README.md

Enabling Metal 3 Support and "GPU" Tab in Activity Monitor

Disclaimer: The Framebuffer Data used in this guide is for an Intel UHD 630 – don't use it to fix your iGPU (unless you have a Comet Lake CPU as well). Use the Framebuffer data required for your iGPU instead!

TABLE of CONTENTS

• About
• 1. Requirements
  • Hardware and Software
  • config.plist adjustments
  • Required Software and Resources
    • A note on Big Endian and Little Endian
• 2a. Test Hardware Acceleration and Metal 3 support
• 2b. Check presence of "GPU" tab (optional)
• 3. Obtaining AAPL,slot-name for iGPU and GPU
  • Method 1: using Hackintool
  • Method 2: "calculating" AAPL,slot-name manually (for Advanced Users)
  • Addendum
• 4. Verifying and Troubleshooting
• 5. Shortcut: Using a defaults-write command
• Credits and Resources

About

Follow this guide to enable Metal 3 for the iGPU if your AMD GPU does not support it (Metal 3 requires Navi or newer).

If the Device Properties of your iGPU and dGPU are configured correctly, you will find the Tab "GPU" in the Activity Monitor App which lists the graphics devices and processes assigned to each of them.

Here's a screenshot from my system which uses an 10th Gen i9 CPU with a Intel UHD 630 (configured headless) and a RX580 Nitro+ in macOS Ventura:

1. Requirements

Hardware and Software

• System with both Intel (U)HD 630 on-board Graphics and a macOS-compatible dGPU
• iGPU must be enabled in BIOS
• iGPU must be configured for offline ("headless") use, using an empty Framebuffer
• macOS Monterey or newer (for Metal 3)

config.plist adjustments

• Device Property entries for both iGPU and dGPU
• GPU:
  • AAPL,slot-name with correct location (internal@…)
• iGPU:
  • AAPL,ig-platform-id entry with correct empty Framebuffer for your CPU
  • AAPL,slot-name with correct location (built-in)
  • Correct device-id for used CPU (optional)
• SMBIOS that utilizes the iGPU (so no iMacPro1,1 or MacPro)

NOTE: The "GPU" Tab only appears if your system has both an iGPU and a dedicated GPU. If it only has one or the other, use a defaults-write command to enable it instead.

Required Software and Resources

• Hackintool to obtain DeviceProperties, specifically AAPL,slot-name
• ProperTree to copy keys from one .plist file to another
• metalgpu Script for checking Metal 3 support (iGPU/dGPU) in macOS Ventura
• VDADecoderChecker for checking if Hardware Acceleration is working
• WhateverGreen's Intel HD Framebuffer Guide (optional)
• Big/Little Endian Converter (online)

A note on Big Endian and Little Endian

Keep in mind that the byte order (or "Endianness") of Framebuffers and Device-IDs may differ depending on the source of data you are using: WhateverGreen's Intel HD Graphics FAQ uses Big Endian, while the config.plist requires data to be entered in Little Endian!

Example: For 10th Gen Intel Core Desktop CPUs, the OpenCore Install Guide recommends Framebuffer 07009B3E. But Whatevergreen's Intel HD Graphics FAQ recommends 0x3E9B0007. It's actually the same framebuffer – just with a different Endianness.

💡 When implementing data from WEG's Intel HD Graphics FAQ – such as AAPL,ig-platform-id – make sure to convert it to Little Endian before entering it in your config.plist. The inverted principle applies when trying to find details about a framebuffer used in your config: convert it to Big Endian first and then paste it as a search term into your browser to find it in the Intel HD Graphics FAQ.

2a. Test Hardware Acceleration and Metal 3 support

1. Double-click VDADecoderChecker to check if Hardware Acceleration is working
   • If it is working, you don't need a fix
   • If it is not, follow the Guide to fix your Framebuffer patch via DeviceProperties
2. Double-click metalgpu to check Metal 3 support (macOS 13 only):
   • If Metal 3 is available for either iGPU or dGPU, you don't need a fix
   • If Metal 3 is not available for either iGPU/dGPU, it means that your dGPU does not support Metal 3 and it is not enabled for the iGPU either. Follow the guide to add enable-metal to the DeviceProperties of your iGPU (works on Intel (U)HD 630 only).

NOTE: The Metal capabilities of dGPUs are limited by the used hardware. AMD GPUs of the Polaris family (RX 500 series) only support Metal 1 and 2, while GPUs of the Navi 10 (RX 5000 series) and Navi 20 (RX 6000 series) family also support Metal 3.

2b. Check presence of "GPU" tab (optional)

• Run Activity Monitor (located under Programs/Utilities)
• Check if it contains a Tab called "GPU" (as shown in the "About" section)
• If it is present, you don't have to fix it
• If it is not present you can follow the guide to fix your DeviceProperties or skip straight to section 5 to use a defaults-write command to enable the GPU Tab instead.

