Ryzen 9 3950X, Asus ROG Strix X570-I, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

[Aluveitie]

Tower of Power

CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming
RAM	Kingston HyperX Predator 64GB 3600MT/s
GPU	AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
Storage	Corsair MP600 PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1TB
Wifi/Bluetooth	Broadcom BCM94360NG
Case	Phanteks Evolv Shift
Cooling	Custom Loop 3x 120mm Rads

Using the onboard temperature sensor header the fans can be based on the water temperature rather than the CPU. This keeps the system nearly silent even with CPB enabled as boosting one core would otherwise unnecessarily ramp up the fans constantly. Even longer all-core loads can't really bring the fans to ramp up, the Radeon VII has to kick in to help with that

BIOS

• Version: 3001
• Above 4G Decoding: Enabled
• ResizableBAR: Disabled
• Fast Boot: Disabled
• CSM: Disabled
• PCIe 16x Speed: Gen 3
• DOCP: Enabled

ACPI

• SSDT-HPET.aml together with the first rename patch fixing IRQ conflicts
• SSDT-PLUG.aml sets plugin type
• SSDT-SBRG.aml fixing EC, RTC memory and IRQ conflicts
• SSDT-USBX.aml fixing USB Power
• SSDT-SBUS-MCHC.aml fixing SMBUS support

The second patch is renaming the second XHC0 to XHC2. This is completely optional as the USBPorts.kext does match on the path instead of the name, but it makes easier to differentiate ports.
Note: XHC0 is not renamed to XHCI since the MacPro7,1 SMBIOS does not require this, if iMacPro1,1 is to be used this would have to be fixed with an SSDT-XHC as usual.


What's working

• Big Sur
• Ethernet
• Wifi/Bluetooth
• Audio
• Sleep

Benchmarks

Cinebench R23	CPU @4.3 GHz	1224 SC / 24821 MC
	CPU @PBO	1234 SC / 24205 MC
GeekBench 5	CPU @stock	1266 SC / 14454 MC
	CPU @4.3 GHz	1280 SC / 15274 MC
	CPU @PBO	1320 SC / 15190 MC

EFI: Github

 

[AudioGod]

Awesome Build Buddy, Well done.
Question, Why are you using SSDT-RTC?

 

[Aluveitie]

Thanks.
I made the SSDT-RTC because the DSDT reports the RTC with only a single bank (128 bytes) of RAM even though it has more. This fixes the warning at boot.

 

[olbo]

Fantastic build, and what a beautiful case! This has to be one of the forums golden builds! Enjoy the 3950x, I have the same CPU and have noticed extreme stability, wattage drop and thermals with a -500mV. Worth trying if you are wanting to look for some cooler temperatures in your SFF.

It's a shame about microphone audio not supported with AppleALC - are there any insights to why this does not work on AMD systems?

 

[Aluveitie]

Thx for the hint, I'll try. My 3900X got unstable with even -50mV. I'll probably use ClockTuner for Ryzen again to find a sweet spot for each CCX.

As for mic, I don't know the specifics, but Acidanthera usually does not go out of their way to support AMD as it does not fit their mission. Unless someone from the AMD OS X community looks into it will remain unresolved.

 

[atanvarno]

Daaamn! Awesome stuff. Any particular reason you moved to Asus X570, apart from onboard temp sensor?

 

[Aluveitie]

Before I left fo Apple 10 years ago I tended to always use Asus boards for my builds. I was long thinking between the ASRock ITX and the Asus Strix but finally went with the ASRock because I thought I might use Thunderbolt down the road. Once I built my custom loop I started to miss that little temp sensor to properly set everything up.

That and some of the odd quirks of that board (on Auto, it does not set the Infinity Fabric clock 1:1 at 3600 even though it runs perfectly fine if done manually...) made me regret my choice. I finally came across a 3950X paired with a Strix for a reasonable price which was reason enough to switch and rebuild my system

 

[Aluveitie]

BIOS 3202 with AGESA V2 PI 1.1.9.0 working just fine

 

[Aluveitie]

@olbo I did some undervolt testing and found that the sweet spot on mine is somewhere around -75mv, going much lower starts to reduce single core performance as boost clocks suffer. Maybe tuning the LLC can compensate a little, but this is where the Curve Optimizer for Ryzen 5000 would come in handy.

