If this Gigabyte Titan Ridge works out of box, we can get rid of those expensive USB3.0 cards.
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MP 1,1-5,1 testing TB3 AIC with MP 5,1
- Thread starter Flint Ironstag
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Wait a minute. What about all those people over the years saying you can't have TB3 on the cMP because you need a special chip on the motherboard?
I think that was referring to Alpine Ridge($59 msrp). The new Titan Ridge($99) does not need the 'special chip'.
Any chance we could light up an Apple Thunderbolt Display using a titan ridge card installed on a Mac Pro? I’ve been reading mixing answers regarding this matter so I’m not sure
I also feel betrayed by those folks who insisted this would never work. My understanding of their argument was that putting a controller chip on the card wasn't possible.
I wanted to share that I did few experiments with Titan Ridge and my Mac Pro 5.1.
My iMac late 2012 can be seen in Windows on Mac Pro when it is booted into macOS and connected through Thunderbolt. It looks like it is possible to establish network that way between computers. Thunderbolt Software recognises that Macintosh is connected and trusts it by default (no need to select any actions when connected). Nothing happens when my iMac is in Target Mode, so I could not use Titan Ridge for data transfers that way, unfortunately. There is probably some special Apple handshake that has to happen between devices in Target Mode.
I successfully connected Zotac Amp Box Mini to my Mac Pro through Thunderbolt 3. I put Amfeltec Squid with 4 blades inside it and once registered in Windows I rebooted Mac Pro and it loaded macOS right from it with 1300 MBps reads and 1000 MBps write speeds. All 4 blades could be assessed that way and were bootable!
I then tried NVidia GTX 1050ti inside Zotac Amp Box Mini and my Mac Pro could use it as eGPU in High Sierra after installing purge-wrangler.sh. I was very happy to see that. Again, this was possible after loading into Windows first and warm booting into macOS.
I hope someone will find this useful.
My iMac late 2012 can be seen in Windows on Mac Pro when it is booted into macOS and connected through Thunderbolt. It looks like it is possible to establish network that way between computers. Thunderbolt Software recognises that Macintosh is connected and trusts it by default (no need to select any actions when connected). Nothing happens when my iMac is in Target Mode, so I could not use Titan Ridge for data transfers that way, unfortunately. There is probably some special Apple handshake that has to happen between devices in Target Mode.
I successfully connected Zotac Amp Box Mini to my Mac Pro through Thunderbolt 3. I put Amfeltec Squid with 4 blades inside it and once registered in Windows I rebooted Mac Pro and it loaded macOS right from it with 1300 MBps reads and 1000 MBps write speeds. All 4 blades could be assessed that way and were bootable!
I then tried NVidia GTX 1050ti inside Zotac Amp Box Mini and my Mac Pro could use it as eGPU in High Sierra after installing purge-wrangler.sh. I was very happy to see that. Again, this was possible after loading into Windows first and warm booting into macOS.
I hope someone will find this useful.
- Windows 10 successfully installed.
- TB driver for Titan Ridge card installed.
- Internally connected both powercables via PixlasMod.
- Drivers are properly loaded according to USB Viewer
- USB-C Stick is recognized in windows and macOS
- iPad Pro 12,9“ 2018 charges in windows and macOS
I will most probably update my NVMe blade with 4 new ones in a HighPoint SSD7101. Some said, they are using something similar for the connection. Others are using a USB 3 pcie card with internal headers...
What would be the best solution to connect both cables internally?
Ps: at the end I will most probably use a CalDigit TS3 Plus dock, so I do not really need USB 3 ports on the backside of my cMP, so if there is only an internal accessable pcie card with now external ports, that would be fine too for me.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Are all fingers of the GC-TITAN RIDGE card working without internal auxiliary cables?
Does TypeC and Thunderbolt work under Mojave?
What is the difference between GC TITAN RIDGE and GC ALPINE RIDGE? Does it all work with CMP?
Does TypeC and Thunderbolt work under Mojave?
What is the difference between GC TITAN RIDGE and GC ALPINE RIDGE? Does it all work with CMP?
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In reality you don’t need to hook any power to your TR (you are not trying to charge MacBook Pro through this port for example), as well as you don’t need to hook it up to a USB 3 header either (TR works as USB 3 out of the box if you attach peripherals before powering up MP or shorten 2 pins as shown earlier in this thread). Everything simply works, expect for USB 2 devices where connecting a header to MP is required. This can be achieved with a simple USB header to USB A cable from Amazon, if you don’t mind an external cable going out of your MP.
The cleanest solution would be to take USB 2.0 from a Bluetooth module on the motherbord, as many current WiFi upgrade hacks only require power from that port, so data streams stay unused.
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Definitely. However, I believe that data is actually used for BT (my OSXWiFi card shows BT under USB in System information), so a hub might still be in order.
Sorry, you are correct and my assumption was wrong. I just found the link that shows that: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...0-keep-updating.1748061/page-30#post-24173394
Anyway, a splitter can be installed at that point to feed both. As shown above, this would be a perfect candidate for this job:
https://www.tindie.com/products/mux/nanohub-tiny-usb-hub-for-hacking-projects/
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I guess I can live with it, having the power cables connected, just in case I will ever need them. Haha.
