MP All Models Tired of low Geekbench scores? Use RadeonBoost!

[startergo]

Let me look at your config file.

the card is installed in the bottom slot right?

 

[kkinto]

the card is installed in the bottom slot right?

Yes it is

 

[startergo]

Yes it is

 

[kkinto]

Thanks. I swopped your config out with mine but I'm afraid there's no difference really. Not sure what the problem is.

 

[CMMChris]

The problem is that every Polaris card seems to behave differently on macOS. I gave up looking for a "one size fits all solution".

 

[Ludacrisvp]

Right which I assume is why my Polaris 4gb sapphire pulse saw a bump with this but others didn’t.

 

[LEOMODE]

So just to confirm, W5700X on 7,1 Mac Pro is not necessary right?

 

[applCore]

@CMMChris can you please give us who have the Vega10 (Vega 64 for example) problem an option to enable the speedup at the cost of fan noise? We'd really like to have a flag we can flip on and off for the kext at boot that will allow us to suffer with the noise. For example, in my case, I operate in a space with servers and a lot of noise so there's no problem with the additional fan noise.

 

[pure.wisdom]

Thanks. I swopped your config out with mine but I'm afraid there's no difference really. Not sure what the problem is.

Same mine. I only got 28k scores in geekbench.

 

[Technomad42]

Radeonboost has worked well under Catalina with my Radeon VII, with Geekbench 5 coming in around 53,000 on OpenCL and 101,000 on Metal (I'm guessing that the fact that the same card hits 91,000 on Windows under OpenCL is down to Apple). But it obviously doesn't work at all under Big Sur. Any plans for an update to fix that?

thanks…

 

[h9826790]

Radeonboost has worked well under Catalina with my Radeon VII, with Geekbench 5 coming in around 53,000 on OpenCL and 101,000 on Metal (I'm guessing that the fact that the same card hits 91,000 on Windows under OpenCL is down to Apple). But it obviously doesn't work at all under Big Sur. Any plans for an update to fix that?

thanks…

It should work. I tested that back in beta 1

Tired of low Geekbench scores? Use RadeonBoost!

Confirmed the codeless kext still works in Big Sur beta 1. Without RadeonBoost, the GB GPU performance still drop by 40%. In other words, we still need this kext in macOS 11 to remove the Apple's artificial lock.

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Radeonboost has worked well under Catalina with my Radeon VII, with Geekbench 5 coming in around 53,000 on OpenCL and 101,000 on Metal (I'm guessing that the fact that the same card hits 91,000 on Windows under OpenCL is down to Apple). But it obviously doesn't work at all under Big Sur. Any plans for an update to fix that?

thanks…

I can confirm it is still working perfectly with my iMac 2011/AMD Polaris 4170 GPU and Big Sur Developer Beta 6/Public Beta 3 and it has been working with all versions from Beta3 on - this was the first I installed.

 

[applCore]

Not hearing any options here - can we get the VEGA enabled again if we don't mind fan overdriving?

 

[Grumply]

This kext does NOT require OpenCore, and it has nothing to do with OpenCore.

OpenCore is just one of the method to load this kext, therefore, just need to do it once, than all installed macOS can benefit from it. No need to install that one by one for each single macOS installation.

You can simply disable SIP and download the kext from post #1, then

1) Copy the RadeonBoost.kext to /Library/Extensions/ (NOT /System/Library/Extensions/)

2) Open Terminal, enter

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/RadeonBoost.kext.kext

3) Enter

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Extensions/RadeonBoost.kext.kext

4) Enter

sudo codesign --deep -fs - /Library/Extensions/RadeonBoost.kext.kext

5) Enter

sudo touch /Library/Extensions; kextcache -update-volume /

(May shows something like "No such file..." or "Error 107", don't worry, you can safely ignore them. This step is optional indeed)

6) Restart

I'm trying to inject the kext (via /library/extensions) on my new 7,1. But when I input:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/RadeonBoost.kext.kext

Terminal says "No such file or directory"

Is that because the command is for "RadeonBoost.kext.kext" rather than just "RadeonBoost.kext" (which is the actual filename and extension that's in the folder) or is the second ".kext" on there for a reason?

I've tried it both ways, and am seeing no improvements from the stock 580x in this 7,1.

