HD4000 driver hack for custom VRAM size

[Nima.n13]

Considering that using hex values:

10 = 256MB of RAM
18 = 384MB of RAM
20 = 512MB of RAM
30 = 768MB of RAM
40 = 1024MB of RAM
80 = 2048MB of RAM

then

FF ≈ 4 GB of RAM

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

Before doing this you need at least 8 GB RAM, open a terminal and copy/paste:

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

sudo chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E* && sudo chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

After reboot you should have 4 GB VideoRAM.

hi Jack, I am a bit confused about the whole process. I have MacOs Catalina latest version. Do I need to copy any file or just running these commands in Terminal is enough? Also do I need to repeat on any mac os update? My RAM is upgraded to 16 and I want to assign 4 gb to graphic. I really couldn’t understand how to rebuild the cash, etc.TYI

 

[jackluke]

For Catalina you need to do exactly this:

- boot with CMD+R , from recovery environment open terminal and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

- boot normal on Catalina, open terminal and copy paste one line at once:

sudo -s

mount -uw /

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*

chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

kextcache -i /

(this takes some minutes to complete)

reboot

After any macOS update you have to repeat because apple copies again the stock kext.

 

[Nima.n13]

For Catalina you need to do exactly this:

- boot with CMD+R , from recovery environment open terminal and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

- boot normal on Catalina, open terminal and copy paste one line at once:

sudo -s

mount -uw /

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*

chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

kextcache -i /

(this takes some minutes to complete)

reboot

After any macOS update you have to repeat because apple copies again the stock kext.

Thanks so much boss. just wonder, if I re-enable system integrity (csrutil) what happens? does everything goes back to normal /default?

 

[Macbookprodude]

You will run into problems with this under Catalina and wind up with kext not loaded in system profiler. It’s a pain and my 2012 already has 1.5gb video HD4000 that I decided not to bother.

 

[Nima.n13]

You will run into problems with this under Catalina and wind up with kext not loaded in system profiler. It’s a pain and my 2012 already has 1.5gb video HD4000 that I decided not to bother.

I also already have 1.5 gb. so you suggest not to do this?

 

[avz]

Thanks jackluke!

 

[Macbookprodude]

I also already have 1.5 gb. so you suggest not to do this?

You can, but Catalina will reset it and if you play with your machine long enough you will see under system profiler: display: Kext not loaded. Trust me, its not worth it. If you try to disable SIP you will lost functionality of the Intel HD4000.

 

[jackluke]

Thanks jackluke!

View attachment 911898

I guess if you use this:

08 = 128MB of VRAM

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\x08\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

rebuild kextcache, reboot and it should work too.

edit:
the other VRAM value that still allow to boot Catalina is 04 = 64MB of VRAM
but it won't work properly, so the minimum allowed is 08 = 128MB of VRAM

Based on my method: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/hd4000-driver-hack-for-custom-vram-size.1573528/post-28380525

 

[SirPsychoSexy]

this is just placebo and not have any effects in speed i tested in some bethmarks

 

[Macbookprodude]

this is just placebo and not have any effects in speed i tested in some bethmarks

I stopped doing this hack as it does nothing but crash Catalina.

 

[justperry]

this is just placebo and not have any effects in speed i tested in some bethmarks

No it isn't, I doubled my RAM years ago, it persists through updates and it made my 2012 MM quite a bit snappier.

I stopped doing this hack as it does nothing but crash Catalina.

On yours maybe, it made mine faster and only had a few kernel panics on Big Sur in beta 2 I think, I didn't have those for ages.

 

[Macbookprodude]

No it isn't, I doubled my RAM years ago, it persists through updates and it made my 2012 MM quite a bit snappier.



On yours maybe, it made mine faster and only had a few kernel panics on Big Sur in beta 2 I think, I didn't have those for ages.

I have a 2015 Macbook pro anyway where I don't have to worry about this anymore. I saw no real benefit on my 2012 which I still have. SSD is where its at for speed.

 

[justperry]

Considering that using hex values:

10 = 256MB of RAM
18 = 384MB of RAM
20 = 512MB of RAM
30 = 768MB of RAM
40 = 1024MB of RAM
80 = 2048MB of RAM

then

FF ≈ 4 GB of RAM

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

Before doing this you need at least 8 GB RAM, open a terminal and copy/paste:

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

sudo chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E* && sudo chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

After reboot you should have 4 GB VideoRAM.

