MP 7,1 Questions about gfx/TB connections of new MP

[Simon R.]

Hi.

Considering the 16-core Mac Pro, but I really have a hard time understanding what gfx connections I get from the base GPU model, and how I should go about connecting my 6 or so "old" SATA SSD drives at the same time.

Say, right now I have three displays connected. Two by displayport, one by HDMI. Can I even do that with the new Mac Pro's base GPU without having to resort to using one of the ("stupid") top TB-connectors? As I understand the base GPU has two onboard HDMI connectors and the rest will be handled by system TB-ports, and there are only two of those on the back. Not sure if the HDMI ports can handle 4K, in which case I could use both of the HDMI ports (one for my 4K display, one for the tv I use for video monitor).

Thanks

 

[darkpaw]

Excellent choice of model! That's the one I've gone for.

According to this page: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210319

You can connect as many as six displays in these configurations:
- Two Pro Display XDRs with resolutions of 6016 x 3384 at 60Hz connected to the Thunderbolt 3 ports on your Mac Pro. Connect one display to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the top of your Mac Pro and the other display to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear of your Mac Pro.
- Two 5K displays with resolutions of 5120 x 2880 at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt 3 and two 4K displays with resolutions of 3840 x 2160 at 60Hz connected via HDMI. Connect one 5K display to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the top of your Mac Pro and the second 5K display to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear of your Mac Pro.
- Six 4K displays with resolutions of 3840 x 2160 at 60Hz connected via HDMI and Thunderbolt 3.

If your monitors have the appropriate connections, I'd guess you should be okay connecting two monitors by HDMI and the third via one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the back.

Note that the TB3 to TB2 adapter Apple sells doesn't carry power so you can't use it to connect something like an Apple LED Cinema Display, for example, unless you have power in-between. I currently have a Belkin TB2 powered dock that handles that.

I can't give really you any advice on connecting the 6 SSD drives. If they're currently in one external chassis then you can just connect it. If they're six separate devices, you might need to source an extra PCI card with the appropriate ports, or sully your machine by adding an external dock (ugh). You could look into the Promise Pegasus J2i 8TB internal chassis, but it comes with an 8TB spinning hard drive installed. You could put two of the SSDs into 3.5" adapters and use that? Might be overly expensive for your needs and you'd be stuck with an extra 8TB spinner you can't use.

 

[Simon R.]

Hi Darkpaw. Thanks a lot for your thorough response. Yeah, an internal 2.5" chassis for SATA would be awesome, maybe someone will be making that in the future. All my SSD's are internal currently.

Sounds good enough regarding the display connections too, I feared it would be worse than what I already have with a simple RX580 card. I don't need 6K or 8K, just 4K

 

[bsbeamer]

4 bay enclosure with "quick" hot-plugging?

Hello, I'm looking for a 4 bay USB 3 enclosure that allows for "quick" hot-plugging. By "quick", I mean no screws. Does such an enclosure exist? P.S. I want it quick because I'd use one of the bays to update my off-site back-ups.

forums.macrumors.com

I have been testing and using the Mobius Pro 5C as reported in that thread with MBP16,1 via USB-C 10Gbps and getting ~500MB/s in non RAID configs with SATA SSDs. At the moment would really recommend as an option to consider.