MP 7,1 2019 Mac Pro, help me work out some issues.

[wickerstick]

I have a list of issues I have been unable to resolve on my 7,1. I'm hoping some of you may have or had similar issues. and could help me and others like me resolve 1 or more of them.

additions I've added:​

• Highpoint SSD7101A-1 ( 2x 2TB saberent rocket Q )( 1 for MacOS, 1 running windows 11 Pro )
• replaced w5700X MPX w/ OEM 6900xt

• Sonnet Technologies Allegro Pro​

  SuperSpeed+ USB 3.2 PCI Express 2.0 Card Mac / PC / USB 3.2 / PCIe

1. OEM 6900XT fans go full blast during sleep. Tried NVRAM reset and SMC reset.
2. running main system off Highpoint SSD7101A-1 (very audible fan noise during use appears to be coming from this?)
3. when under windows the system Crashes during sleep. Ive reloaded with system with windows 10 pro 2-3 times and windows 11 pro 2-3 times. installing drivers pulled with brigadier. if let sleep for a period under windows, eventually the system will crash and reboot into macOS (from internal SSD not the main one I use running off the highpoint)
4. Under Windows, the 10GB ethernet has intermittent drops and pauses. Ive tried multiple driver revisions and the This fix:
   disable both Recv Segment Coalescing for IPv4 and IPv6 in advanced properties (did not resolve issues and resorted to disabling ethernet and running wifi only.)
5. Something I've noticed while gaming under windows. Rarely, but sometimes the system will hang and freeze while playing a game. often times resulting in having to hard shutdown the system. This has also happened with older 5,1's and 6,1's in the passed. could be related to ecc ram or possibly using 3rd party ssd's overheating or other. not overly concerned with it ATM but perhaps someone else has noted this issues before.

Some things I will most likely change

• replace the main SSD flash cards (1tb) with a 4 TB set and run my main OS off this.
• remove the highpoint and sell this & both 2TB nvme cards.
• run 8TB Pegasus J2i Internal Storage Enclosure (hold work data here & add 2TB or 4TB 2.5'" SSD to run windows off of.

Hoping this may help with items 2,3 and possibly 5. However, as far as the video card going full tilt during sleep, I don't know what can be done other than:

• turning off sleep?
• losing performance and going back to the W5700X.
• buying a new MPX module for way more than its worth.

This Mac Pro serves as an All in one Device for all of my and my families needs. I do not want to have multiple computers everywhere I like having 1 Computers serve all the needs. it's a family and work computer with all our user accounts and data on it. and windows is used for mainly gaming, streaming or recording with OBS. creating tools with YUMI and UUSBC. various IT Support task's when needed.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Sorry to read your having so many troubles with your 7.1 Mac Pro

I use the same but with out your issues.

. Startech dual PCIe M2 switch PCIe card with dual Samsung 980pro M2 cards, one boots ventura, the other windows 11
Startech card link here. no noisy fan on it, but only a dual M2 card.

StarTech.com Dual M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter Card - x8 / x16 Dual NVMe or AHCI M.2 SSD to PCI Express 3.0 - M.2 NGFF PCIe (M-Key) Compatible - Supports 2242, 2260, 2280 - JBOD - Mac & PC (PEX8M2E2)

StarTech.com Dual M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter Card - x8 / x16 Dual NVMe or AHCI M.2 SSD to PCI Express 3.0 - M.2 NGFF PCIe (M-Key) Compatible - Supports 2242, 2260, 2280 - JBOD - Mac & PC (PEX8M2E2)

www.amazon.co.uk

I also run a 6900XT gigabyte gaming card. One of the only one's that fit inside the 7.1 apart from AMD OEM 7900xt.

Highpoint RocketU 1344A USB 3.1 PCIe card installed, no issues with that.

I have 4tb standard apple SSD drive loaded with Monterey.

