How far can a Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard go?

[thewad]

I have a hack that I've been using since the late 2010s running an i7 7700K processor and a Sapphire RX-570 Pulse 8GB card on a Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard. It is running OS 10.15 (Catalina) well, yet it's time to update the OS. I've seen posters stating that this board can run OS 13 (Ventura). Is anyone running OS 14 (Sonoma) on it?

As I prepare to do this, I have some things I think I know, and some questions.

I think I know.
OpenCore bootloader is preferable to Clover.
I need a NVMe SSD as a boot drive as of OS 11 for best performance and the Gigabyte Z170X board has 2 M.2 sockets, so I can use e.g. a WD SN770 drive.
From the MoBo Spec sheet2 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe x4/x2/x1 SSD support)).

Question:
Is there any difference between the Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6600 8GB Graphics Card and the Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G Graphics Card, WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System, other than the GIGABYTE having 3 fans? Both are $209 at Amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JHRQY4Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09J2NCD2L/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Any tips from anyone who has installed Monterey, Ventura, or Sonoma on a similar machine would be gratefully welcomed.

 

[Feartech]

I have a hack that I've been using since the late 2010s running an i7 7700K processor and a Sapphire RX-570 Pulse 8GB card on a Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard. It is running OS 10.15 (Catalina) well, yet it's time to update the OS. I've seen posters stating that this board can run OS 13 (Ventura). Is anyone running OS 14 (Sonoma) on it?

As I prepare to do this, I have some things I think I know, and some questions.

I think I know.
OpenCore bootloader is preferable to Clover.
I need a NVMe SSD as a boot drive as of OS 11 for best performance and the Gigabyte Z170X board has 2 M.2 sockets, so I can use e.g. a WD SN770 drive.
From the MoBo Spec sheet2 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe x4/x2/x1 SSD support)).

Question:
Is there any difference between the Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6600 8GB Graphics Card and the Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G Graphics Card, WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System, other than the GIGABYTE having 3 fans? Both are $209 at Amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JHRQY4Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09J2NCD2L/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Any tips from anyone who has installed Monterey, Ventura, or Sonoma on a similar machine would be gratefully welcomed.

Ventura would be ok for your machine, Sonoma if you really need it

make sure your kexts and opencore is updated to the latest

and you should be good to go

 

[Edhawk]

If you want to get Sonoma running on your Skylake/Kaby Lake hybrid setup you will need to use iMac19,1 SMBIOS.

Alternatively you can use MacPro1,1 or MacPro7,1 SMBIOS but you will need to disable the IGPU in the Bios, when using either of these ‘Pro’ system definitions.