 

[Aluveitie]

BIOS 3402 with AMD AM4 AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.0 also working just fine

 

[AudioGod]

@Aluveitie Hey buddy I hope your good,

Could you try something for me if you don’t mind and tell me if it’s a gain or a loss for you please?
First off in macOS run Luxmark and take a note of your gpu score and then go into your config.plist and add boot argument npci=0x2000, save and restart and go straight into the bios and disable Above 4G decoding save and boot fully back into macOS and after a few mins run luxmark again and compare And tell me the result?

For me with a 5700 XT setup like above my score jumps right up but more importantly my minimum low and ave frame rate is much much better and this includes windows and Linux too. I’m trying to gauge if this is universal or a gigabyte / Navi thing.
Sorry to ask you but your one of the ones on here with your head screwed on when it comes to this game so who better to ask?

Thanks
AG

 

[Aluveitie]

@AudioGod

I know how to enable/disable Above 4G Decoding

Here are the LuxMark 3.1 results:

Above 4G Decoding	Result
Enabled	49285
Disabled	49212

(This was with CPB disabled I noticed just now)

Once I have more time I'll run Unigine Valley both ways

 

[AudioGod]

@AudioGod

I know how to enable/disable Above 4G Decoding

Here are the LuxMark 3.1 results:

Above 4G Decoding	Result
Enabled	49285
Disabled	49212

(This was with CPB disabled I noticed just now)

Once I have more time I'll run Unigine Valley both ways

Sorry I wasn't trying to patronize you I was just laying it out there...lol
Thats very interesting.
For me with it enabled I'm hitting 27568 and disabled its 27966 but that's not what's really going on that's making me ask its more in Windows actually as with Above 4g enabled my ave frame rate in rocket leauge at 4k is around 100fps but with it disabled its hitting my fps limit of 144fps and matching my max refresh rate. This trend continues in every game a test out and has got me scratching my head a bit over it as its not something I have ever noticed before.
I think it could be a Gigabyte buggy bios at work as if I enable 4g and Resize BAR Support the Ave frame rate is back to maxing out.
Truly odd stuff bud.

 

[Aluveitie]

@AudioGod I did test runs with Valley and the results were within margin of errors, both around: Score 4060, min FPS 44, max FPS 172, avg FPS 97

So on macOS I don't see any difference.

 

[AudioGod]

@AudioGod I did test runs with Valley and the results were within margin of errors, both around: Score 4060, min FPS 44, max FPS 172, avg FPS 97

So on macOS I don't see any difference.

Thanks for checking for me, nice one.
I have got to the bottom of it now, It’s Gigabyte trying to implicate the Resize BAR Support for SAM and messing with above 4g in the process. For now Im best off having Above 4g disabled until they sort it out. All is well and thanks again.

 

[Aluveitie]

Thanks to TheAppleGadget I found a little App that allows to control RGB on MacOS for this board:

Link: https://github.com/notjosh/Aureal

It is working but very basic, since read out of the number of addressable lights does not work I had to modify and recompile it for everything to light up.

 

[andi]

As for mic, I don't know the specifics, but Acidanthera usually does not go out of their way to support AMD as it does not fit their mission. Unless someone from the AMD OS X community looks into it will remain unresolved.

so, "working :
...
Sound including the case's front headphones 3.5mm port
..."

excludes Mic ( front & rear ) & Line in - thanks for mentioning : it saves me a lot of trial & error "iterations".

Yes , I know, the quote is from another thread

 

[Aluveitie]

I've updated my repo with resources to run MacOS virtualized with KVM/QEMU using Unraid (thanks @ Pavo for the help to get it running).

 

[dannymak]

i have spare x570-i with RX470 gonna try it, thank you.

 

[ishtob]

thanks for referring me to this thread. funny enough, I have the big cousin of your case (Shift X) This is an older shot with my Vega64, i've since upgraded to a 6900xt reference with an EK waterblock.

any tips on replacing the Wifi card? I got the BCM94360NG on order