Because I mainly will use the TB3 connection for a TB dock which is plugged in all the time at the end, option 1 is totally fine for me!
Of course a clean internal solution would be the best, bur I do not have a problem with routing a cable from the outside to the inside.
I found this one for example:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/14oqznw
But a cleaner look would be this one:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bq1PCgm8
I don‘t mind only having one USB 3 port on the back, due to the TB dock, which I will mainly use for peripherals!
So you would basically buy a USB 3.0 PCIe card, which then with another cable will supply energy from this card to the TB3 card?
[doublepost=1557295819][/doublepost]Im considering doing this to my Mac Pro too, but which GC-Titan should I get? Rev. 1.0 or Rev 2.0 ? or both are the same?
there is no rev 2.0 of the working titan ridge!
only the not working alpine has a 1.0 and 2.0 rev
Still waiting for the delivery. It is shipped, but it will take another few weeks to arrive!
The iPad is not a Thunderbolt device, so it doesn't need Windows initialization. If the iPad doesn't support USB 3.x (some do but require a different cable), and you want to connect it to the GC-TITAN RIDGE, then you need to connect the GC-TITAN RIDGE to a USB 2.0 port.
Right. The GC-TITAN RIDGE is itself an expensive USB 3.1 gen 2 card so you don't need an expensive USB 3.x card.
I think the only reason Alpine Ridge doesn't work is because it depends on software in a PC's BIOS (EFI/ACPI). For the Titan Ridge, Windows has software which replaces much of whatever the PC's BIOS did. I don't see any reason why the software from the BIOS couldn't be moved to the OS for the Alpine Ridge.
Thunderbolt at its lowest level is known for being able to transport PCIe and DisplayPort data. At a higher level, with software drivers, it can also transport other types of data such as networking. Thunderbolt networking is a standard that both Windows and MacOS support. The Thunderbolt versions of Target Disk Mode and Target Display Mode were created by Apple. I don't think Windows has drivers for those, even with Macs using BootCamp drivers?
The GC-TITAN RIDGE only needs a USB 2.0 connection for each Thunderbolt port (only if you want to connect USB 2.0 devices to the GC-TITAN RIDGE) so I wouldn't waste a USB 3.x connection for that.
I'm not sure what the Highpoint has to do with USB.
Thunderbolt devices require a warm boot from Windows.
USB devices work without a warm boot from Windows. USB 2.0 requires a USB 2.0 port connection to the USB 2.0 header of the GC-TITAN RIDGE. USB 3.x and USB-C with DisplayPort alt mode works without internal auxiliary cables.
GC-ALPINE RIDGE requires additional software that does not exist in Windows or MacOS. GC-ALPINE RIDGE supports only DisplayPort 1.2. GC-TITAN RIDGE supports DisplayPort 1.4 and also higher Power Delivery (when internal power connections are added).
Thanks this Answer! What cable or card can you recommend for a USB connection for GC-TITAN RIDGE?
I would not waste the USB ports of a PCIe card for this. I would not waste a PCIe slot, period. Just use your Mac Pro's USB 2.0 ports. You need two ports, so I would consider a USB 2.0 hub. It would probably be best if the USB 2.0 hub was powered but I don't know if that's necessary (it may be interesting to note the available power for a USB 2.0 device connected to the GC-TITAN RIDGE when an unpowered USB 2.0 hub is used for the USB 2.0 source and compare that to when the USB 2.0 source is a powered hub or a direction connection to a USB 2.0 port of the Mac Pro).
There are so many options you can choose from for USB sources and cables. Some options were discussed already.
#88, #123, #135, #137, #222, #223 - #228, #283, #285
The connector on the GC-TITAN RIDGE is a male 9-pin USB 2.0 header. This is equivalent to two 5 pin USB 2.0 connectors. So you need a cable with a female 9-pin connector or a cable with two female 5-pin connectors or two cables with a female 5-pin connector.
The GC-TITAN RIDGE comes with a female 9-pin to female 9-pin cable so you could consider using that. Then you would need a male 9-pin connector or two male 5-pin connectors.
The other end of the cable connects to your USB source, or another cable that connects to your USB source. You can chain multiple cables together.
At least USB 2.0 booting, probably. Did the new MacPro5,1 firmware include USB 3.x booting? I know it added NVMe booting. If the firmware doesn't have USB 3.x booting, then I wonder if there's a XHCI EFI driver that could be used with the existing USB mass storage device class EFI drivers?
I definitely agree with you from the point that you do mot want to waste „space“ for that card/connection.
At least in my case I prefer a clean looking cMP with no external mod visible. Because I have one pcie alot available I will use it now with a card with internal header. If that is not satisfying enough, I will switch to external cables and route them internally.
Some other USB 2.0 connection solutions for the GC-TITAN RIDGE. There is a way to do it without using a PCIe slot or externally routed cables but it's not simple.