MP 1,1-5,1 testing TB3 AIC with MP 5,1

[NoLemon]

Thanks for the quick answer.
Ok, Open Core, I hope I still can do this kind of stuff.

Which one of the various firmwares ?
Cold boot from MacOs to MacOs right ?

Would be cool to have a sticky with the most important stuff.

I read a couple of interesting posts which would do what I need.

The sleep trick

testing TB3 AIC with MP 5,1

Just chiming in here because this quote MADE MY YEAR: I have an Apollo x8, and just need to switch it off & put my machine to sleep - and it stays sleeping! To use again just hit my spacebar, let everything wake up, switch on the Apollo and it's recognized right away. Was really not ideal to...

forums.macrumors.com

The cold boot error trick
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/testing-tb3-aic-with-mp-5-1.2143042/post-29391202

Hahaha that will be a hacking spree again =)

 

[KevinClark]

Let me explain my config I use a Mac Pro 2010 5.1 with 12 cores 3,46 128 Go Ram Nvme on Highpoint and usb 3 card + Titan Ridge V2 (Same With V1) Flashed I did it myself

using Apollo silver + Thunderbolt 2 card and Satellite thunderbolt 2 Plugged to Titan ridge with Thunderbolt 2 to 3 Apple Adapter

Using Mojave Big Sur or Catalina everything works without windows 10 just boot twice to get Apollo working and 3 boots to get satellite working too Since I use my open core 068 I just start the computer and Apollo is connecting

 

[NoLemon]

Ok then flashing to (?) firmware an with open core, only one boot, that would be really great.

I got a 5.1 3.33 6core and a 4.1 (to 5.1) 2.66 8 core.
But first I wanted to re-pimp the 6core.
That one has a NVME drive and 24 gigs ram good enough for the type of recording im doing. It has also a sonnet dual ssd pci card in it. Otherwise nothing special besides the broken EFI.

 

[joevt]

I've tested an ASUS Thunderbolt EX4 (uses Intel Maple Ridge Thunderbolt 4 controller JHL8540) in my Mac Pro 2008 running macOS Catalina (using a Netstor NA255A so I can play with more PCIe cards). USB 10 Gbps works fine (just like GC-TITAN RIDGE and GC-ALPINE RIDGE which I also have in the Netstor).
I connected the USB 2.0 header to an internal USB 2.0 hub, the PCIe 6 pin power to the power supply, but no Thunderbolt header connection or jumper (means Force Power is not required)

There are no discrete PCIe USB4 controller drivers for macOS (Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and M1 have integrated controllers) so I didn't try Thunderbolt connectivity. I also didn't try the functionality in Windows or Linux. Maybe later.

Here are the PCIe devices:

│ │└┬09:00.0-[0a-0e]  # g3x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:00.0-[0b]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ │└─0b:00.0        # g1x4           [8086:1137] [0c03]          USB controller            : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 NHI [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:01.0-[0c]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:02.0-[0d]    # g1x4 > g0x4    [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ │└─0d:00.0        # g1x4           [8086:1138] [0c03]          USB controller            : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 USB Controller [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ └┬0a:03.0-[0e]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]

I should update pcitree.sh to include the prog-if in the class code column. As usual for Thunderbolt, Only the external upstream PCIe link has meaningful PCIe link rate (PCIe gen 3 = 8 GT/s) and link width (x4). The internal devices don't use real PCIe so it doesn't matter that they report gen 1 or gen 0? link rate.

The first USB controller is the USB4 controller (prog-if 0x40) which takes the place of the Thunderbolt NHI in a Thunderbolt controller. The only clue so far that I have that this card follows the USB4 spec is that this PCIe device has the 0x0c0340 PCIe class code, subclass code, and program interface numbers specified in the spec. If it follows the USB4 spec, then someone could make a driver that works in any version of macOS (maybe even PowerPC Macs). The hard part would be getting Target Display Mode and Target Disk Mode to work as Apple doesn't provide APIs and documentation for Thunderbolt drivers. Thunderbolt networking driver can be rewritten using the info from Linux.

