ThinkPad A485 Ryzen Vega, may I try? What macOS is best? (Macintosh user)

[mmb]

Hi, new user here.

I would like a bit of help here. I did try to "ryzentosh" my ThinkPad but went stuck at boot. This was about a year ago. Due to health problems I gave up on this and keep using several linuxes on the ThinkPad. I would like to try again as I have no interest on buying another portable to run macOS. Did some research and found this incredible website.

I have been using macOS since forever, this is not a problem for me. I did opencore on my Macintoshes and I would like to know if my ThinkPad is compatible with any ryzentosh option. I don’t mind using Monterey for best compatibility or most error free ryzentosh, although I use Sonoma on my Mac Pro. I appreciate that you tell me what option is better.

Thank you very much.

Here is the ThinkPad info

Computer:
LENOVO ThinkPad A485

CPU:
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2500U (Raven Ridge, RV-B0)
2000 MHz (20.00x100.0) @ 1598 MHz (16.00x99.9)

Motherboard:
LENOVO 20MVS0CV00

BIOS:
R0WET65W (1.33 ), 06/29/2020

Chipset:
AMD Promontory/Bixby FCH

Memory:
65536 MBytes @ 1199 MHz, 17-17-17-39

• 32768 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - Crucial Technology CT32G4SFD832A.C16FF
• 32768 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - Crucial Technology CT32G4SFD832A.C16FF

Graphics:
AMD Radeon Vega 8 (Raven) [Lenovo]
AMD Radeon Vega 8, 1024 MB DDR4 SDRAM

Drive:
SanDisk SD8SN8U-512G-1006, 500.1 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s

Sound:
ATI/AMD Display HD Audio Controller

Sound:
AMD Raven/Renoir/VanGogh/Cezanne - Audio Processor - HD Audio Controller

Network:
RealTek Semiconductor RTL8822BE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCIe Adapter

Network:
RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

Network:
RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

 

[Edhawk]

Based on the information provided above, I would expect to be able to install macOS Sonoma or Sequoia on the laptop, with the following caveats.

1. The WiFi/BT card is unsupported, so needs to be replaced with a compatible Broadcom WiFi/BT card. Assuming the current Realtek card can be swapped out. If the Realtek WiFi card is soldered to the motherboard then it will need to be disabled in the bios an a USB WiFi card/dongle used instead.
2. If you plan to dual boot macOS and either Linux or Windows on the laptop, that you install macOS as the first OS with an accompanying EFI partition at the beginning of the drive, so OpenCore can be installed correctly.
3. The Lenovo Bios allows you to increase the amount of VRAM (UMA pre-allocated memory) to the AMD Vega graphics. As you will need a minimum of 1G but preferably 2G or more for graphics acceleration in macOS.
4. The keyboard and trackpad work with VoodooPS2Controller and/or the Voodooi2c kexts.
5. When you have macOS installed you can confirm the exact audio codec (Realtek) used in the laptop, so an appropriate audio layout ID can be found to make the builtin audio work in macOS like a native Mac.

Does the laptop have 2 x Ethernet ports, or was the duplication of the Ethernet information a mistake?