Razer-Blade-15-Advanced-2019-RZ09-0301x-OpenCore

macOS on the Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) RZ09-0301x thanks to Acidanthera's OpenCore bootloader.

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) RZ09-0301x is an almost perfect Hackintosh laptop. Its design is reminiscent of the trusty old 2006 17-Inch MacBook Pro once you remove all the ugly Intel, Razer and NVIDIA stickers from the palmrest. It sounds great with its 2 large speakers, the huge trackpad supports all the native gestures and feels like an Apple trackpad, the keyboard with its sexy RGB lighting is quite serviceable, the Razer Blade sleeps and wakes quickly and the battery holds around five hours under normal load.

Disclaimer

This repository is neither a howto nor an installation manual. Using these files requires at least basic knowledge of Acidanthera's OpenCore bootloader, ACPI, UEFI and the art of hackintoshing in general. I recommend reading the excellent Dortania's OpenCore Install Guide, as well as all its linked resources.

This EFI folder is based on tylernguyen's archived repository. The SSDTs required to reliably disable the dGPU even after standby/sleep were borrowed from doubleyoustew and the framebuffer patches needed to enable the 240Hz refresh rate were discovered by reddit user sublime4116.

Recommendations

I recommend completely erasing the device's SSD by creating a new GPT partition table before attempting to install macOS, as it makes the installation process much easier. You may use any Linux live ISO with a partitioning tool such as GParted or KPartition to erase the SSD.

In order to boot macOS on the Razer Blade, the Secure Boot option needs to be disabled in the BIOS.

Furthermore, this EFI will only work with the modified firmware found in the UEFI Firmware folder. Instructions on how to flash the modified firmware may be found in this readme. macOS will only boot successfully after flashing the modified firmware and changing the required settings as described in UEFI BIOS Configuration.

Please be aware that all PlatformInfo and SMBIOS information was removed from the OpenCore config.plist files. Users will therefore need to generate their own PlatformInfo with CorpNewt's GenSMBIOS tool before attempting to boot a Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) RZ09-0301x with this repository's EFI folder.

Software Specifications

Software	Version
Target OS	Apple macOS 13.3 Ventura
OpenCore	OC v0.9.7
SMBIOS	MacBookPro16,1
UEFI Firmware	Modified firmware v1.05
SSD format	APFS file system, GPT partition table

Computer Specifications

Device	Hardware
CPU	Intel Core i7-9750H 6-Core (2.6 - 4.5 GHz, Coffee Lake Refresh)
Chipset	Mobile Intel HM370
iGPU	Intel UHD Graphics 630
dGPU	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q with 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM (disabled)
RAM	Up to 64 GB dual-channel DDR4 2667 MHz (replaceable)
Audio	Realtek ALC 298
Wifi + Bluetooth	Intel Wireless AX200 and Bluetooth 5 (replaceable)
Storage	Up to 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4
1 x USB Type-C	Does not support Power Delivery
3 x USB-A 3.0	USB 3.2 Gen 2
Camera	1 MPix 720p HD camera
Keyboard / Trackpad	Per key RGB keyboard and precision glass touchpad
Display	240 Hz, 15.6 Inch Full HD, 1920 x 1080 matte screen

What works

What needs some more work

Thunderbolt support and hotplug

What will probably never work

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q dGPU (disabled with an SSDT)
HDMI and Mini DisplayPort outputs (hardwired to the NVIDIA dGPU)
Windows Hello IR camera

Modified UEFI Firmware

In order to take advantage of better CPU power management and graphics acceleration, there are a few settings that need to be unlocked and configured in the UEFI BIOS. The most convenient way to achieve this is to flash the modded firmware found in the UEFI Firmware folder and change the required settings in the UEFI BIOS as described below. Instructions on how to flash the modded firmware may be found in this readme.

If you prefer modifying your own firmware, you may find very thorough instructions in stonevil's excellent Razer Blade 15 Advanced early 2019 repository.