The second USB controller is the USB 3.x controller (prog-if 0x30) - same as you would see with any discrete Thunderbolt 3 controller. Would a third party USB4 controller always include a XHCI? Not necessarily. A USB4 controller has a USB3 Down Adapter that is connected to an XHCI. Intel includes the XHCI in the same chip as the USB4 controller (but why did Intel stop including the USB 2.0 stuff after Alpine Ridge in the host controllers?). A Third party USB4 controller could use an external XHCI.

 

[Vvglyy Wzxit]

Interesting... mine shows "Apple" but the link speed is 40 Gb/s x1 instead of your 20 Gb/s x2 (see attached)... And on my card I can only use one TB port, the other one is not working, I guess both are working for you? I might try your/Martin's config and see if it makes a difference... Thanks.

Yep, when you plug nothing it mention 40Gb/s (the fastest you can with this card) but if you plug a USB-c --> TB adapter it mention 20Gb/s like me when I plugged my Apollo TB.

 

[Vvglyy Wzxit]

Is it really working without any cold and reboot now, just booting once ad it works ?

Yes. Like I explain the different steps before.

The card i have is a Rev.1 unflashed, i dont know which firmware is on there.
is the serial a indicator ?

Yes try the one I put on the link. Theres two files . Choose the first one FW23 ( TitanRidgeNVM23-Elias64Fr-Mod.bin) first. It worked for me.

Would be cool to get it running again with the Apollo interface.
But before I invest into a processor board I would like to know what the deal is.

Don't give up, after flashing with this file, I put in the link on GitHub, it works very well, cold boot, and hot plug.
But after flashing and installing the TB GB card, boot once, install Martin's OpenCore mods, reboot, and in config.plist choose "true" to use his TB SSDT provided in the archive.
If I'm not clear enough, feel free to ask more of your interrogations.

 

[KevinClark]

Hello guys

Is there a solution to work with antelope thunderbolt interface ?

 

[pbsxr]

Hi,

I have still problems getting TB Devices working @ first boot. Actually, I am using the SSDT from Nico, because I am not able to make a working one on HackinDROM.

My Configuration:

Mac Pro 5.1 (OC 0.6.8) / 2 x 3,33 GHz 6-Core Xeon / 96GB / RX580 (11.2.3)

Flashed Alpine Ridge Rev. 2.0 (with GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-NVM21-V3-NATA.bin)




Is there any recommendation to make it work / improve behavior?


- maybe flashing another firmware (programmer available)
- board mod
- using another SSDT



I am always booting with StarTech USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Hub connected... The UltraStudio Mini Recorder will always be recognized (shows up), but is not working @ first boot (cold start)...


AR @ slot 4, slot 3 is empty, slot 2 PCI-E NMVe, slot 1 RX580 by MacVidCards (... as you can see on the picture)

Things are getting a bit confusing... after reading this thread for hours %:-(

 

[14UG]

I've tested an ASUS Thunderbolt EX4 (uses Intel Maple Ridge Thunderbolt 4 controller JHL8540) in my Mac Pro 2008 running macOS Catalina (using a Netstor NA255A so I can play with more PCIe cards). USB 10 Gbps works fine (just like GC-TITAN RIDGE and GC-ALPINE RIDGE which I also have in the Netstor).
I connected the USB 2.0 header to an internal USB 2.0 hub, the PCIe 6 pin power to the power supply, but no Thunderbolt header connection or jumper (means Force Power is not required)
View attachment 1763491
There are no discrete PCIe USB4 controller drivers for macOS (Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and M1 have integrated controllers) so I didn't try Thunderbolt connectivity. I also didn't try the functionality in Windows or Linux. Maybe later.

Here are the PCIe devices:

│ │└┬09:00.0-[0a-0e]  # g3x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:00.0-[0b]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ │└─0b:00.0        # g1x4           [8086:1137] [0c03]          USB controller            : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 NHI [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:01.0-[0c]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ ├┬0a:02.0-[0d]    # g1x4 > g0x4    [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ │└─0d:00.0        # g1x4           [8086:1138] [0c03]          USB controller            : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 USB Controller [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]
│ │ └┬0a:03.0-[0e]    # g1x4           [8086:1136] [0604] (rev 02) PCI bridge                : Intel Corporation Thunderbolt 4 Bridge [Maple Ridge 4C 2020]

I should update pcitree.sh to include the prog-if in the class code column. As usual for Thunderbolt, Only the external upstream PCIe link has meaningful PCIe link rate (PCIe gen 3 = 8 GT/s) and link width (x4). The internal devices don't use real PCIe so it doesn't matter that they report gen 1 or gen 0? link rate.

