Gigabyte Z490 Vision G Hackintosh OpenCore

Repo status: Slowly maintained. Tested only with Sequoia

Introduction

This repo based on 5T33Z0 Gigabyte-Z490-Vision-G. I made some changes especially for my system, so i recommend you to check original repo.

NOTE: For best results, read and follow the install instruction carefully and thoroughly.

Build Info

Hardware Components

System Specs

Component	Details
Mainboard	Gigabyte Z490 Vision G
BIOS	F21. F5 or higher is required to disable CFG Lock. Otherwise use Kernel Quirk AppleXcpmCfgLock
CPU	Intel® Core i7 10700 (Codename Comet Lake)
RAM	32 GB DDR4 2400 Crucial Basllistix Sport LT
iGPU	Intel® UHD 630 Headless
dGPU	AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
Audio	Realtek® ALC1220-VB (Layout-id: 17)
Ethernet	Intel® 2.5GbE LAN chip.

BIOS Settings

⚠️ Important Updates
Upgrading from to macOS 14.3.1 to 14.4 and newer via System Updatecauses a Kernel Panic during install! The workaround is to temporarily disable SecureBootModel (Background)
The Intel I225-V Ethernet Controller finally got a dedicated kext called AppleIGC so the previous fixes are now obsolete!
600/700-series Nvidia Cards require root patching with OpenCore Legacy Patcher to reinstall Nvidia drivers.

BIOS Settings

• Tweaker [TAB]

  • Extreme Memory Profile (XMP): Enabled (if supported by RAM)
    • Advanced CPU Settings
      • VT-d: Enabled (disabled in config.plist anyway, so only relevant to Windows)
      • Intel Speed Shit: Enabled

• Setings [TAB]

  • Platform Power
    • ErP: Enabled (so USB Power turns off, after PC is shut down)
  • IO Ports
    • Internal Graphics: enabled.
    • Audio Controller: Enabled (Required for DP/HDMI sound)
    • Above 4G Decoding: Enabled
    • Re-Size BAR Support: Disabled
    • IOAPIC 24-119 Entries: Enabled
    • Super IO Configuration
      • Serial Port: Disabled
    • USB Configuration
      • Legacy USB Support: Disabled
      • XHCI Hand-off: Enabled
    • Network Stack Configuration
      • Network Stack: Disabled

• Boot [TAB]

  • CFGLock: Disabled (Option only available on newer BIOS versions)
  • Windows 10 Features: Windows 10
  • CSM: Disabled

  

OpenCore and Config Details

OpenCore Details

• Version: 1.0.2 (details see config.plist)
• Compatible macOS: 15 (Sequoia)
• System Definition: iMac20,1 Using a divergent SMBIOS rather than iMac20,2 may require remapping of USB Ports, since the info.plist inside the USBPorts.kext refers to iMac20,1 as model.
• OpenCanopy Enabled: yes
• Iconset: tekteq
• Chime: no
• FileVault: yes
• SecureBootModel: j185
• USB Ports Mapped: yes. Details here
• csr-active-config: SIP Enabled

About included ACPI Tables

• [DMAR] (optional): DMAR replacement table with specific Reserved Memory Regions removed. For 3rd party LAN/Wifi/BT cards that won't work if VT-D and the Intel I225-V controller are enabled (macOS Big Sur and newer).

• SSDT-AWAC-ARTC: Custom variant of SSDT-AWAC. Disables AWAC Clock and enables RTC as ARTC instead. Also disables legacy HPET device.

• SSDT-PORTS: OS-agnostic USB Port Mapping Table for the Z490 Vision G. No additional USB Port kext or quirks are required. Since the USB ports are mapped via ACPI, they will work in any version of macOS. Check this pdf for a detailed list of mapped ports. NOTE: macOS does not support USB 3.2 via the USB protocol. It requires Thunderbold 3 or newer instead to support speeds greater than 5 Gbit. So there's no speed benefit when using the red USB ports over the blue ones when running macOS!

• SSDT-PLUG.aml: Not needed for macOS 12 and newer. Also not needed when using CPUFriend.kext and CPUFriendDataProvider.kext.

  NOTE: Additional info about these ACPI Tables can be found on my OC Little Repo

Note about Kexts

The following Kexts are enabled by default:

• IntelBluetoothFirmware.kext, BlueToolFixup.kext, itlwm.kext

  • Disable they if you don't have an Intel WiFi/Bluetooth module.

• CPUFriend.kext and CPUFriendDataProvider.kext.

  • If you use a different CPU model, create your own DataProviderKext using CPUFriendFriend and replace original kext. See Post-install Tweaks

Installation

How to install macOS

Installing macOS

If you already have macOS installed but want to perform a clean install, you can either download macOS from the App Store or use ANYmacOS. It's a hassle-free app than can download Catalina and Big Sur. It also can create a USB Installer for you. And if you create multiple HFS partitions in the correct sizes, you can use it to create a multi macOS Installer USB Stick as well.

