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NVMe with ST-NGFF2013-C; Vega Internal GPU; Mac Pro 2013 (6,1)
- Thread starter CodeJingle
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If you mean portable I haven’t seen one. For non-portable any PCIe TB2 chassis will work with an adapter.
PCIe is a mysterious mostly closed standard. Does anyone have the connector pinout for a standard PCIe 3.0 x 16 connector? It doesn't help to compare Apple's proprietary PCIe connector with the standard PCIe connector if I don't know anything about either one. I have the PCIe 3.0 spec handy if that matters.
I tested booting with only one GPU plugged in. It works fine, does not require going into a special mode. You would be surprised though it requires nearly disassembling the machine to spudger off the one GPU cable. Here is a short video of that
https://www.dropbox.com/s/up4mrpd0rnt4do5/20171219_223620.mp4?dl=0
I should be sanding down another board this week, specifically a dual CPU board. It only has one PCIe x 16 connector which is not so helpful though for this specific board I am more interested in the dual CPU portion of the layout.
The iMac Pro came out, I wonder how long before the lone GPU board is available. Whenever the repair program adds the machine to their list. Or something like that. For now I can use any compatible PCIe 3.0 x 16 GPU for testing. Anything that works in eGPU on Mac should be sufficient for making progress.
I tested booting with only one GPU plugged in. It works fine, does not require going into a special mode. You would be surprised though it requires nearly disassembling the machine to spudger off the one GPU cable. Here is a short video of that
https://www.dropbox.com/s/up4mrpd0rnt4do5/20171219_223620.mp4?dl=0
I should be sanding down another board this week, specifically a dual CPU board. It only has one PCIe x 16 connector which is not so helpful though for this specific board I am more interested in the dual CPU portion of the layout.
The iMac Pro came out, I wonder how long before the lone GPU board is available. Whenever the repair program adds the machine to their list. Or something like that. For now I can use any compatible PCIe 3.0 x 16 GPU for testing. Anything that works in eGPU on Mac should be sufficient for making progress.
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I noticed that there is more waiting/lag when I am changing from one user to the login window. Also, when I start my mac pro I get a progress bar with the apple logo. Anyone else with Samsung 960 Pro with adapter got this?
For the record, my 6,1 (D300, latest firmware) won't boot with a single eGPU (GTX 1070 Ti [Pascal] in Sonnet eGFX via Apple TB3-TB2 adapter) connected to any Thunderbolt bus other than the first, even with both factory GPUs in place, but has no problem booting when the eGPU is connected to the first Thunderbolt bus (bottom two ports).
Moreover, my 2012 Mac mini server (i7, no factory dGPU), with the same eGPU attached, boots if and only if there's also a display connected to the built-in HDMI port, but has no problems booting with neither display nor eGPU connected (!?!).
So without any special knowledge of the firmware itself, I wouldn't personally make any assumptions about how Apple firmware reacts to unsupported GPU configurations without actually testing the particular configuration against a particular firmware version on a particular model.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure I'd even limit this to unsupported GPU configurations: with no eGPUs in sight, this same 6,1 only rarely (and seemingly randomly) displays boot screens on the Samsung 3440x1440 connected (via DisplayPort) to the factory GPUs. Moreover, in the rare event that boot screens do display, they do so at full native resolution, so that, at least, is not the problem.
And the Mac mini — again, no eGPUs involved — always shows a boot screen on this same display, albeit at a lower-than-native resolution (even though the iGPU itself also supports the display's full native resolution).
Given these results, I suppose one could just as easily speculate that the 6,1 firmware may also whitelist displays…when reality is probably far less interesting (unanticipated configuration exposing a latent firmware bug, say, that Apple isn't particularly inclined to address because "unsupported").
Yes takes a long time for a cold boot after disconnecting power [with NVMe installed]. Pretty much always. Like 5 full minutes, roughly. I showed this in the video from the first post of the thread. This is a known issue. Not because of the adapter.
Responding to your other feedback - are you saying after fully logging in, switching users takes a similar amount of time [with NVMe installed]? I rarely switch users so I cannot comment.
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Yes my speculation comes out of my bottom lol. Lets see how my claim chowder pans out.
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Hey CodeJingle,
I like reading these posts. Keep up the good work! Happy Holidays!
I like reading these posts. Keep up the good work! Happy Holidays!
I've only tested the 960 Pro. 960 Evo should also work and is a similar price to PM961. PM961 seems like the same physical pin layout and same underlying interface but I really have no idea. Anyone else?
I am running 960 EVO. It works, but I am having some wonky issues with possibly the adapter. Some days no issues other days system will freeze entirely. I thought it was my GPUs failing (D300), but it seems it may be the adapter. Even after taping it and everything I still have issues. Might try a different adapter.
What other NVMe drives? There are only a handful on the market, most or all by Samsung. They have not all been tested in the Mac Pro so we don't know yet, but it would make sense if they all used the same protocol and had the same physical pin layout that they would all work. You can be the first to try an NVMe that is not 960 EVO and not 960 PRO.
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Make sure you do the speed test. If your read / write is less that 1300MB/s then you probably have a partial short. Are you using a discrete heatsink?
It does not take same ammount of time to switch between user, but a longer pause. Guessing 5-8sec.
Can you be the first to test then please if you already have those drives? I appreciate the effort.
I have a PM961 on hand. will test shortly...
EDIT:
MacPro6,1 recognizes the SSD, High Sierra installer running right now.
yep, the SAMSUNG PM961 seems to work just fine. macOS installed, no problems at all.
sleep/wake of the system also works for me. TRIM supported OOTB, didn't have to enable it in the CLI.
EDIT:
MacPro6,1 recognizes the SSD, High Sierra installer running right now.
yep, the SAMSUNG PM961 seems to work just fine. macOS installed, no problems at all.
sleep/wake of the system also works for me. TRIM supported OOTB, didn't have to enable it in the CLI.
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Wonderful news - thanks for the confirmation. I really appreciate it.
I just ordered a 1TB PM961 for £240 GBP
Another Xeon E5 v2 board mostly depopulated just about ready for sanding down (after new year's).
I still had to crush off the larger connectors, such as the PCIe x 16 connector, and the ram slots, but all of the actual chips I was able to desolder the correct way. So there should be minimal trace tear. The base sockets that hold the two CPUs turn to goo when I heat it with the hot air so the trace under the CPU sockets is also undamaged.
Same images higher resolution
https://www.dropbox.com/s/klnqfdf9gctlmss/20171228_210527.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iqj6pyxmyyr4l5w/20171228_210544.jpg?dl=0
I still had to crush off the larger connectors, such as the PCIe x 16 connector, and the ram slots, but all of the actual chips I was able to desolder the correct way. So there should be minimal trace tear. The base sockets that hold the two CPUs turn to goo when I heat it with the hot air so the trace under the CPU sockets is also undamaged.
Same images higher resolution
https://www.dropbox.com/s/klnqfdf9gctlmss/20171228_210527.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iqj6pyxmyyr4l5w/20171228_210544.jpg?dl=0
Wonderful news - thanks for the confirmation. I really appreciate it.
I just ordered a 1TB PM961 for £240 GBP
Nice mate, what adapter did you use?
Nice, Did you use a heatsink thinking of getting the one in the first post, EK Water Blocks EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink