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bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,514
846
In their description:

This Mac Pro is fitted with a brand new 250GB (NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive) with the Apple Mac OS High Sierra System installed. (They never say High Sierra is actually installed on the NVMe. If I read this sentense correctly, it means "This Mac Pro fitted with a NVME SSD", and "this Mac Pro with HS installed". But not necessary "the NVMe with HS installed)

Until now the faster more responsive NVMe Solid State Drives have not been bootable on the Mac Pro workstations, it offers six time the performance over a 2.5″ SSD installed in the regular SATA bays. (And they also said NVMe is NOT bootable on that Mac Pro. May be there is another SATA SSD in one of the HDD bay for the OS)

What do you think they mean by "until now"? That implies they've made a change.

I have no idea about whether they have installed the 140.0.0.0.0 firmware or have modified a previous firmware for NVMe booting or neither. I was simply responding to the other poster who stated that "They're already selling bootable NVMe-equipped MP5,1s..."

If they're doing that, then I think it's highly irresponsible. If they aren't then it's not.
 

Flocarino

macrumors 6502
Jun 4, 2010
260
38
Montreal, Canada
Regarding the upcoming update 10.14.1 with the new ROM 140.0.0.0.0.....can I install it with my RX 580 in my cMP or do I need for a EFI GPU (booting screen) version, like a 7970 for example?
Thank you
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Regarding the upcoming update 10.14.1 with the new ROM 140.0.0.0.0.....can I install it with my RX 580 in my cMP or do I need for a EFI GPU (booting screen) version, like a 7970 for example?
Thank you

All you need should be just the RX580. This is what I only installed when upgrade my firmware to 140.0.0.0.0 via the Apple way.
[doublepost=1539208740][/doublepost]
What are people's thoughts on the general speed increase of using an NVMe drive over a M.2 AHCI drive? Would there be an appreciable speed increase as a boot drive from using a SM951 for example?

I will be extremely surprise if anyone can tell the difference in a double blind test.

I believe most people can't even tell if the boot drive is a PCIe SSD or SATA SSD solely from the system responsiveness.
 

jaysee_au

macrumors newbie
Aug 7, 2018
28
8
Melbourne, Australia
I wonder if theirs an apple dev lurking through these forums

I would be surprised if there isn't to be honest. They clearly read Daring Fireball etc. and it'd be naive to think they don't have their finger on the pulse. So happy with the recent support they've added for these Pro machines. This renewed passion Apple are showing for the Mac justifies an investment in a Mac Pro 7,1 for me. Can't wait for them to ship.

Given that APFS has been on the Mac for over a year now and Apple still hasn't added support to Boot Camp drivers, I don't know if I would count on it lol

Without wanting to derail this thread, I've got Windows 10 running perfectly on a 3,1 using generic drivers + an audio driver (guide), just had to be on a separate drive, that's all.

I believe most people can't even tell if the boot drive is a PCIe SSD or SATA SSD solely from the system responsiveness.

I can definitely tell now I'm on a 1TB SSUBX PCIe AHCI over a previous Samsung 850 Pro 2.5-inch SATA. Night and day. Everything is faster.
 
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bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,514
846
Craig F himself gave a pretty clear answer when it comes to FileVault (a no unfortunately) in the email attached in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ve-nvme-support.2132317/page-68#post-26641653

Somehow I missed that post in this thread. Thanks for referencing it (and to you jaysee_au for asking). An email from Craig is definitive enough for me. The only way I could see that changing is if there is some internal directive to have it re-enabled--or from a huge corporate or governmental customer with a ton of clout to request it. But that's beyond a long shot at this point, especially if a new model really is coming next year (and we'll hit five years since the cMP was discontinued in December).

We really should be grateful for what we've gotten. I do wish Apple had put a bit more care into disabling the boot screen-required features though. If I had a 7950 or 680 I'd be pretty peeved to be forced to sacrifice FV even though my card is completely compatible. I also wish they'd be more forthcoming about what they plan to do about the Windows APFS situation. They really should have addressed that last year when HS started converting some drives to APFS, but now that it's mandatory they really should provide clarity on what, if anything they plan to do about it.
 