If you are on Windows or Linux, follow the guide provided by Dortania

EFI Install Instructions

EFI Install Guide for OpenCore

1. Download latest Release and unpack it
2. Select the config of your choice and rename it to config.plist
3. To disable SIP, use csr-active-config AwgAAA== for macOS 11 and newer
4. Graphics:
   • AMD GPUs may require additional boot-args. Check WhateverGreen repo to find out which you need.
   • The config.plist uses iGPU for Display(s) by default. If you want to use dGPU and iGPU in headless mode, open config.plist with a plist editor (or text editor) and comment-out the dictionary PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) with "#" first, to disable the existing entry. Then uncomment headless dict. - NOTE: To choose preffered GPU, you need enable CSM Support in Boot tab, then go back to IO Ports, choose preffered GPU and finally disable CSM Support
5. Create SMBIOS infos for iMac20,1to the config.plist and save it.
6. Copy the EFI Folder to a FAT32 formated USB Stick
7. Reboot from USB Stick
8. Perform an NVRAM Reset
9. Boot macOS
10. If your system boots successfully, mount your ESP and copy over the EFI Folder to you HDD/SSD and reboot.
11. Continue with Post-Install!

Post-Install Tweaks

Strengthen Security

Once you got macOS running, change the following settings to make your system more secure:

• Change UEFI > APFS: MinDate and MinVersion from -1 (disabled) to the correct values for the macOS version you are using. A list with the correct values for macOS High Sierra up to Big Sur can be found here.
  

  BACKGROUND: OpenCore 0.7.2 introduced a new security feature which prevents the APFS driver from loading if it does not match OS-specific Date (MinDate) and Version (MinVersion). If left at their default value 0 (as set in the sample.plist), the macOS partition will not show up in the Boot Picker unless Big Sur or newer is installed. For ease of use (and since I don't know which macOS you will be using) I've deactivated this feature. If you plan to setup a multiboot system running various iterations of macOS you probably should leave it at -1. Otherwise you won't be able to boot older macOSes.

• Change SecureBootModelfrom j185 (for iMac20,1) to j185f (for iMac20,2). NOTE: Only applicable to macOS Catalina and newer. You should test these settings first using a USB flash drive since it can prevent the system from booting. Disable it for installing macOS Monterey if you have issues.

Optimizing CPU Power Management

Use CPUFriendFriend to generate a CPUFriendDataProvider.kext to optimize the CPU Power Management of your CPU for a more efficent overall performance. You can follow this Guide to create your own. When you're done, reboot. Have a look at the CPU behavior using Intel Power Gadget. You can see, that the CPU idle frequency should be lower now:

Enabling Apple Graphics Power Management (AGPM) for dedicated GPUs (NVIDIA and AMD)

• Generate an AGPMInjector.kext for your GPU using AGPMInjector
• Copy it to EFI\OC\Kexts
• Enable the entry in the config.plist
• Save and reboot.
• Open IORegistryExplorer and search forPR00. CPU Power Management and AGPM are working correctly if it looks like this:
  

Calculating Scan Policy (optional)

The items displayed in the Boot Picker Menu are based on a combination of bits representing supported devices (SATA, NVME, USB, etc.) and file systems (APFS, HFS, NTFS, etc.). There are 24 bits which can be turned on and off to modify what's displayed in the Boot Picker. The combination of selected bits create what's called the ScanPolicy. It's located under Misc > Security in the config.plist. The default value is 0 (everything). Although this is great for compatibility, it will also display EFI Folders on drives which are not the boot drive as well.

To change the ScanPolicy, you can make use of this online calculator: https://oc-scanpolicy.vercel.app/. I am using 2687747 for example which hides EFI Folders and NTFS Drives. If I need windows I just boot it from the BIOS Boot Menu (F12).

IMPORTANT: Calculating a wrong ScanPolicy can lead to the Boot Picker being empty, so you can't boot into macOS. So make sure to test the value first by booting from FAT32 formatted USB Stick containing your EFI Folder with the new value for "Scan Policy".

Changing Themes

• Add theme to Resources/Image/[Theme name]
• Open config.plist
• Go to Misc > Boot and change PickerVariant to: [Theme name].
• Save and reboot

NOTE: For more Post-Install tweaks and tips, check out my small collection of Config Tweaks

Credits and Thank yous

• Acidanthera and Team for the OpenCore Bootloader
• Dortantia for OpenCore Install Guide
• rierdorf for OpenCore Sanity Checker
• SchmockLord for FakePCIID.kext to get the I225 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Controller working before a Kernel Patch existed
• Corpnewt for SSDTTime, GenSMBIOS and ProperTree
• daliansky for OC Little ACPI Hotpatch Collection
• Pavo-IM for APGM Injector
• SL-Soft for Kext Updater and ANYmacOS
• jsassu20 for MacDown Markdown Editor
• chris1111 for config validator apps for OpenCore and Clover
• 5T33Z0 for original repo
• tekteq for awesome OpenCanopy theme
• Everybody.