As a comparison I run the gigabyte 6900xt in both windows 11 and monterey and ventura. Windows 11 runs perfectly, no fan speed increase in sleep. Also the internet never pauses or slows down. I do use win 11 for games but not often, never had a hang or freeze up in game.

The fan on the Highpoint SSD7101A can be noisy, its well known for this. little fans at high speed are noisy.

When i loaded win 11 to startech M2 980pro card i started bootcamp allowed it to download driver package to folder then copied it to USB drive and cancelled boot camp install. Use USB drive with bootcamp folder on later for installation in win 11 after win 11 install to external drive.

When win 11 has installed with out the T2 check, go to USB stick and install bootcamp from the USB stick you copied boot camp driver folder too. Install bootcamp installation first. After install go to device manager in win 11 and anything needing drivers, click update drivers and point to bootcamp folder on USB stick. once everything is installed, then download the latest 6900XT drivers direct from AMD and install.

As for slow internet or pause's via 10g i cant say i suffer from that, always seems to be constant for me. For work i use Monterey of course, No issues, Ventura on 980pro M2 i boot and try my work and so far no issues with Ventura that have affected my work or general use.

Win 11 Just works, updates and run's very well, So i dont know why your 7900xt would go fan's full speed on sleep as mine dont do this. But inside the AMD driver control panel you can manually control the fan's so you can set them to low speed and increase with temp of 6900xt see if that cures the fan's at full speed in sleep mode, its inside the tuning menu in AMD control panel, disable silent mode, and set you own Fan profile for the 6900xt card.

As for the Highpoint card and noisy fan, i would most likely disconnect the fan and remove the cover and put Heatsinks on the M2 drives and let the Mac pro 7.1 system fans cool the drives direct, bigger fans cooling across M2 drives moving more air than the little fan on cover. this would remove the noise of the Highpoint fan in cover.


As a reference i never allow windows to update drivers, win 10 or win 11 as it offers intel drivers for on board items but i stick with the bootcamp drivers for everything apart from 6900xt.

 

[wickerstick]

Sorry to read your having so many troubles with your 7.1 Mac Pro

I use the same but with out your issues.

. Startech dual PCIe M2 switch PCIe card with dual Samsung 980pro M2 cards, one boots ventura, the other windows 11
Startech card link here. no noisy fan on it, but only a dual M2 card.

StarTech.com Dual M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter Card - x8 / x16 Dual NVMe or AHCI M.2 SSD to PCI Express 3.0 - M.2 NGFF PCIe (M-Key) Compatible - Supports 2242, 2260, 2280 - JBOD - Mac & PC (PEX8M2E2)

StarTech.com Dual M.2 PCIe SSD Adapter Card - x8 / x16 Dual NVMe or AHCI M.2 SSD to PCI Express 3.0 - M.2 NGFF PCIe (M-Key) Compatible - Supports 2242, 2260, 2280 - JBOD - Mac & PC (PEX8M2E2)

www.amazon.co.uk

I also run a 6900XT gigabyte gaming card. One of the only one's that fit inside the 7.1 apart from AMD OEM 7900xt.

I have an OEM direct from AMD 6900XT.

Highpoint RocketU 1344A USB 3.1 PCIe card installed, no issues with that.

I have 4tb standard apple SSD drive loaded with Monterey.

As a comparison I run the gigabyte 6900xt in both windows 11 and monterey and ventura. Windows 11 runs perfectly, no fan speed increase in sleep. Also the internet never pauses or slows down. I do use win 11 for games but not often, never had a hang or freeze up in game.

The fan on the Highpoint SSD7101A can be noisy, its well known for this. little fans at high speed are noisy.

When i loaded win 11 to startech M2 980pro card i started bootcamp allowed it to download driver package to folder then copied it to USB drive and cancelled boot camp install. Use USB drive with bootcamp folder on later for installation in win 11 after win 11 install to external drive.

