MP 1,1-5,1 Nmve HD on high sierra

[Cuciu]

Hi,
i'm on a mac pro 5.1 with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 (no metal compatible), so i can't upgrade to mojave and to its the boot firmware.
I want to use the nmve hd with kryoM2 PCIe x4 adapter as scratch disk (no for booting). Can i use it in my actual mac pro setup or do i need to upgrade my graphic card and my boot firmware?
tks

 

[tsialex]

Hi,
i'm on a mac pro 5.1 with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 (no metal compatible), so i can't upgrade to mojave and to its the boot firmware.
I want to use the nmve hd with kryoM2 PCIe x4 adapter as scratch disk (no for booting). Can i use it in my actual mac pro setup or do i need to upgrade my graphic card and my boot firmware?
tks

A METAL supported GPU is a pre-requisite for the firmware upgrade itself.

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Cuciu]

But to use the nmve hd as scratch disk i can stay on high sierra right? Is not there any performance reduction?

 

[tsialex]

But to use the nmve hd as scratch disk i can stay on high sierra right? Is not there any performance reduction?

Firmware support and OS support are totally different things. For native firmware boot support you need the firmware upgrade.

High Sierra have NVMe support natively, but without BootROM native support you can't boot from it and with EFI releases prior than 138.0.0.0.0 you have performance problems related to the way MP51.00xx.xxx firmwares enable PCIe devices.

No one should use superseded EFI firmware versions with a Mac Pro. Don't matter if you still use Snow Leopard/Linux/Windows, always use the current EFI firmware release.

 

[Cuciu]

High Sierra have NVMe support natively, but without BootROM native support you can't boot from it and with EFI releases prior than 138.0.0.0.0 you have performance problems related to the way MP51.00xx.xxx firmwares enable PCIe devices.

sorry, my fault, i dont want to boot, i want to use as external hd with kryo card. I didnt understand if i can or not

 

[tsialex]

sorry, my fault, i dont want to boot, i want to use as external hd with kryo card. I didnt understand if i can or not

It’s not difficult, read what I linked, re-read what I wrote. You will understand.

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

[automerge]1588467473[/automerge]
Btw, Mac Pro 5,1 firmware don't support external NVMe devices via Thunderbolt connection, only via USB.

Mac Pro late-2013 and 2019 Mac Pro support Thunderbolt devices natively and support NVMe external drives via Thunderbolt connections.

 

[MarkC426]

What is the scratch disk for..?
If your doing any kind of video work, it would be highly beneficial to upgrade your gpu, which will enable you to upgrade the fw.

 

[Cuciu]

What is the scratch disk for..?
If your doing any kind of video work, it would be highly beneficial to upgrade your gpu, which will enable you to upgrade the fw.

Audio recording, sample libraries loading

 

[Snow Tiger]

You should upgrade your Nehalem cMP to the latest boot ROM firmware ( 144.0.0.0.0 ) .

You'll get improved PCIe slot bandwidth , relative to factory shipping .

It's not that expensive , just grab a RX 570 and the latest Mojave installer .

Here is a good Metal graphics card - pretty powerful , too . A bit slower than the official RX 580 :

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 570 4GB Gaming 4G GDDR6 Graphics Card (GV-RX570GAMING-4GD Rev 2.0) for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GIGABYTE Radeon RX 570 4GB Gaming 4G GDDR6 Graphics Card (GV-RX570GAMING-4GD Rev 2.0) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

[automerge]1588511430[/automerge]

Hi,
i'm on a mac pro 5.1 with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 (no metal compatible), so i can't upgrade to mojave and to its the boot firmware.
I want to use the nmve hd with kryoM2 PCIe x4 adapter as scratch disk (no for booting). Can i use it in my actual mac pro setup or do i need to upgrade my graphic card and my boot firmware?
tks

The Kryo is a wonderful adapter . Really nice passive heatsink .

I'd pair it with a NVMe 1TB Intel 660p SSD and stick it in PCIe slot 1 or 2 .

Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 3D NAND Solid State Drive SSD 735858381086 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 3D NAND Solid State Drive SSD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

If you are going to use it just for data purposes in macOS , format it Mac OS Extended Journaled ( HFS+ ) GUID .

Do not use APFS for internal or external connected data drives with a cMP , as you'll lose sequential read and write performance .

If you desire to boot Mojave from it , you will have no choice but to format with APFS . But you'll still have a reduction in the sequential performance .

 

[Cuciu]

RX 570 and the latest Mojave installer .

Thank you. My problem is that im using apple cinema display 24” that has mini display port. is there any solution for this?

I bought a samsung 970 evo 1T. Is it ok?

 

[Snow Tiger]

Thank you. My problem is that im using apple cinema display 24” that has mini display port. is there any solution for this?

A standard display port to mini display port form factor adapter will work fine . It is a pass through connection and will not degrade the signal .

 

[Snow Tiger]

I bought a samsung 970 evo 1T. Is it ok?

Yes .

The adapter and firmware upgrade will work with any NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD with lengths of 2280, 2260 and 2242 .

It's just a matter of differences in latency , throughput , durability and how nicely they scale if placed in a RAID 0 array .

I have a strong preference for Intel 660p NVMe drives in these cMPs because they maintain high sequential performance despite the System being at full load . This is critical for the working drives of video editing Systems , where a high degree of write performance is required .

 

[MarkC426]

Is there any reason the intel 660p is not listed on the wiki page?
Just looked at them on Amazon, and they are very resonable.

 

[chrfr]

Is there any reason the intel 660p is not listed on the wiki page?
Just looked at them on Amazon, and they are very resonable.

The Intel 660p is not a particularly good performing SSD.

 

[MarkC426]

That would explain the cheaper price.....

 

[tommy chen]

Btw, Mac Pro 5,1 firmware don't support external NVMe devices via Thunderbolt connection, only via USB.

my tekqTB3 working well with the titanridge in my cMP





looks like an NVMe !?!

 

[tsialex]

my tekqTB3 working well with the titanridge in my cMP

View attachment 911764

View attachment 911766

looks like an NVMe !?!

Please don't mix what is official support with, what at the moment is, hack-ish TB support. Even when TB finally works fine via OC, you won't have bootable support with MP5,1.

 

[tommy chen]

i was just wondering, and without a card there would be no TB connection

but of course, boot via TB or USB3.x card is not possible on the cMP

 

[tsialex]

i was just wondering, and without a card there would be no TB connection

but of course, boot via TB or USB3.x card is not possible on the cMP

I understand your point, but I really think that dumping this type of info is not helpful at all on a thread that a newbie is trying to understand the official/supported/endorsed by Apple way to have NVMe working.

 

[Cuciu]

Im not using the mac for graphic application, just audio one. Do you think sapphire rx560 could be a good buy to have mojave?

 

[tsialex]

Im not using the mac for graphic application, just audio one. Do you think sapphire rx560 could be a good buy to have mojave?

A 4GB Mac compatible RX 560 today will cost you almost the same as a RX 570 or a real RX 580 on sale. It's difficult to source 4GB Mac compatible RX 560 today from sellers like Newegg, AMD stopped manufacturing it for some time already.

 

[Cuciu]

Ok, i found one for 100€, for this reason i asked

 

[tsialex]

Ok, i found one for 100€, for this reason i asked

While Apple recommends the RX 560 4GB from MSI, Sapphire 4GB models are know to work fine with macOS. Don't buy a 2GB model.

 

[Cuciu]

While Apple recommends the RX 560 4GB from MSI, Sapphire 4GB models are know to work fine with macOS. Don't buy a 2GB model.

thanks