The first USB controller is the USB4 controller (prog-if 0x40) which takes the place of the Thunderbolt NHI in a Thunderbolt controller. The only clue so far that I have that this card follows the USB4 spec is that this PCIe device has the 0x0c0340 PCIe class code, subclass code, and program interface numbers specified in the spec. If it follows the USB4 spec, then someone could make a driver that works in any version of macOS (maybe even PowerPC Macs). The hard part would be getting Target Display Mode and Target Disk Mode to work as Apple does provide APIs and documentation for Thunderbolt drivers. Thunderbolt networking driver can be rewritten using the info from Linux.

The second USB controller is the USB 3.x controller (prog-if 0x30) - same as you would see with any discrete Thunderbolt 3 controller. Would a third party USB4 controller always include a XHCI? Not necessarily. A USB4 controller has a USB3 Down Adapter that is connected to an XHCI. Intel includes the XHCI in the same chip as the USB4 controller (but why did Intel stop including the USB 2.0 stuff after Alpine Ridge in the host controllers?). A Third party USB4 controller could use an external XHCI.


View attachment 1763498

Any update on this? Have you tried in Linux/Windows yet? How are you connecting your internal USB 2.0 hub?

 

[JoeOIVOV]

I wanted to check in and see how many people have actually removed the resistor on their TR3 and hear if sleep functions. Has anyone done this HW mod and had sleep NOT work?
I really want sleep as the cycling of the relay and fans is really bothersome to me noise-wise when watching TV etc. I would rather not mod my card but I'm going to try at this point. I have a hard time soldering tiny stuff now so if it does not work I am not confident I can re-attach the surface mount resistor.
Thanks

I made this change, removed the small resistor with a flat tip of a screw driver and it popped off with little force. After booting up, and putting to sleep, no more automatic wakeup!

 

[roobarb!]

A sleep solution for the Titan Ridge 2 interface....

Pin 11 on the PCIe bus is WAKE#.

Just another +1 for this solution. I've not used sleep on my Mac Pro in years due to various incompatibilities, but all except this one have ended up resolving themselves (usually due to replaced hardware).

Removing the 0 ohm jumper on my Rev 2 Titan Ridge has sleep working perfectly. I might even start using it again! Excellent discovery.

 

[juliovg]

Hello everybody
I buy the titan ridge card 2.0 and i it doesn't work.
I create this post: HERE
explaining all the steps, but this card doesn't work
I don't know what should i do to make this card work's. Now i'll do a clean installation - everything and i have some questions:

I want install Big Sur on a Mac Pro 5.1 early 2009, so:
- ¿At what time i insert my titan ridge card? before the clean installation or after Big Sur or catalina is installed?
- ¿should i use Big Sur or Catalina to make this card works?

Can somebody help me?

Regards

 

[mschuster91]

Hi everybody,

I've been attempting to get a Gigabyte Titan Ridge 2.0 running on my 4.1->5.1 MP (end goal: IP + DisplayPort passthrough to a 2011 iMac on port 1, USB-C on port 2). So far, I have

1. flashed the blue chip with GC-Titan-Ridge-V2.0-Mod-NVM50-CaseySJ.bin, green chip is untouched. Verified both chips against the .bin files in https://github.com/qthegaijin/TR-Firmwares
2. plugged the card in slot 3 (1 is for my RX 5500, 2 for a NV GT120 for Linux later-on, 4 for a NVMe drive)
3. used HackinDROM to create a SSDT overlay adjusted for slot 3 and the corresponding ACPI path
4. loaded said overlay together with DGTP overlay into OpenCore
5. Done NVRAM reset
6. Verified that the SSDTs get loaded (by comparing the value of the slot indicator, it changed after loading the SSDT)

So far so good, TB3 connectivity itself seems to be working as does hot-plug. However, USB3 doesn't work at all (System Information says "Driver installed: no" for the controller in the PCI view?!), and the iMac won't go into Target Display Mode (I have confirmed that the cable/adapter and the iMac itself is working, by plugging it into a 2019 MBP).

What have I missed? I have attached an IORegistryExplorer dump as well as the SSDT overlay I used.