I’ve done this as well it downloads the same files direct from apple as brigadier

When win 11 has installed with out the T2 check, go to USB stick and install bootcamp from the USB stick you copied boot camp driver folder too. Install bootcamp installation first. After install go to device manager in win 11 and anything needing drivers, click update drivers and point to bootcamp folder on USB stick. once everything is installed, then download the latest 6900XT drivers direct from AMD and install.

I did this but there wheee about 100 drivers a had to manually load as well.

As for slow internet or pause's via 10g i cant say i suffer from that, always seems to be constant for me. For work i use Monterey of course, No issues, Ventura on 980pro M2 i boot and try my work and so far no issues with Ventura that have affected my work or general use.

The network issue is only preset under windows. Again I’ve tried everything except updating firmware.

Win 11 Just works, updates and run's very well, So i dont know why your 7900xt

6900xt

would go fan's full speed on sleep as mine dont do this. But inside the AMD driver control panel you can manually control the fan's so you can set them to low speed and increase with temp of 6900xt see if that cures the fan's at full speed in sleep mode, its inside the tuning menu in AMD control panel, disable silent mode, and set you own Fan profile for the 6900xt card.

This only happens at sleep under MacOS

As for the Highpoint card and noisy fan, i would most likely disconnect the fan and remove the cover and put Heatsinks on the M2 drives and let the Mac pro 7.1 system fans cool the drives direct, bigger fans cooling across M2 drives moving more air than the little fan on cover. this would remove the noise of the Highpoint fan in cover.

I had not considered this

As a reference i never allow windows to update drivers, win 10 or win 11 as it offers intel drivers for on board items but i stick with the bootcamp drivers for everything apart from 6900xt.

I did this. Even using enterprise version to disable auto updates fully. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I have just woken my Mac from sleep under Mac OS and no fans full speed. So can only be an AMD ref design issue. Might be worth seeing if AMD released a later firmware for the ref 6900xt card.

 

[Yzord]

I have probably the same setup as most of you here, although i run my NVMe disks on the cheapest converters i ever bought (8usd pp). I did all my upgrades this week (ref AMD 6900XT, 1TB Samsung 980 EVO and 2TB WD-BLACK SN850X) above the 2TB Apple SSD with a fresh Ventura installation and i have none issues so far.

The only issue i had this week was a new PCIe USB3 card which didn't got recognised by macOS (also a cheap one Inatech). Above that i have to say i have a damn stable setup again.

Although your issues are mostly under Windows, which i didn't setup yet, i suspect you have driver issues and i would probably install the manufacturer drivers instead of staying with the bootcamp ones.

Why not try it out?

 

[profdraper]

I have a list of issues I have been unable to resolve on my 7,1. I'm hoping some of you may have or had similar issues. and could help me and others like me resolve 1 or more of them.

additions I've added:​

• Highpoint SSD7101A-1 ( 2x 2TB saberent rocket Q )( 1 for MacOS, 1 running windows 11 Pro )
• replaced w5700X MPX w/ OEM 6900xt

• Sonnet Technologies Allegro Pro​

  SuperSpeed+ USB 3.2 PCI Express 2.0 Card Mac / PC / USB 3.2 / PCIe

1. OEM 6900XT fans go full blast during sleep. Tried NVRAM reset and SMC reset.
2. running main system off Highpoint SSD7101A-1 (very audible fan noise during use appears to be coming from this?)
3. when under windows the system Crashes during sleep. Ive reloaded with system with windows 10 pro 2-3 times and windows 11 pro 2-3 times. installing drivers pulled with brigadier. if let sleep for a period under windows, eventually the system will crash and reboot into macOS (from internal SSD not the main one I use running off the highpoint)
4. Under Windows, the 10GB ethernet has intermittent drops and pauses. Ive tried multiple driver revisions and the This fix:
   disable both Recv Segment Coalescing for IPv4 and IPv6 in advanced properties (did not resolve issues and resorted to disabling ethernet and running wifi only.)
5. Something I've noticed while gaming under windows. Rarely, but sometimes the system will hang and freeze while playing a game. often times resulting in having to hard shutdown the system. This has also happened with older 5,1's and 6,1's in the passed. could be related to ecc ram or possibly using 3rd party ssd's overheating or other. not overly concerned with it ATM but perhaps someone else has noted this issues before.

