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Hackintosh MWS (Mobile WorkStations): A List of Hackintosh-able Laptops that has a Working dGPU

Hey there:

Probably some hardware diehards, including me personally, have been considering building a hackintosh laptop that is 100% a MacBook Pro 15/16 replacement -- yes, with dGPU. After some research, here is a (WIP) list of laptops with Intel H45 CPU and working compatible dGPU. I'm not very familiar with the legacy (pre-Skylake) scene, but additions are welcomed. The list will start with Skylake (6th gen) and after, but the idea is pretty simple, if your laptop has both Hardware MUX and a compatible dGPU, it will gonna work.

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Skylake (6th)

  • HP Lineup: ZBook 15 G3 and 17 G3
    • CPU: 4-Core
    • Graphics: MXM, W5170M Half Height for 15in, W6150M Full Height for 17in
      • 3rd party upgrades to Polaris MXM could be possible
  • Dell Lineup: Precision 7x10
    • CPU: 4-Core
    • Graphics: MXM, W5170M Half Height for 15in, W7170M Full Height for 17in
      • 3rd party upgrades to Polaris MXM is possible
  • Lenovo Lineup: P70

Kaby Lake (7th)

  • HP Lineup: ZBook 15 G4 and 17 G4 (same design w/ G3)
  • Dell Lineup: Precision 7x20 (same design w/ 7x10)
    • CPU: 4-Core
    • Graphics: MXM, WX 4150 Half Height for 15in, WX 7100 Full Height for 17in
  • Lenovo Lineup: P71 (same design w/ P70)

Coffee Lake (8th)

  • HP Lineup: ZBook 15 G5 and 17 G5
  • Dell Lineup: Precision 7x30
    • CPU: 4/6-Core
    • Graphics: DGFF, WX 4150 Half Height for 15in, WX 7100 Full Height for 17in
      • 3rd party upgrades to WX 7130 DGFF (Full Height) is possible
    • You might have non-working TrackPoint and TouchPad buttons, due to the implementation uses I2C.
  • Lenovo Lineup: X1 Extreme/ P1
    • CPU: 6-Core
    • Graphics: Up to GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q/ P2000
      • This means you are stuck in High Sierra due to the lack of WebDriver in 10.14+
      • Not sure of the VBIOS situation for P52/ 72. Even if they work, you are stuck in High Sierra.

Coffee Lake Plus (9th)

  • HP Lineup: ZBook 15 G6 and 17 G6 (same design w/ G5)
  • Dell Lineup: Precision 7x40 (same design w/ 7x30)
    • CPU: 4/6/8-Core
    • Graphics: DGFF, WX 3200 Half Height for 15in, WX 7130 Full Height for 17in
      • 3rd party upgrades to WX 4150 DGFF (Half Height) is possible
    • You might have non-working TrackPoint and TouchPad buttons, due to the implementation uses I2C.
  • Lenovo Lineup: None

Comet Lake (10th)

  • HP Lineup: ZBook Fury 15 G7 and 17 G7
    • CPU: 4/6/8-Core
    • Graphics: HP Customized Socket, Radeon Pro W5500M and Radeon RX 5500M. Working status is yet to be confirmed.
    • You might, however, need to use a 3rd party external microphone due to HP's usage of Intel SST, which connects the Built-in Mic to the PCH. Reference: https://github.com/lulujyc/ZBook-Fury-15-G7-OpenCore
    • You might have non-working TrackPoint and TouchPad buttons, due to the implementation uses I2C.
  • Dell Lineup: None
    • The Precision 7x50 uses a revised DGFF layout and does not provide AMD dGPU option
  • Lenovo Lineup: None

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Machines that I had experience with are Precision 7x10, 7x20, 7x30 and ZBook Fury 15 G7. Currently I'm working on the Fury, ideally creating a perfect MBP 16 replacement. Hope some of you with dGPU usage on macOS will find this list helpful.

In general, your best guess buying an MWS with a compatible dGPU is the Dell series. HP series if you are very into hacking the VBIOS. HP MWS has faulty VBIOS implementations and not every GPU Board you buy has VBIOS installed -- the G5 and G6 have VBIOS integrated into UEFI BIOS -- good news they revised back with the G7. Lenovo MWS is basically a no-go unless you can hack the Intel Boot Guard on the P70 and P71.

My personal suggestions: for a 15-in MWS, buy a Precision 7540 if you're okay with the WX 3200 (= WX 4100) or WX 4150. Both cards work with Faked device-id. Also if you're okay with carrying an external mic or not using the mic, and want a relatively lighter, better-looking and fancier option, wait for me to test the W5500M on the HP Fury 15, which is nearly 2x performance of the 4150. For a 17-in MWS, Precision 7740 is your best option, although you might still want to consider the Fury 17 if I successfully tested the W5500M. The W5500M has a slight advantage over the WX 7130 that Precision 7740 uses.

Lastly, here's the answer to the "but... why not just buy a Mac" question:

You don't get good Windows support on a Mac.

You don't get up to: 13T (7540, 3*2280+1*2242) or 17T (7740, 4*2280+1*2242) or 18T (Fury, 4*2280 + 1*SATA Half Height) of storage on your Mac.

You can't easily swap parts on your own if one fails.

And most importantly, you don't have all the fun of hackintoshing. :)

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