UEFI BIOS Configuration

Reboot computer
Repeatedly press the F1 or DEL key to enter the UEFI BIOS configuration menu
In the UEFI BIOS navigate to the menu
- Advanced
  - Power & Performance
    - CPU - Power Management Control
      - CPU Lock Configuration
        
        Disable CFG Lock
        
        Disable Overclocking Lock
- Advanced
  - Overclocking Performance Menu
    - Disable XTU Interface
- Advanced
  - Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
    - Switch Security Level to No Security
- Chipset
  - System Agent (SA) Configuration
    - Graphics Configuration
      - Set DVMT Pre-Allocated to 64
      - Set DVMT Total Gfx Mem to MAX
- Chipset
  - System Agent (SA) Configuration
    - Disable VT-d
- Chipset
  - SATA And RST Configuration
    - Check SATA Mode Selection set to AHCI
- Security
  - Set Secure Boot to Disabled
- Boot
  - Set Fast Boot to Disabled
  - CSM Configuration
    - Set CSM Support to Disabled
- Save and Exit
  - Hit Save Changes
  - Hit Save Changes and Reset

Enabling native HiDPI display settings in macOS

To enable native HiDPI settings in the Display Preferences of macOS, download and run the one-key-hidpi script and select the option (1) 1920x1080 Display.

Configuring the RGB color effects of the keyboard

The RGB color effects of the keyboard may be managed and configured conveniently with the excellent Razer macOS utility.

Undervolting to reduce heat and improve performance

There are two undervolting tools available for macOS:

The VoltageShift.kext is already included and enabled in this repository's Kexts folder. To be able to launch the voltageshift command line tool from anywhere, copy the voltageshift executable from the Tools folder to your /usr/local/bin folder by entering sudo cp voltageshift /usr/local/bin/ in the macOS terminal after navigating to the folder where you downloaded the voltageshift executable file.

Please refer to the instructions found in the VoltageShift repository, as well as to the excellent howto found in zearp's repository.

After running voltageshift info, it appears that Razer undervolted the Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2019 RZ09-0301x CPU and CPU cache by -102mV right from the factory! But perhaps it is possible to undervolt the machine even more. Every computer is different in this regard.

Undervolting in the UEFI BIOS

While undervolting in macOS with VoltageShift works well, it is also possible to undervolt the Razer Blade directly in the UEFI BIOS. Undervolting in this way will permanently enable the voltage offsets to the computer itself and affect every operating system running on the computer.

The instructions below were borrowed from stonevil's repository.

Our modified AMI BIOS provides a lot of different tools for undervolting and overclocking. The most interesting and easy to use are:

Processor
- Core Voltage Offset
GT
- GT Voltage Offset
- GTU Voltage Offset
Uncore
- Uncore Voltage Offset

Processor is obviously the CPU, GT and GTU represent the internal graphics card and Uncore is the CPU cache.

To apply an undervolting configuration:

Reboot the computer
Repeatedly press the F1 or DEL key to enter the UEFI BIOS setup
In the UEFI BIOS setup, navigate to the menu
- Advanced
  - Processor
    - Set Core Voltage Offset to 100
    - Set Offset Prefix to - (!)
  - GT
    - Set GT Voltage Offset to 100
    - Set Offset Prefix to - (!)
    - Set GTU Voltage Offset to 100
    - Set Offset Prefix to - (!)
  - Uncore
    - Set Uncore Voltage Offset to 60
    - Set Offset Prefix to - (!)
  - Memory
    - Set Memory Profile to the best profile for the installed memory. Usually it is something like XMP profile 1
- Save and Exit
  - Hit Save Changes
  - Hit Save Changes and Reset

I would advise to test the values first in macOS with the VoltageShift tool and only set them in the UEFI BIOS when you found stable values.

Boot into macOS or Windows
Download and install the Prime95 application
Run Torture Test... from the Options menu for at least one hour
If the system works reliably, repeat all the steps and incrementally increase the offsets by -5. It is recommended to use the same offsets for Processor and GT/GTU. Repeat the Torture Test.... If the system becomes unstable, freezes or reboots, revert back to the previous stable configuration.

Setting	Start offset	Recommended step	My stable offset
`Processor Core Voltage Offset`	-100 mV	-5 mV	-140 mV
`GT Core Voltage Offset`	-100 mV	-5 mV	-140 mV
`GTU Core Voltage Offset`	-100 mV	-5 mV	-140 mV
`Uncore Voltage Offset`	-60 mV	-5 mV	-120 mV

CPU limitations can be very different from one machine to another, so do not use my configuration blindly.

jlempen/Razer-Blade-15-Advanced-2019-RZ09-0301x-OpenCore