 

[JoeOIVOV]

Hi everybody,

I've been attempting to get a Gigabyte Titan Ridge 2.0 running on my 4.1->5.1 MP (end goal: IP + DisplayPort passthrough to a 2011 iMac on port 1, USB-C on port 2). So far, I have

1. flashed the blue chip with GC-Titan-Ridge-V2.0-Mod-NVM50-CaseySJ.bin, green chip is untouched. Verified both chips against the .bin files in https://github.com/qthegaijin/TR-Firmwares
2. plugged the card in slot 3 (1 is for my RX 5500, 2 for a NV GT120 for Linux later-on, 4 for a NVMe drive)
3. used HackinDROM to create a SSDT overlay adjusted for slot 3 and the corresponding ACPI path
4. loaded said overlay together with DGTP overlay into OpenCore
5. Done NVRAM reset
6. Verified that the SSDTs get loaded (by comparing the value of the slot indicator, it changed after loading the SSDT)

So far so good, TB3 connectivity itself seems to be working as does hot-plug. However, USB3 doesn't work at all (System Information says "Driver installed: no" for the controller in the PCI view?!), and the iMac won't go into Target Display Mode (I have confirmed that the cable/adapter and the iMac itself is working, by plugging it into a 2019 MBP).

What have I missed? I have attached an IORegistryExplorer dump as well as the SSDT overlay I used.

Why use NVM50? Have you tried NVM23?

I tried NVM50 an while it worked, had more issues. Screens going black, only one display would come up an rebooting/sleeping cause the other monitor to wake up but other would go to sleep. Very frustrating.

I switch to NVM23 an all problems resolved. I'll test the 'target display mode' today to see if it will work.

Also I put my NVMe drive in slot 2 or 3 an Titan Ridge in slot 4.

 

[mschuster91]

Why use NVM50? Have you tried NVM23?

I tried NVM50 an while it worked, had more issues. Screens going black, only one display would come up an rebooting/sleeping cause the other monitor to wake up but other would go to sleep. Very frustrating.

I switch to NVM23 an all problems resolved. I'll test the 'target display mode' today to see if it will work.

Also I put my NVMe drive in slot 2 or 3 an Titan Ridge in slot 4.

Flashed TitanRidgeNVM23-Elias64Fr-Mod.bin, no changes unfortunately.

 

[pbsxr]

Sorry for asking again... but my Alpine Ridge makes me nuts...

I actually own the GC-AR Rev2 - Alpine JHL6540 15D2 (flashed with AlpineRidgePatchedFirmwareNUC.bin (Juantrix))


My problem is that i have to do a reboot (warmstart) to make my thunderbolt devices working... and USB is kind of unstable.

It is known to me that there is annother version of the GC Alpine Ridge arround (GC-AR Rev1 - Alpine DHL6540 1577)



My card came with firmware NNV20 and there is no official Firmware update. The rev. 1 card has an update to NVM21, ready for download on the gigabyte website...

So here is my question: Does anybody know where the differences are... or at least knows whether the alternative firmware is suitable for the Rev. 2 card - maybe the problems occures because of the different revisions?!

There are so many other things that are known to cause problems (SSDT, Mac EFI...) so its hard to say, wether the problems came from the firmware / card / or at least my mac pro
Due to most of the posts here an on other forums are for hackintosh, and must not be true for a cMP... it is even harder to find out...

The Rev. 1 card not available here in germany... and shipping costs form the U.S. are insane! - maybe it will be "all for nothing" if it dosn't make any difference...

It would help so much if someone, who has a running classic Mac Pro (5.1) with a flashed AR, can share information...

 

[Christian Evers]

I have just installed the Titan Ridge card in slot 4 of my Mac Pro 5,1.
Another SSD (boot-drive) is just below in slot 3, and a scratch SSD below in slot 2.

Did not install any driver or anything, just plugged in my portable SSD, a La Cie Rugged Pro 2TB, and turned on the computer and the SSD showed up immediately and data transfer was possible without any issues.

Though the speeds that I got through the Titan Ridge was only Write 430 MB/s and Read 422 MB/s.



When using the same La Cie Rugged Pro 2TB with my Mac Book Air from 2019, I get Write 1.622 MB/s and Read 1.588 MB/s.



