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Mountain Lion and 3rd Party USB 3.0 Cards

D

DonMega

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 8, 2007
119
0
I have a CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 in my Mac Pro 5,1. I'm using their driver and USB 3.0 transfer is slow and somewhat choppy. I am comparing transfers of 23GB of Canon RAW files from a FW800 reader and a USB 3.0 reader. The FW reader transfers the files in about 6 minutes. The transfer is smooth and steady. The USB reader transfers the files in about 17 minutes. It seems like it transfers in bursts.

So, will the Mountain Lion 3.0 drivers override the CalDigit drivers and provide the correct performance for this card?
 
DonMega said:
I have a CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 in my Mac Pro 5,1. I'm using their driver and USB 3.0 transfer is slow and somewhat choppy. I am comparing transfers of 23GB of Canon RAW files from a FW800 reader and a USB 3.0 reader. The FW reader transfers the files in about 6 minutes. The transfer is smooth and steady. The USB reader transfers the files in about 17 minutes. It seems like it transfers in bursts.

So, will the Mountain Lion 3.0 drivers override the CalDigit drivers and provide the correct performance for this card?
Click to expand...

No, in fact the only way to get that card working in ML is to contact CalDigit directly to get beta drivers off them.
 
yes, the caldigit beta driver works fine. It even works on the highpoint card but thinks it's a caldigit. Performance on usb 3,0 seems the same as Lion to me.
 
xgman said:
yes, the caldigit beta driver works fine. It even works on the highpoint card but thinks it's a caldigit. Performance on usb 3,0 seems the same as Lion to me.
Click to expand...

Is your performance better than what I described? By my calculations, I'm only getting about 24MB/s transfer on from a UDMA 7 card via USB 3.0/CalDigit. By the same calculation FW800 is giving me about 68MB/s.

I hope there is some issue that I can resolve to give USB 3.0 the performance it's supposed to have.

To their credit, CalDigit support has been helpful and responsive.
 
Solved

Caldigit support has been great and worked with me to figure out that the problem is the crappy Transcend 400x compact flash cards that I'm using. I used Blackmagic Disk speed test and all four of my Transcend cards were trounced by my Lexar Pro 300x cards.
 
xgman said:
yes, the caldigit beta driver works fine. It even works on the highpoint card but thinks it's a caldigit. Performance on usb 3,0 seems the same as Lion to me.
Click to expand...

Again thank you for CalDigit beta driver update! One caveat is I had to use the CalDigit deinstaller to get the Beta drivers to work.
 
vcuares said:
now that Mountain is here, any suggestions on which card to buy now?
Click to expand...

Ordered a dual port PCI-E USB 3.0 from OWC today. Both OWC and Caldigit assured me the card works in 10.8, albeit with a beta driver. Stay away from the similar High Point card...doesn't work and no driver expected before late October. Quad version apparently works though. High Point support is also iffy, at best. Caldigit responded immediately.
 
All the 3rd party cards use an NEC chipset which should work with any of the drivers that currently support 10.8... so can someone with a working driver please post it somewhere?
 
xav8tor said:
Ordered a dual port PCI-E USB 3.0 from OWC today. Both OWC and Caldigit assured me the card works in 10.8, albeit with a beta driver. Stay away from the similar High Point card...doesn't work and no driver expected before late October. Quad version apparently works though. High Point support is also iffy, at best. Caldigit responded immediately.
Click to expand...

Where is this mystery beta driver??? :confused:
 
DonMega said:
Where is this mystery beta driver??? :confused:
Click to expand...

You have to e-mail them and ask for it. Make sure you include your card's serial number. They won't send it to you without it. They said the official release will probably be next week.
 
cohen777 said:
My Sonnett USB 3.0 card stop working with Mountain Lion.
Click to expand...

The Sonnet USB 3.0 driver is broken by Mountain Lion. Sonnet is planning to provide an update, but if you need USB 3.0 support, we recommend against upgrading to Mountain Lion at this time. If you have already upgraded to Mountain Lion, you can continue to use your USB 3.0 hard drive by connecting it to a built-in USB 2.0 port.
Click to expand...

