I've been through the OpenCore setup process on my E6540 (i7-4800MQ, 16GB, HD8790M, etc...) and gotten Catalina and Big Sur to install and work perfectly EXCEPT for video glitches that render the machine unusable. Usually the screen will momentarily blank or glitch at random intervals, but if you try running a Chromium-based browser like Chrome or Edge on it it will go absolutely bonkers. I have looked around and not found a way to fix that particular issue, which is a shame as it works perfectly otherwise. I switched to a Clover-based boot folder that results in a system that appears to function just as well but has 100% working video. The downside of that setup is that it takes a bit longer to boot.
I would be very interested to find out if there is a configuration for OpenCore that fixes that video issue.