Would this work on Big Sur, I guess it will if I am able to write to /S/L/E

Does Perl work in Recovery? and then use your script to update kernel cache.

 

[jackluke]

Would this work on Big Sur, I guess it will if I am able to write to /S/L/E

Does Perl work in Recovery? and then use your script to update kernel cache.

If you have a working "sudo mount -uw /" on BigSur (snapshot booting disabled) it's easier, but also with a snapshot booting rebuilding the kernelcollection from a BigSur Recovery should work, and perl does work in Recovery environment, only thing you have a long path to type:

cd /Volumes/YourBigSurLabel/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

or simply avoiding a long string: cd /V*/YourBigSurLabel/S*/L*/E*/A*Capri*/C*/M*/

 

[justperry]

If you have a working "sudo mount -uw /" on BigSur (snapshot booting disabled) it's easier, but also with a snapshot booting rebuilding the kernelcollection from a BigSur Recovery should work, and perl does work in Recovery environment, only thing you have a long path to type:

cd /Volumes/YourBigSurLabel/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

or simply avoiding a long string: cd /V*/YourBigSurLabel/S*/L*/E*/A*Capri*/C*/M*/

I am going to try this later.

Cheers

 

[Macbookprodude]

This hack, though useful in somethings is not going to replace a true video processor with 2048. The 2012 will still perform the same.. nothing really changing. Just very inconvenient when one has to disable SIP - try this and you will see the intel video disabled under system profiler.

 

[Mario Realini]

3. install the kext, rebuild caches (i would suggest kext wizard)

Hi, thanks for this (very appreciated!).

Can you please let me know if there's a chance to increase VRam on my System based on AMD Radeon HD6750M? (see picture here enclosed).

Also I don't understand what I have to do for " install the kext, rebuild caches (i would suggest kext wizard) "

Thanks in advance for your attention.

Cheers

 

[justperry]

If you have a working "sudo mount -uw /" on BigSur (snapshot booting disabled) it's easier, but also with a snapshot booting rebuilding the kernelcollection from a BigSur Recovery should work, and perl does work in Recovery environment, only thing you have a long path to type:

cd /Volumes/YourBigSurLabel/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

or simply avoiding a long string: cd /V*/YourBigSurLabel/S*/L*/E*/A*Capri*/C*/M*/

EDIT: I had to use remount-sysvol.sh, then it worked.

Succes

All went well until rebuild-kc.sh

My Install is on SSD, name of my System

I type

/Volumes/Image\ Volume/rebuild-kc.sh /Volumes/SSD

Output is

Error:Volume is not defined

WTF, It has worked before, why ain't this working now, I had to mount the SSD first with mount -uw /Volumes/SSD before I could write to it.

Any Ideas why this won't work?

ls on cd /Volumes shows:

.fsventsd
Gtech
Image Volume
SSD
SSD - DATA
System Reserved
Untitled
macOS Base System

So, the SSD is there.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Wow ! 4080MB - Is this as strong as a native Intel iris ?

 

[nsantos]

For Catalina you need to do exactly this:

- boot with CMD+R , from recovery environment open terminal and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

- boot normal on Catalina, open terminal and copy paste one line at once:

sudo -s

mount -uw /

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*

chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

kextcache -i /

(this takes some minutes to complete)

reboot

After any macOS update you have to repeat because apple copies again the stock kext.

Hello @jackluke

I had a couple of questions before I attempted to try this.....

1) I have Catalina 10.15.6 running on a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) with 4GB of RAM. The "about this mac" shows I have a Intel HD 5000 chipset, this thread mentions HD3000 and HD4000, would this work on HD 5000?

2) If the answer to question 1 is yes, then my next question is could I use the code you supplied to change the setting or would any modifications need to be made for HD 5000?

2b) Also I've seen in other threads instructions mention turning SIP back on in a "partial" state. For the instructions specific to Catalina would I then turn SIP back on or would it remain off permanently? If it is to be turned back on what is the command line for that?

