MP 1,1-5,1 I want to know why ? 5.1 firmware upgrade related

[Koka016]

Hi to all Rumors !

I think until now all 4.1 models Mac pro already updated to 5.1 firmware!
I personally updated maybe 4-5 Mac pros or more...
Never had time to ask my self , and you guys :
Why ALT boot times so slower in 5.1 firmware than in 4.1firmware?
It is so noticeable on all Mac pros I upgraded that I must know why?

 

[Macschrauber]

Netkas patched Firmware has a hybrid bootloader, maybe thats the cause.

have you tried a deep nvram reset (three times in a row).

Dont forget setting startvolume after reset.

 

[Koka016]

Netkas patched Firmware has a hybrid bootloader, maybe thats the cause.

have you tried a deep nvram reset (three times in a row).

Dont forget setting startvolume after reset.

OK I wil try but I think there is some boot delay in Netkas Firmware.
Thanks for response.

 

[Koka016]

Yes its starts faster after three times a row!

 

[Macschrauber]

triple bong often helps after massive hardware updates, dump your rom again to compare

 

[tsialex]

It's not the MP4,1 BootBlock or the MP4,1 NVRAM, while MP4,1>5,1 hybrid BootROM image has other severe implications, none are POST related.

Let's talk about an early-2009 with MP4,1 firmware and a mid-2010/mid-2012:

• MP4,1 EFI supports only FAT and HFS+, MP5,1 after MP51.0083.B00 supports FAT, HFS+ and APFS - add some seconds here.
• MP4,1 EFI supports only Nehalem, MP5,1 supports Nehalem and Westmere - add some seconds here to correctly initialise the memory controller and upload microcode.
• MP4,1 EFI only supports 1066MHz and 800MHz DIMMs, MP5,1 from the start supports 1333/1066/800MHz DIMMs, add some time to fine tune the memory controller. This takes a lot of time (relative to the initialisation of the hardware) and the firmware tries to be too smart here caching the SPD of each DIMM inside the NVRAM, this come back nowadays to bite hard everyone for more than one motive.
• MP4,1 and pre-140.0.0.0.0 EFI don't support any NVMe PCIe drives at all, MP5,1 after 140.0.0.0.0 release supports booting from it, add 30~45 seconds to map/enumerate and initialise the PCIe space.
• MP4,1 and pre-138.0.0.0.0 MP5,1 firmwares always initialise PCIe cards that are not AppleOEM as PCIe v1.0, post 138.0.0.0.0 Apple changed the default to PCIe v2.0 for PCIe cards that support it. This takes a little time to do it.
• I probably forgot some other MP4,1 and MP5,1 minor firmware differences.

MP5,1 firmwares do/support more and this obviously takes more time to be ready, so the time while in POST is greater and that's why the current firmware seems a lot slower to boot.

 

[Koka016]

It's not the MP4,1 BootBlock or the MP4,1 NVRAM, while MP4,1>5,1 hybrid BootROM image has other severe implications, none are speed related.

Let's talk about an early-2009 with MP4,1 firmware and a mid-2010/mid-2012:

• MP4,1 EFI supports only FAT and HFS+, MP5,1 after MP51.0083.B00 supports FAT, HFS+ and APFS - add some seconds here.
• MP4,1 EFI supports only Nehalem, MP5,1 supports Nehalem and Westmere - add some seconds here to correctly initialise the memory controller and upload microcode.
• MP4,1 EFI only supports 1066MHz and 800MHz DIMMs, MP5,1 from the start supports 1333/1066/800MHz DIMMs, add some time to fine tune the memory controller. This takes a lot of time (relative to the initialisation of the hardware and the firmware tries to be too smart here caching the SPD of each DIMM inside the NVRAM, this come back nowadays to bite hard everyone for more than one motive.
• MP4,1 EFI don't support any NVMe PCIe drives, MP5,1 after 140.0.0.0.0 supports it, add 30~45 seconds to map/enumerate and initialise the PCIe space.
• MP4,1 and pre-138.0.0.0.0 MP51 firmwares always initialise PCIe cards that are not AppleOEM as PCIe v1.0, post 138.0.0.0.0 Apple changed the default to PCIe v2.0 for cards that support it. This takes a little time to do it.

MP5,1 firmwares do/support more and this takes more time, so the time while in POST is greater, that's why the current firmware seems a lot slower to boot.

Thank you tsialex
for detailed explanation.