 

[h9826790]

I'm trying to inject the kext (via /library/extensions) on my new 7,1. But when I input:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/RadeonBoost.kext.kext

Terminal says "No such file or directory"

Is that because the command is for "RadeonBoost.kext.kext" rather than just RadeonBoost.kext" (which is the actual filename and extension that's in the folder) or is the second ".kext" on there for a reason?

I've tried it both ways, and am seeing no improvements from the stock 580x in this 7,1.

1）The file name is RadeonBoost.kext, not RadeonBoost.kext.kext. That's my fault of copy and paste but haven't check the details before post. Anyway, you got this fixed.

2) The idea of this kext is to make macOS assign device properties to PC graphic cards like what it does to Apple graphic card. Since you already has an Apple graphic card, there should be no improvement to use this kext.

 

[Grumply]

2) The idea of this kext is to make macOS assign device properties to PC graphic cards like what it does to Apple graphic card. Since you already has an Apple graphic card, there should be no improvement to use this kext.

I'm using the same pair of Radeon VIIs I had in my 5,1 in the 7,1, so the kext does make quite a difference - it's taken my geekbench metal scores up from around 60,000 to 100,000. And I've seen a bit of an improvement in video rendering times too.

So I've now got three additional kexts in my /library/extensions folder on the 7,1:

- RadeonBoost
- Innie (mixed in with the Lilu.kext)
- CustomPowerPlay (the downvolting kext for the Radeon VII that you made)

I've had to disable SIP to get these all going. Is it possible for me to reactive SIP (now that they're installed)? Or will that kill any of them?

 

[h9826790]

I'm using the same pair of Radeon VIIs I had in my 5,1 in the 7,1, so the kext does make quite a difference - it's taken my geekbench metal scores up from around 60,000 to 100,000. And I've seen a bit of an improvement in video rendering times too.

So I've now got three additional kexts in my /library/extensions folder on the 7,1:

- RadeonBoost
- Innie (mixed in with the Lilu.kext)
- CustomPowerPlay (the downvolting kext for the Radeon VII that you made)

I've had to disable SIP to get these all going. Is it possible for me to reactive SIP (now that they're installed)? Or will that kill any of them?

You can, but have to use the --without kext argument

 

[Grumply]

You can, but have to use the --without kext argument

Thanks ? Could you tell me the full code I'd need to enter for that? Is it just an addition I'd have to add to "csrutil enable"?

 

[h9826790]

Thanks ? Could you tell me the full code I'd need to enter for that? Is it just an addition I'd have to add to "csrutil enable"?

csrutil enable --without kext

 

[CMMChris]

CustomPowerPlay (the downvolting kext for the Radeon VII that you made)

You can put the PowerPlay Table inside RadeonBoost to keep things nice and tidy. Just add it to the Vega20Boost personality.

 

[roobarb!]

Erm, I've just discovered this RadeonBoost thing.

MacPro5,1 vs MacPro5,1 - Geekbench

Thank you very much @CMMChris, I think it's staying. ?

 

[CMMChris]

Unfortunately it will stop working in Big Sur. Apple is now preventing force loading of SMU Firmware.

 

[roobarb!]

Unfortunately it will stop working in Big Sur. Apple is now preventing force loading of SMU Firmware.

Well, thanks, Apple. Guess I'll be on Catalina for some time. I've really noticed the performance improvement this gives, so I'll not be leaving that on the table in a hurry!

Hmm, I saw some people mention that SMU firmware loading was gone in 10.15.7, but I see this working just fine. I didn't find out about it until I was already on 10.15.7. I'll no doubt give Big Sur a try at some point, but I'm not bothering until it's been out of beta for a bit.

 

[CMMChris]

It's not gone in 10.15.7. But in Big Sur it is blocked since a couple of Betas. Looks like Apple doesn't want 3rd party cards to perform as good as their own products in Geekbench.

 

[roobarb!]

Looks like Apple doesn't want 3rd party cards to perform as good as their own products in Geekbench.

Given the difference between my Radeon VII and the averaged figure for their Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, I wouldn't be surprised. Mine was £509 on Amazon. Theirs is £5600 or an extra £5200 on top of the MacPro7,1 when ordering.

To be fair though, it does have an extra 48 GB HBM2 for the £5000 premium.