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=416&expand=_a2&action=b681#b681
 
My 4 port Highpoint RocketU works just fine with 10.8. Although the USB Hub or card reader is still not working. Wish there were a native USB 3.0 PCIe solution for the Mac Pro. I have a late 2009 one. Anyway, how does the Caldigit one work? Do the drives actually show up as USB 3.0? Also, does it support hubs and/or card readers?
 
apeguero said:
My 4 port Highpoint RocketU works just fine with 10.8. Although the USB Hub or card reader is still not working. Wish there were a native USB 3.0 PCIe solution for the Mac Pro. I have a late 2009 one. Anyway, how does the Caldigit one work? Do the drives actually show up as USB 3.0? Also, does it support hubs and/or card readers?
Click to expand...

I use CalDigit card with Lexar USB3 card reader. no problem so far.
 
carestudio said:
I use CalDigit card with Lexar USB3 card reader. no problem so far.
Click to expand...

Thanks carestudio. I took your comment to heart and returned my Highpoint RocketU 4 port USB 3.0 PCIe card for Mac and bought the CalDigit USB 3.0/eSata PCIe card. I just received it today and installed the latest Mountain Lion drivers. It works like an absolute charm. It even recognizes my RocketFish RF-HD3035 without a problem. I can use the USB 3.0 Hub in that enclosure as well as the CF/SD/MS/XD card reader it comes with at USB 3.0 speeds (confirmed doing my own tests). I recommend the CalDigit card too. I hope mine and carestudio's comments helps people out there looking for a USB 3.0 PCIe card to add to their MacPro. Of course, I can only say it works like a charm on my late 2009 MacPro. Not sure about any other MacPro models.
 
apeguero, I am happy to know that it works for you too:)
USB3 for mac is pretty new technology so I am not surprised that some hardware companies will need to take much longer time to debug and figure out all the problems. There are million of USB devices out there, like what you said if your USB3 card works with some USB3 or USB2 devices, doesnt mean it will work for others, not to mention USB 3 spec has several different versions from 0.90, 0.96 all way to v1.0 now.

Happy USB3 land :)
 
FWIW, I tried the Caldigit, Sonnet, and old Lacie drivers on my generic NEC chip based USB3 card and none of them worked under ML.

BTW, those of you snatching up those Caldigit USB3/eSATA cards should know they are somewhat crippled... this is what Caldigit support told me in an email when I was inquiring about it recently for use with a couple SSD's...

Also, the FASTA-6GU3 maximum performance is around 250MB/s (regardless USB3.0 or eSATA, RAID 0 or Single drive)
- Our FASTA-6GU3 has two controller chips (Marvell for eSATA, NEC for USB3.0), and there's a PLX chipset to serve as the 'middle man' (there's no controller that can deliver both USB3.0 and SATA6 yet). While the Marvell and NEC can reach a higher performance, the PLX is the limited factor.
- For example: if you have two 3G or 6G SSD eSATA drives, the RAID 0 performance is about the same as one of those single SSD drives (around 250MB/s). However, if you have two standard 3.5" SATA drives (like WD MyBook's performance is about 110MB/s), then the RAID 0 (combining two MyBook together) will provide its full performance with the FASTA-6GU3.
Click to expand...

Alas, you'll never get full USB3 speeds or SATA3 speeds with this card. :rolleyes:
 
Will the Highpoint ROcketU 1144AM work on MAC pro?

xgman said:
yes, the caldigit beta driver works fine. It even works on the highpoint card but thinks it's a caldigit. Performance on usb 3,0 seems the same as Lion to me.
Click to expand...

Hi. I have the chance to purchase a Highpoint RocketU 1144AM card for $65. Unfortunately, I am aware that Highpoint does not have drivers for Mountain Lion at this time. Will this card work for me on my Mac Pro, in ML, if I get the latest CalDigit drivers?
 
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