folder, we need to ask some more questions:

• Have you already run the Debug version of OpenCore and captured the log file so we can determine the MMIO White List addresses?
  • If not, that's okay -- I'll provide instructions for this
• Which version of BIOS is installed?
  • Have you tried starting macOS or a macOS installer on this system?
  • If so, did it boot up or did it freeze or crash right away?
  • We may need to create DSDT patches for your BIOS, so I'll provide instructions for generating the raw ACPI dump

 

[CaseySJ]

@mrfatcatt,

In order to generate MMIO White List and determine whether DSDT patches are needed, please boot your new system with the attached EFI folder. No changes are needed; just use the new EFI as-is.

It uses DEBUG version of OpenCore and will generate (a) ACPI dump and (b) OpenCore log.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Boot the system with attached EFI folder copied to the EFI partition of a USB flash drive
  • Press F8 repeatedly when the Asus splash screen appears
  • This will open the BIOS boot menu (not OpenCore boot menu)
  • Select the external USB disk to boot from
• Now, when the OpenCore boot menu appears, the log file and ACPI dump should have been generated and stored in the EFI partition of the USB flash drive
• Shutdown the system
• Remove the USB flash drive
• Insert the USB flash drive into a working Hackintosh or Mac
• Mount the EFI partition
• Post the (a) log file and (b) SysReport folder

 

[mrfatcatt]

Hi @CaseySJ
For the nvme, i can keep windows in gen 5 slot and yes i have a second 2 gig in nve me gen 4 with a partion I can use for mac.
I have mac os sonoma already installed, have not build a mac os usb key
I have a 6800xt on this system

As of right now, i own a uad quad dps card that is not working in any slot. I am trying different bios to see if I can get that working. Apparently this is a issue with universal audio and amd , I dont know how I overlooked this problem. I am the last bios 3222 before the very latest which is irreversible. Which i wonder would still work on hackintosh? If I cant get the uad card working I will probably be in bad shape.
Version 3265
15.46 MB 2025/06/18
SHA-256 :1A7EDD515183ADED0AB1B7D8DD6CFC5E7B2041D9E2D3583FAC778F920C93A862
"1.Updated AGESA to ComboAM5 PI 1.2.0.3e for upcoming CPU compatibility.
2.Enhanced system performance and stability.
3.Important: This update is irreversible. Rolling back to older BIOS versions is not supported.
Before running the USB BIOS Flashback tool, please rename the BIOS file (SB650EF.CAP) using BIOSRenamer."


I will follow your instructions following this bios update and post

 

[CaseySJ]

@mrfatcatt,

You mentioned that you "have mac os sonoma already installed". Is it installed and working on the new Asus B650E-F? Or is Sonoma installed and working on a different Hackintosh?

Good idea to use BIOS 3222 instead of the newer non-reversible 3265. BIOS 3222 may need ACPI patches, but the 2 patches in the EFI folder I posted above may work...

 

[mrfatcatt]

Sonoma is from my previous 390 designer.

 

[mrfatcatt]

Ok i have the files on the efi, but i can only access them on windows. I have no mac atm I see both (a) log file and (b) SysReport folder on the key as it looked successful. I was using MiniTool Partition Wizard and explorerpp_x64 to place the efi folder in the usb key, however I cannot extract the files from the key.. Working on a solution