Some things I will most likely change

• replace the main SSD flash cards (1tb) with a 4 TB set and run my main OS off this.
• remove the highpoint and sell this & both 2TB nvme cards.
• run 8TB Pegasus J2i Internal Storage Enclosure (hold work data here & add 2TB or 4TB 2.5'" SSD to run windows off of.

Hoping this may help with items 2,3 and possibly 5. However, as far as the video card going full tilt during sleep, I don't know what can be done other than:

• turning off sleep?
• losing performance and going back to the W5700X.
• buying a new MPX module for way more than its worth.

This Mac Pro serves as an All in one Device for all of my and my families needs. I do not want to have multiple computers everywhere I like having 1 Computers serve all the needs. it's a family and work computer with all our user accounts and data on it. and windows is used for mainly gaming, streaming or recording with OBS. creating tools with YUMI and UUSBC. various IT Support task's when needed.

I hate to say it, but you do seem to be considering changing hardware again ... [FWIW, 30 years here of system admin experience, purchasing and supporting hundreds of Apple, Windows and in some case Linux systems].

In sum, Apple is mostly hopeless with 3rd party hardware (& in many cases, software - every OS update; very unlike Windows]. Clearly it would seem that we need to get on-board with their harware whereever possible despite OTT prices. Otherwise, go with a good Win workstation build. One of the few consistent exceptions I've seen is with Sonnet in general.

Lose the OEM 6900XT & replace with an Apple module; I use a pair of Vegas but I'm guessing there will be OS support for various AMD (Apple boxed) cards as they come on line. Again, OTT pricing for sure in the price of compartively sub-par GPUs (wish we could do NVIDA] but, it works. FYI, two pricey Apple cards do the work of one good Nvida in my experience. With my personal box I also boot into Win11. All good.

Re. Sonnet, can only imagine the Allegro Pro must be doing OK seeing as you don't seem to mention it, I've had no issues with these. I know others may say differently, but the Highpoint cards, drivers & support are a right PITA. I've had those in & out of a couple of machines (inlcuding mine). Replaced with Sonnet m.2 4x4 & has been flawless.

Little-to no fan noise in my config. Oh, I went for the 2 x Vegas vs. a Duo [added second one later because the GPU grunt wasn't sufficient for DaVinci Resolve] because of the number of ports available in a recording studio context. Again, the Mac pro is full, does not heat up or misbehave etc.

Hope that helps.

PS, stay with the factory-fitted Apple boot disks wherever possible. Apple 'security' /recovery gets ever more PITA & will be asking for trouble now or in the future w/ other third party /external options at some point. Temo exteral boots from M.2s & the like, sure. But keep the primary OS where Apple wants it.

 

[wickerstick]

welp. I think I just figured out the sleep issue. video card was in slot 1 which was the original location of my w5700x. I moved it to the slot 4 x16 slot and wouldn't you know it. seems to be sleeping without issue. I'm going to test a few other things out and move it the slot 5, them move the sonnet over to slot 4 and retest. can't believe i didn't try that before...... 🙃

 

[H2SO4]

I have just woken my Mac from sleep under Mac OS and no fans full speed. So can only be an AMD ref design issue. Might be worth seeing if AMD released a later firmware for the ref 6900xt card.

Hi. It's been a little while but you seem to be one of the few people that has Windows running successfully on an NVME drive mounted in PCIe?
Was there a particular guide that you followed?

 

[avro707]

running main system off Highpoint SSD7101A-1 (very audible fan noise during use appears to be coming from this?)

This card if it’s the one I think it is makes a lot of noise. The one I had caused plenty of crashes on the 5,1 and had unacceptable loud high pitched fan noise. I switched to the sonnet card which is much better. I use that now in my 7,1 for windows 11.