Video summary

30% MORE performance for UNSUPPORTED MACs?!?

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Overview of the “one simple trick” claim

This video claims a software-only “one simple trick” to achieve up to ~30% more GPU performance on unsupported Macs—specifically those running OpenCore Legacy Patcher with unsupported macOS versions (e.g., Ventura).

The trick involves changing a setting tied to hardware identity spoofing.

Key technical finding (performance impact)

During GPU benchmark testing, the speaker reports that their Mac Pro GPU benchmark score dropped:

  • From: ~130,000
  • To: ~90,000–95,000 (under certain OpenCore Legacy Patcher defaults)

The speaker attributes this regression to the OpenCore Legacy Patcher setting called “Spoof Level.”

What “Spoof Level” means

In this context, spoofing means the Mac is made to pretend to be a different (typically newer) model, so macOS can apply the appropriate drivers and updates.

The speaker notes that the patcher uses SMBIOS, which macOS can read (via “About This Mac”) and use for decisions related to updates/patching.

The patcher can set spoofing to:

  • None
  • Minimal
  • Moderate
  • Advanced

Example: MacPro5,1

For their example (MacPro5,1), the patcher was set to “Minimal spoofing,” which correlated with the reported large performance drop.

Reproducible benchmark procedure (as described)

The speaker presents a repeatable workflow to confirm the cause:

  1. Set Spoof Level = “None”
  2. Reinstall / apply OpenCore Legacy Patcher to the disk (per their instructions)
  3. Reboot
  4. Run Geekbench 4 GPU benchmark
    • Expected: ~130,000
  5. Switch back to “Minimal”
  6. Reboot and rerun the benchmark
    • Expected: ~90,000–95,000
  7. Repeating the switch + reboot cycle “pins down” that this specific setting drives the performance difference

OpenCore Legacy Patcher versions and compatibility notes

The speaker references Dortania releases:

  • v0.5.0
  • v0.5.1, described as “Ventura editions.”

Important compatibility caveats

  • MacPro6,1 (“garbage can”)

    • Reported as supported with 0.5.1
    • Can run Ventura (with caveats)

  • MacPro5,1 (“cheese grater”)

    • Reported as not supported yet for Ventura
    • The speaker suggests that if an update appears possible, it may still be unreliable—potentially due to SMBIOS spoofing

The speaker warns not to pursue a Ventura install on MacPro5,1 solely because the update shows up.

Additional settings mentioned in v0.5.1

For MacPro5,1, the speaker says the newest patcher changes default behavior:

  • System Integrity Protection (SIP) appears to be lowered (they state it was fully applied previously in v0.4.11)

  • Secure Boot Model appears to be no longer selected (changed from earlier behavior)

Despite those other changes, the speaker emphasizes that SMBIOS spoofing level set to “Minimal” is the key performance factor.

Practical recommendation / call for results

The speaker recommends trying:

  • Spoof Level → “None”
  • Reinstall/apply the patcher
  • Reboot
  • Benchmark again

They report testing on MacBook Air and Mac Mini, and invite viewers to comment with their results.

They also note that on some systems, default settings may already be “None,” so results may vary.

Overall claim

With Spoof Level changed to None, the speaker reports graphics performance increases of 30%+ compared to Minimal spoofing, without changing hardware.

Main speakers / sources

  • Primary speaker: The YouTube creator speaking throughout the video (sharing benchmark results and settings changes)
  • Development source referenced: Dortania, developers of OpenCore Legacy Patcher (notably v0.5.0 and v0.5.1)

Original video