This guide covers fixing Intel Skylake Graphics on Desktops and Laptops for macOS Sonoma and later. By following this guide, you’ll be able to achieve full QE/CI on your system.

Overview

macOS supports a wide range of Intel HD Graphics (also referred to as iGPU), but some of them might not work out of the box if you have not followed the Clover or OpenCore Installation Guide.

Before you start with this guide, please know something about the performance. Graphics enhance the performance and help to work smoothly. In macOS, full acceleration requires that both Quartz Extreme and Core Image (QE/CI) should work together.

Quartz Extreme and Core Image (QE/CI) should work together to enable full acceleration on macOS’s GUI. It utilizes the complete Graphics capabilities. In case you haven’t enabled QE/CI on your graphic card, you won’t be able to use your macOS smoothly and there would be lots of lags and artifacts, graphic-related issues, and poor refresh rate. Also, the dock would not be transparent. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that your graphics are working with full QE/CI.

Unfortunately, with the announcement of macOS Sonoma, Apple has officially dropped support up to Skylake, including IGPU support. If you check S/L/E, you’ll notice that the support for IGPU is for KBL and later. This means Skylake CPUs will not have IGPU acceleration. However, there is still a workaround to get acceleration on macOS Sonoma for Skylake users.

Requirements

• Graphics: Intel Skylake Graphics (HD 515, 520, 530, and 540) Desktop or Mobile (Laptop)
• Kexts: Original Graphics kexts in S/L/E, Lilu, and WhateverGreen
• macOS Version: macOS Sonoma

STEP 1: BIOS Setting

• Note: Most of these options may not be present in your firmware, we recommend matching up as closely as possible but don’t be too concerned if many of these options are not available in your BIOS

Disable

• Fast Boot
• Secure Boot
• Serial/COM Port
• Parallel Port
• VT-d (can be enabled if you set DisableIoMapper to YES)
• Compatibility Support Module (CSM) (Must be off in most cases, GPU errors/stalls like gIO are common when this option is enabled)
• Thunderbolt(For initial install, as Thunderbolt can cause issues if not setup correctly)
• Intel SGX
• Intel Platform Trust
• CFG Lock (MSR 0xE2 write protection)(This must be off, if you can’t find the option then enable AppleXcpmCfgLock under Kernel -> Quirks. Your hack will not boot with CFG-Lock enabled)
  • For 10.10 and older, you’ll need to enable AppleCpuPmCfgLock as well

Enable

• VT-x
• Above 4G Decoding
  • If experiencing issues, ensure “MMIOH Base” is set to 12 TB or lower
  • Hyper-Threading
• Execute Disable Bit
• EHCI/XHCI Hand-off
• OS type: Windows 8.1/10 UEFI Mode (some motherboards may require “Other OS” instead)
• SATA Mode: AHCI

STEP 2: Add Required Kexts

The next step is to add the required kexts to enable Graphics and to use the WhateverGreen properties. WhateverGreen doesn’t work standalone. Lilu and WhateverGreen are needed together to work in conjunction.

1. Download Lilu and WhateverGreen from the downloads section of this forum.
2. Mount your ESP.

For Clover: If you’re using Clover, copy both the kexts to EFI/Clover/Kext/Others

For OpenCore: If you’re using OpenCore, copy both the kexts to EFI/OC/Kexts. You’ll also need to add the kext entries in the Kernel section of your config.plist.

NOTES:

• Download the latest version for better support.
• Download only the RELEASE.zip file.
• If the kext is already present in the directory, replace them with a new version.
• Do not use WhateverGreen.kext.dSYM, WhateverName.app, and Lilu.kext.dSYM.

STEP 3: Spoof GPU Properties

The next step is to modify the config.plist and spoof the GPU properties SKL as KBL.

1. Mount your ESP.
2. Open your config.plist.
3. Depending on the bootloader you use, add the following properties to your config.plist under Devices>Properties (for Clover) and DeviceProperties (for OpenCore)

Devices Key Value Type Notes

Device	Key	Value	Type	Notes
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)	AAPL,ig-platform-id	Depends on Your System	DATA	Specifies ig-platform-id which enables IGPU Graphics acceleration and support. 00001B59 : Required for Laptops 00001259 : Required for Desktops
	device-id	16590000	DATA	Sets Fake Device ID for Unsupported Device ID in macOS.
	enable-hdmi20	01000000	DATA	Enables CoreDisplayFixup functionality via WhateverGreen.kext. Enables HDMI 2.0 patches.
	framebuffer-fbmem	00009000	DATA	Specifies framebuffer memory size. 00009000 : Sets framebuffer memory size to 9MB 00000003 : Sets framebuffer memory size to 48MB
	framebuffer-patch-enable	01000000	DATA	Enables framebuffer patching.
	framebuffer-stolenmem	00003001	DATA	Specifies stolenmem. 00003001: Sets framebuffer stolenmem size to 19MB 00002002: Sets framebuffer stolenmem size to 34MB
	hda-gfx	onboard-1	STRING	Sets hda-gfx to onboard-1 on IGPU. Provides HDMI/DP function and can fix crash issues when Hot plugging.

1. Once you are done with adding the properties, save your config.plist.

NOTES:

• Use the latest OpenCore and kexts.
• The config.plist must be according to the config.plist creation guide.
• Connector patching is required for HDMI/DP/Type-C Display. See Intel Framebuffer Patching for more information.

STEP 4: Fix Flickers and Artifacts

The next step is to fix flickers and artifacts which are common when spoofing SKL as KBL Graphics. To fix the issue, you’ll need to add AAPL,GfxYTile property on IGPU.

1. Assuming the ESP is still mounted, open your config.plist.
2. Add the following properties to your config.plist under Devices>Properties (for Clover) and DeviceProperties (for OpenCore)

Devices Key Value Type Notes

Device	Key	Value	Type	Notes
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)	GfxYTile	01000000	DATA	Fixes artifacts and glitches in the upper left corner of the menu bar and bottom. Required for Skylake and newer on macOS Sierra and later.

1. Once added, save your config.plist.

STEP 5: Disable dGPU

If you’re using a Laptop and it has dGPU, you’ll likely need to disable it. To disable the dGPU, refer to the guide linked below.

STEP 6: Setup SMBIOS

Depending on your Platform, you’ll need to use a supported SMBIOS from the table below.

Platform	SMBIOS	Notes
Laptop	MacBookPro13,1, MacBookPro13,2, MacBookPro13,3	-no_compat_check boot arg required.
Laptop	MacBookPro15,1 and Later, Macmini8,1 and Later	No need to use -no_compat_check boot arg.
Desktop	iMac17,1	-no_compat_check boot arg required.
Desktop	iMac19,1 and Later	No need to use -no_compat_check boot arg.

STEP 7: Restart your System

After performing all the above steps, restart your system for the applied changes to take effect. Now you should be able to get your Intel HD Graphics 5XX 1536 MB with full QE/CI. And your Dock would also be transparent.

Verifying Graphics Acceleration

Follow the steps below to verify the Graphics acceleration.

Desktop

• Verify the monitor size and resolution in About This Mac > Displays
• Verify the GPU information in About This Mac > System Report > Graphics/Displays

Laptop

• Use Hackintool System Info