3. Obtaining AAPL,slot-name for iGPU and GPU

In order to get the "GPU" Tab to display in macOS Ventura you need to add AAPL,slot-name to the DeviceProperties of the iGPU and dGPU. Follow either Method 1 or 2 to do so:

Method 1: using Hackintool

1. Start Hackintool
2. In the Toolbar, click on "PCIe":
   
3. Next, click on the Export button at the bottom of the Window:
   
4. This will create 4 new files on your Desktop: pcidevices.dsl, pcidevices.json, pcidevices.plist, pcidevices.txt. Open pcidevices.plist
5. Find the Device Properties of your iGPU located under PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)
6. Expand the entry and find the Key AAPL,slot-name:
   
7. Copy the key to the clipboard
8. Mount your EFI and open your config.plist
9. Under DeviceProperties/Add find PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)
10. Paste the AAPL,slot-name as a child. The resulting entry should like like this:
    
11. Alternatively you can set AAPL,slot-name to built-in:
    
12. In case you haven't already, also add key enable-metal (DATA) 01000000 to the iGPU to enable Metal 3 support in macOS Ventura (Intel (U)HD 630 only)
13. Repeat the same for the GPU. In the pcidevices.plist, search for the GPU Model (like "Radeon" or "GTX"). Since the PCI path for GPUs is not fixed and my differ from system to system it's easier to find it this way.
14. Copy the AAPL,slot-name key for the GPU and paste it into the corresponding section of your config.plist:
    
15. Save the config.plist and reboot
16. Continue with Step 4

Method 2: "calculating" AAPL,slot-name manually (for Advanced Users)

You may have noticed the similarities between the numbers used in the PCI path and the ones used in AAPL,slot-name: whatever number is contained in the PCI path after 0x becomes part ot the "Internal@" string:

• For iGPUs AAPL,slot-name, use: internal@0,2,0 or built-in (both work)
• For the dGPU, you have to calculate it based on its PCI path. In my case it's Internal@0,1,0/0,0. You have to incorporate slashes as well if the PCI path contains additional "PCI" levels, which is the case for my GPU: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0). Only the slashes separating "Pci" are relevant for this, not the "PciRoot" part.

⚠️ CAUTION: Keep in mind that the numbers used in PCI paths are hexadecimal. So you have to convert them to decimal (if they exceed 0x09) before adding them to the AAPL,slot-name key. You can use the Hackintool's calculator to convert from hex to dec.

Example: The AAPL,slot-name of PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0) is not Internal@0,17,0 but Internal@0,23,0. That's because 17 in hex is 23 in decimal!

Addendum

After further research and testing, it turns out that the number of properties can be reduced to 3 to get it working, respectively 4 (device-id) to get the name of the iPGU correct as well:

4. Verifying and Troubleshooting

After applying the changes to the config and a reboot, open Activity Monitor and check if the Tab "GPU" is present. If it is present everything should be working correctly. But just to make sure, run the "metalgpu" script in macOS 13:

If the GPU Tab is missing from Activity Monitor, you need a different empty framebuffer. Depending on the CPU family you are using there might be more than one framebuffer to choose from.

1. Visit Whatevergreen's Intel HD Graphics FAQ
2. Find the Framebuffers for your CPU Family, in my case I have a Comet Lake CPU with Intel UHD 630
3. Only Framebuffers with 0 Connectors and 1 MB Stolen Memory are applicable. In my case there are 6 possible Framebuffers.
4. Copy the first one into memory. In this example: 0x3E920003
5. Convert it from Big Endian to Little Endian using the online converter mentioned earlier:
   
6. Copy the converted Framebuffer to the Clipboard (0300923E in this example)
7. Open your config.plist
8. Under DeviceProperties/Add find PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)
9. Look for Key AAPL,ig-platform-id
10. Paste the new Framebuffer: 0300923E
11. Save the config and reboot
12. If it is working, congrats. Otherwise test the remaining Framebuffers one by ome until you find a working one.

5. Shortcut: Using a defaults-write command

If all of above doesn't work, or you just can't be bothered, enter the following defaults-write command in Terminal to enable the "GPU" Tab in Activity Monitor:

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor ShowGPUTab -bool true

To disable it, enter

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor ShowGPUTab -bool false

NOTE: You still may have to fix your DeviceProperties to get proper Hardware Acceleration and Metal 3 support in macOS Ventura, though.

Credits and Resources

• FirstCustomac for his post showing the correlation of AAPL,slot-name and the "GPU" Tab in Activity Monitor
• ricoc90 and miliuco for the Metal GPU Testing Utility for macOS 13
• notjosh for the defaults-write command
• Headkaze for Hackintool
• Dortania for VDADecoderChecker
• Test: iMac19,1 (Headless) vs iMacPro1,1 Video Encoding Performance
• Issues related to the igfxfw=2 property