 

[Macbookprodude]

For Catalina you need to do exactly this:

- boot with CMD+R , from recovery environment open terminal and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

- boot normal on Catalina, open terminal and copy paste one line at once:

sudo -s

mount -uw /

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*

chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

kextcache -i /

(this takes some minutes to complete)

reboot

After any macOS update you have to repeat because apple copies again the stock kext.

I have found that having a 2015 one does not have to do this all the time. But, really what performance is gained by doing this on a 2012 ? I don't mean to sound indifferent to it, just want to know if its really worth the time and effort.
[automerge]1601695576[/automerge]

I also already have 1.5 gb. so you suggest not to do this?

If you do it, just be sure you don't disable SIP. You will get under system profiler: Graphics display disabled (Intel HD4000 disabled)

 

[justperry]

Hello @jackluke

I had a couple of questions before I attempted to try this.....

1) I have Catalina 10.15.6 running on a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) with 4GB of RAM. The "about this mac" shows I have a Intel HD 5000 chipset, this thread mentions HD3000 and HD4000, would this work on HD 5000?

2) If the answer to question 1 is yes, then my next question is could I use the code you supplied to change the setting or would any modifications need to be made for HD 5000?

2b) Also I've seen in other threads instructions mention turning SIP back on in a "partial" state. For the instructions specific to Catalina would I then turn SIP back on or would it remain off permanently? If it is to be turned back on what is the command line for that?

View attachment 962458

Simple answer
It doesn't work for HD5000

 

[David Alejandro Rachè]

What did you do? I tried the terminal commands in big sur but always says:
root@Daves-MacBook-Pro MacOS # sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

open /System/Library/Extensions/

mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Permission denied

mount: / failed with 66

root@Daves-MacBook-Pro MacOS #

 

[Isaac Halasima]

For Catalina you need to do exactly this:

- boot with CMD+R , from recovery environment open terminal and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

- boot normal on Catalina, open terminal and copy paste one line at once:

sudo -s

mount -uw /

cd /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents/MacOS

perl -pi -e 's|\x00.{1}\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|\x00\xFF\x10\x07\x00\x00\x10\x07|g' AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*

chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*

kextcache -i /

(this takes some minutes to complete)

reboot

After any macOS update you have to repeat because apple copies again the stock kext.

This is awesome, THANKS SO MUCH. My 2012 Mac Mini was shelved for so long, it had literally become a paper weight in my office until I ran into this thread. And it's night and day on how fluid and smooth it is now (16gb of RAM to share for VRAM I'm sure helps a ton).

I work in Film, and would mainly use this Mac Mini on set as a compression and transfer workhorse back in the day. It took a beating, but never died... just became outdated as true DIT stations started becoming the norm on production sets. So 8 years later, for this thing to be able to open a 6k project in Premiere Pro and After Effects, then handle basic editing and prep work, is the best surprise I could've had in a long time. I wouldn't even try editing with it back when it was still relatively new (granted I didn't buy it for editing... just my work dog moving and compressing data).

And now it's also an extra computer that can handle Apple Arcade really well for my kids too (my 2010 iMac I let them use won't even try Apple Arcade).

A Few Questions:
I'm curious, is 4gb the max? I'm sure we're already pushing a river of data through a bunch of old garden hoses, so I know chances are probably slim.

And also: Do you think there's a way that 4gb VRAM could carry over to Windows when you Bootcamp? I got COD Warzone playing at 70-90 fps in 1080p, on my 2015 5k iMac with 4GB VRAM. Which is incredible... because the iMacs screen is only 60hz (eh... Windows on a Mac, right? It feels unnatural... so I shouldn't be surprised). I know 4GB is a really nice number on the graphics card as a gaming minimum. I've just noticed my HD4000 jumps back to 1536MB when I Boot Camp (it returns to 4GB VRAM when I switch back to Mac OS).

Sorry about the long post. Just love what I've learned in this thread. Which also includes the fact I finally understand hex and decimal.
- Mahalo

 

[macinfo]

Does anybody know if Lightroom Classic/Adobe Camera Raw will work with this patch to have gpu-accelerated features like Enhance Details or SuperResolution activated?

Adobe says Metal compatible GPU with 2 GB VRAM are the minimum required.

I would be interested especially, if this could work for a MacBook Pro mid 2012 (non-retina).