cpu power management primer

[Rhoqr]

for a while now i've been pulling my hair out trying to get cpu power management working. i followed a lot of tutorials, tried all clover ssdt option combinations i could think of, used ssdtPRGen with and without freqVectorsEdit, tried different smbios versions, booted with and without the -xcpm kernel option, tried a lot of bios settings ... you get the idea. but unfortunately nothing worked. intel power gadget's freq graph never moved an inch up or down. always perfectly straight.

i'm using an asus z10pa-u8 with the latest bios and a xeon e5-2690 v4. my bios settings are as follows:

Advanced Power Management Configuration

• Power Technology: CUSTOM
  
• Config TDP: NO
  
• P State: turbo and eist YES
  
• C State: non retention C6, C3 OFF and C6 ON
  
• HWPM native and autonomous C state ON
  
• T State: YES
  

 

Energy Perf BIAS

• Energy Performance Tuning ON
  
• everything else default
  

 

with windows these settings work fine. in the task manager i can see the freqs moving between minimum and turbo as needed. so at least nothing is broken. which i started to consider after so many different tries had no effect at all.

i've read all kinds of related stuff i could find but there're still gaps because most guides were either very specific to one cpu and osx version and/or lacked important info. so here're a couple of things i would very much welcome an answer to:

 

• does the osx version i run have to support my cpu? e.g. would it be possible to get speedstep working with let's say 10.8.5 which had no broadwell support by default?
  
• if yes, i assume i have to copy a few files from a later osx which does support my cpu model natively. e.g. a couple of plists for X86PlatformPlugin.kext. so which files would i have to drag over?
  
• ideally i'd even like to have speedstep with 10.6.8. is that even possible with my gear?
  

 

as to clover, to some things i couldn't find a proper answer either:

• if i do use an aml file, which clover options MUST be off?
  
• and is it enough to have them not in the config file or do they have to be set to false explicitly?
  
• what's the defaut behavior of settings which are not in the config file? is it the same as setting them to false or is there a difference?
  

 

i'm using 4798 btw.

anyhow i'm using a bunch of osx versions for different tasks so for now getting that to work with just one of them would be great already. i'm using 10.6.8, 10.8.5, 10.9.5 and 10.12.6.

i'm really out of ideas so help in whichever way would be outstanding!

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], the cpu is sandy bridge or ivy bridge

[Rhoqr]

you mean i should use that as fakeid?

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], x79 sandy bridge pm dont work good, ivy bridge work great

[Rhoqr]

just to be clear, i have a broadwell. not sure why you mentioned x79.

anyway you're suggesting i should use an ivy bridge fakecpuid?

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], x99 check here patch for good PM

https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/335650-kernelandkextpatches-1013x1014x1015x-x99/

[Rhoqr]

thanks!

unfortunately all these patches are for 10.13 or higher and are hardcoded. is it not possible to get this done for broadwell with clover's ssdt or an aml?

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], no, is a kernel patches

[Rhoqr]

oh so broadwell cpupm only works via kernel patches?

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], ur mobo have Intel® C612 PCH/x99 chipset, correct?

x99 need many patches to kernel to work good

[Rhoqr]

indeed c612. so you're saying kernel patches are mandatory with that chipset? in other words clover options or an ssdt.aml are not enough?

if so, are these patches also available in code form? i'm a programmer and don't mind compiling a kernel. it would also help me to see what has been changed so i can adopt it to different osx versions.

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], only ssdt don't solve, need many kernel to patches too

[Rhoqr]

okay so, are these patches also available in code form? i'm a programmer and don't mind compiling a kernel. it would also help me to see what has been changed so i can adopt it to different osx versions.

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], all patches is here, work on the fly, dont need mod kernel

https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/335650-kernelandkextpatches-1013x1014x1015x-x99/

use it in Kernel to Patch

[Rhoqr]

yeah i know, my point was that i wanna get cpupm working with other osx versions. hence knowing what has been changed would be key.

[MaLd0n]

[ref]Rhoqr[/ref], apple change many things in every update, in some cases need new patches every new updates

[Rhoqr]

yes sure, but if i had one set of patches in code form i could compare them to different kernels.