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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I can definitely tell now I'm on a 1TB SSUBX PCIe AHCI over a previous Samsung 850 Pro 2.5-inch SATA. Night and day. Everything is faster.

As BOOT DRIVE

I posted this video some time ago. It's from a 840 Evo connected to the native SATA II port. So, your PCIe SSD is noticeable faster than this? Is it possible to give me a rough idea how much faster?

Since we know there is virtually no difference on boot time, so, we may skip that. But for daily use, the PCIe SSD is really significantly faster than this? And the difference is night and day?

Could you mind post me a video to show me how much faster? I trust that your SSUBX is faster than the 850 Pro, but I want some more subjective / scientific evidence. So that if the others ask about this again. I can simply point them to your post, and they will know if they really want the upgrade. Or what they can expect to see, etc. Million thanks in advance.
 
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tsialex

Contributor
Original poster
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
I have the 138.0.0.0 injected.

maybe is safer installing from an SSD?

edit: SATA ssd
The problem is not SATA or PCIe, is partially corrupted NVRAMs. I reconstructed almost 60 unique BootROMs for people here, only 1/3 or less of those didn't have any corruption in the private part of the NVRAM.

If you try to upgrade a corrupted BootROM, you have a lot of chances of getting a brick.

One reconstruction was a interesting one, a rMBP that had so much trash in the BootROM that the NVRAM was full. Yes, all 192KiB of it.
 
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AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,233
577
A400M Base

Hello fellow forum members!

First of all, thank you so much for this super important blog for the 5.1 core group! - Big thanks to Alex in Brasil.

Now, since the 5.1 will have this nice live extension because of the activated NVMe functionality, the PCIe slots will become even more crowded than it is already the case. The last couple month's I was jealously looking for alternatives to a Thunderbolt 3 option, - which of course doesn't fly on the 5.1.

However, yesterday I found this box here:


It's expensive, but not more expensive than a Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis from Sonnet.
My question to the deep geek 5.1 experts is this:

Would it work, would it be fast and how cool would be that? I thought I share this geek idea with you.
Tell me your opinion about it.

:)
 

tsialex

Contributor
Original poster
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
Hello fellow forum members!

First of all, thank you so much for this super important blog for the 5.1 core group! - Big thanks to Alex in Brasil.

Now, since the 5.1 will have this nice live extension because of the activated NVMe functionality, the PCIe slots will become even more crowded than it is already the case. The last couple month's I was jealously looking for alternatives to a Thunderbolt 3 option, - which of course doesn't fly on the 5.1.

However, yesterday I found this box here:


It's expensive, but not more expensive than a Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis from Sonnet.
My question to the deep geek 5.1 experts is this:

Would it work, would it be fast and how cool would be that? I thought I share this geek idea with you.
Tell me your opinion about it.

:)
I don't know if this exact module works, but some of us have external PCIe chassis and external PCIe arrays. The models that work, work perfectly and fast. If you expand your Slot-1 or 2, you will have 16 lanes to use in the chassis.
 
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bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Sep 19, 2012
4,313
2,713
Hello fellow forum members!

First of all, thank you so much for this super important blog for the 5.1 core group! - Big thanks to Alex in Brasil.

Now, since the 5.1 will have this nice live extension because of the activated NVMe functionality, the PCIe slots will become even more crowded than it is already the case. The last couple month's I was jealously looking for alternatives to a Thunderbolt 3 option, - which of course doesn't fly on the 5.1.

However, yesterday I found this box here:


It's expensive, but not more expensive than a Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis from Sonnet.
My question to the deep geek 5.1 experts is this:

Would it work, would it be fast and how cool would be that? I thought I share this geek idea with you.
Tell me your opinion about it.

