Hackintosh ASUS ROG STRIX B460I

This repository is about a Hackintosh based on the Asus ROG STRIX B460I motherboard.

The Hackintosh is based on OpenCore (0.8.5 at time of writing) and macOS Big Sur 11.7.1 following the Dortania Guide for Comet Lake.

The focus of this Hackintosh was looks, functionality and quiet operation rather than performance per Dollar. This has been achieved since there is currently nothing that doesn't work and the fans barely spin at all.

Hardware

• Case: Louque Ghost S1
• Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B460-I (BIOS version 1505)
• WiFi module: Broadcom BCM94360NG NGFF M.2. This replaces the intel chip that comes with the Asus board. See here for instructions on how to do this. The B460 board was chosen because it doesn't have a CNVi wifi module, like the ROG STRIX Z490I board for example, that can't be replaced. You can buy this module on eBay, Aliexpress or Amazon. Only problem is that it seems to only use one spatial stream when cold booted into macOS. See here
• CPU: Intel Core i5-10600
• Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition
• GPU: Intel UHD630 and Sapphire Pulse RX 5600 XT BE. The normal (not BE) edition doesn't fit in the case!
• RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 3000 16GB(8G×2)
• Storage: Western Digital SN750 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME
• PSU: Corsair SF 600W 80+ Platinum

Details

BIOS

There is no CFG-lock issue with this board. Installing BIOS version 0707 (or higher) is worth it as it enables higher resolutions in the boot loader screen for me.

Things I changed from default:

• Fast boot: OFF
• Intel Virtualization Technology: ON
• OS type: Windows UEFI
• Multi Monitor support: ON
• Above 4G decoding: Enabled
• Resizable BAR support: Auto
• Memory Profile: XMP1
• Asus Performance Enhancement: ON
• Clear the platform key as this disables secure boot.

SSDTs

Compiled by following the Dortania's ACPI Guide, the .dsl SSDT files can be found in SSDTS folder. You will need MaciASL to compile them.

• SSDT-AWAC (enable the legacy RTC clock)
• SSDT-EC-USBX (Fix embedded controller)
• SSDT-PLUG (Power management)
• SSDT-RHUB (reset USB controller)
• SSDT-SBUS-MCHC (SMBus support)
• SSDT-RX5700XT (Better support for RX5600/5700)

Kexts

Download them from their official repo

• AppleALC.kext - Audio
• IntelMausi.kext - Ethernet
• Lilu.kext - Enables various patching
• NVMeFix.kext - Better NVMe support
• VirtualSMC SMCProcessor.kext, SMCSuperIO.kext, VirtualSMC.kext - SMC emulator
• USB-Map.kext - Available from the kexts folder in this repo. This maps the 6 USB3 ports and the two internal ones used for Bluetooth and the Aura header. See USB section.
• WhateverGreen.kext - Various graphics related patches
• XHCI-unsupported.kext - There is a patched version of this in this repo. Needed for USB3 to work.
• DAGPM.kext - Better power management for AMD Navi GPUs.
• HibernationFixup.kext - Added this back as it seems like my computer crashed when in sleep mode for more than 24h. Need more testing to see if this fixes it though.

USB

This board has two USB controllers. The Intel one that drives the 6 USB3 ports on the rear panel as well as Bluetooth and the Aura header. I'm not using the internal USB ports - so the supplied USB Map will not map these. Currently 14 ports are mapped - so there is room for one more logical port. The second controller is for the rear USB-C port and it doesn't need a USB map.

The front USB ports that I didn't map have the following IDs (thanks to zhzhzh88):

• HS01, port 0x01 (USB2)
• HS02, port 0x02 (USB2)
• SS01, port 0x11 (USB3)
• SS02, port 0x12 (USB3)

In addition to the USB-Map.kext you also need the modified XHCI-unsuported.kext to enable USB3 ports. The modification is to add an entry for device id 0xa3af8086. See here

Note on Navi GPU

I found that installing the kext and SSDT from here not only improves Geekbench scores (see below), but also real world performance in Mafia III. Without it the GPU seemed to thermal throttle after a few minutes of playing and the frame rate would drop really low. Interestingly I did not see this happen with Unigine Heaven which is much harder on the GPU.

Config.plist

DeviceProperties

Below are the properties that are board specific or deviate from the Dortania guide

Graphics

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)

• AAPL,ig-platform-id = 07009B3E
• framebuffer-patch-enable = 01000000
• igfxfw = 02000000
• device-id = 9B3E0000

The device-id is needed, otherwise you will get crashes in Firefox/Safari and probably elsewhere. igfxfw enables the Apple firmware to be uploaded which improves performance.

Audio

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1F,0x3)

• layout-id = 0B000000

Kernel

Quirks > DisableRtcChecksum = TRUE - This prevents the BIOS from restarting into safe mode Quirks > ResizeAppleGpuBars = 0 - Without this the GPU won't work if Resizable BAR support is enabled. Misc > Boot > HibernateMode = Auto - Not sure if this is necessary. The machine sleeps fine without this, but maybe this enables deeper hibernation. All other settings follow the Dortania guide.

PlatformInfo

I used the iMac19,1 SMBIOS because that was what the guide recommended at the time. It has now been updated to use iMac20,1 instead. So I would use this for a new build. But since I haven't found any issues with iMac19,1 I see no reason to change it.

NVRAM

7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82 > boot-args: Add agdpmod=pikera - This is needed for Navi GPUs to work.

Benchmarks

Screenshots

References

• Dortania Configuration
• ASUS ROG strix Z490I Hackintosh
• ASUS ROG strix B460I Manual