:)

Cannot comment on that exact model. Some clients have used Cubix Xpander systems in the past. I'm not 100% positive the models currently being sold are compatible. Also look at Magma and Dynapower/Netstor - some people were using them in the past. The models that use a locking cable with a pull tab on top work better than the ones with VGA style screw ins. (Also do not think those are rated for more than 1x or 2x.)

This product MAY help if you can find a compatible tower. Have not seen any new models recently:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...c_design_bdlkulsr4kextspk_pcie_cable_kit.html

http://www.dynapowerusa.com/product/pcie-expansion-enclosure-na250a/
http://www.dynapowerusa.com/product/pcie-expansion-chassis-na255a-xgpu/

See this thread for a few other links and info:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pcie-expansion-for-2012-mac-pro-non-gpu.2102212/

Personally am hopeful the modular MacPro7,1 will have compatibility with PCIe expansion boxes rather than just TB3, but I guess we'll see...
 

dymka

macrumors newbie
Oct 8, 2018
1
0
I'll PM you.

Hi @tsialex, could you please also give me some hints on how to ensure that my BootROM is corrupted? I was able to successfully update to 138 and 140 versions, but I went through all firmware updates, including MP51.087.B00, which messed up things for many users.

Thanks in advance.
 
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tsialex

Contributor
Original poster
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
Hi @tsialex, could you please also give me some hints on how to ensure that my BootROM is corrupted? I was able to successfully update to 138 and 148 versions, but I went through all firmware updates, including MP51.087.B00, which messed up things for many users.

Thanks in advance.
PM sent.
 
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misanthrophy

Suspended
Aug 16, 2018
165
43
The problem is not SATA or PCIe, is partially corrupted NVRAMs. I reconstructed almost 60 unique BootROMs for people here, only 1/3 or less of those didn't have any corruption in the private part of the NVRAM.

If you try to upgrade a corrupted BootROM, you have a lot of chances of getting a brick.

One reconstruction was a interesting one, a rMBP that had so much trash in the BootROM that the NVRAM was full. Yes, all 192KiB of it.

As you have corrected my BootROM with 138.0.0.0.0, so with a supported gfx card I could upgrade with no issues? Or is there a chance, that an upgrade coupd corrupt my BootROM again?
 

tsialex

Contributor
Original poster
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
As you have corrected my BootROM with 138.0.0.0.0, so with a supported gfx card I could upgrade with no issues? Or is there a chance, that an upgrade coupd corrupt my BootROM again?
Your case is different, I already corrected your BootROM and I have the intermediate files. I'll reconstruct 140.0.0.0.0 and PM it when I have free time.
 

misanthrophy

Suspended
Aug 16, 2018
165
43
Your case is different, I already corrected your BootROM and I have the intermediate files. I'll reconstruct 140.0.0.0.0 and PM it when I have free time.
Right now not needed, as my TITAN X does not have webdriver support right now. I am just curious if an upgrade could corrupt it again, or only when hardware gets exchanged!
 

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,233
577
A400M Base
Cannot comment on that exact model. Some clients have used Cubix Xpander systems in the past. I'm not 100% positive the models currently being sold are compatible. Also look at Magma and Dynapower/Netstor - some people were using them in the past. The models that use a locking cable with a pull tab on top work better than the ones with VGA style screw ins. (Also do not think those are rated for more than 1x or 2x.)

This product MAY help if you can find a compatible tower. Have not seen any new models recently:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...c_design_bdlkulsr4kextspk_pcie_cable_kit.html

http://www.dynapowerusa.com/product/pcie-expansion-enclosure-na250a/
http://www.dynapowerusa.com/product/pcie-expansion-chassis-na255a-xgpu/

See this thread for a few other links and info:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pcie-expansion-for-2012-mac-pro-non-gpu.2102212/

Personally am hopeful the modular MacPro7,1 will have compatibility with PCIe expansion boxes rather than just TB3, but I guess we'll see...

Thanks, this helps!

I really do hope we get a little sneak peak about the 7.1 Mac Pro at the upcoming Oktober Apple refresh hardware event.
 
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