A last test was made in the Mac Pro 5,1 with the internal SSD in slot 2, the Intel Optane P4800X.
With this SSD I got the speeds Write 1.404 MB/s and Read 1.383 MB/s.



How is possible to get some proper speeds around 1.400 MB/s through the Titan Ridge card ?
Do I need to install something, or make some settings ?

 

[joevt]

I have just installed the Titan Ridge card in slot 4 of my Mac Pro 5,1.
Another SSD (boot-drive) is just below in slot 3, and a scratch SSD below in slot 2.

Did not install any driver or anything, just plugged in my portable SSD, a La Cie Rugged Pro 2TB, and turned on the computer and the SSD showed up immediately and data transfer was possible without any issues.

Though the speeds that I got through the Titan Ridge was only Write 430 MB/s and Read 422 MB/s.

View attachment 1793357

When using the same La Cie Rugged Pro 2TB with my Mac Book Air from 2019, I get Write 1.622 MB/s and Read 1.588 MB/s.

View attachment 1793358

A last test was made in the Mac Pro 5,1 with the internal SSD in slot 2, the Intel Optane P4800X.
With this SSD I got the speeds Write 1.404 MB/s and Read 1.383 MB/s.

View attachment 1793361

How is possible to get some proper speeds around 1.400 MB/s through the Titan Ridge card ?
Do I need to install something, or make some settings ?

The drive supports Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. Did you check System Information.app to see how the drive is connecting? It's probably connecting using USB 3.0.
It won't connect using Thunderbolt without some other changes (OpenCore + SSDT, firmware flash, or whatever).

 

[Christian Evers]

The drive supports Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. Did you check System Information.app to see how the drive is connecting? It's probably connecting using USB 3.0.
It won't connect using Thunderbolt without some other changes (OpenCore + SSDT, firmware flash, or whatever).

I tried restarting Mac Pro, now speeds increased to descent, Write 964 MB/s and Read 1.276 MB/s.
Drive shows up under TB3 in system info.
So it must mean that it does connect over TB3 without the changes you mentioned ?!

The Titan Ridge card is of course flashed.

Would you believe it will be beneficial to make some additional changes to reach even better speeds ?

 

[roobarb!]

I tried restarting Mac Pro, now speeds increased to descent, Write 964 MB/s and Read 1.276 MB/s.

You're experiencing the same issue as the rest of us; on first boot Thunderbolt is not active. When the machine is rebooted (warm restart) then Thunderbolt springs into life.

I'd bet when you first connected the drive it was from a cold boot. Thunderbolt was dead so it connected as a USB3 device. Warm reboot, Thunderbolt alive, connects as a Thunderbolt device, better throughput.

I'm just guessing, but that seems the most likely to me.

 

[joevt]

I'm just guessing, but that seems the most likely to me.

We can only guess because there's no connection info provided...

 

[pbsxr]

You're experiencing the same issue as the rest of us; on first boot Thunderbolt is not active.

Same here, with flashed Alpine Ridge + SSDT (OC)...

Deviceinfo shows TB Card, but devices are not funktional before warm restart...

It is very annoying, but i did not find any solution...

 

[JoeOIVOV]

Flashed TitanRidgeNVM23-Elias64Fr-Mod.bin, no changes unfortunately.

Yeah, I tried this Target display mode with a newer iMac, but because I have a thunderbolt cable, not a Mini DisplayPort cable it didn't work.
I ordered the Mini DisplayPort cable and will test it again when it arrives.

 

[Christian Evers]

You're experiencing the same issue as the rest of us; on first boot Thunderbolt is not active. When the machine is rebooted (warm restart) then Thunderbolt springs into life.

I'd bet when you first connected the drive it was from a cold boot. Thunderbolt was dead so it connected as a USB3 device. Warm reboot, Thunderbolt alive, connects as a Thunderbolt device, better throughput.

I'm just guessing, but that seems the most likely to me.

This absolutely seems to be the case.
Great to know that this is how to do it for proper speeds.
Its really a lot faster than what was possible before through FW800.
And also great to be able to use external SSD between the cMP and newer laptops that has USB3 / TB3 connector only.

Im soon about to install a HighPoint SSD7120 RIAD-card in a x16 slot, together with a Micron 9300 Pro SSD.
The SSD7120 has 4x individual SFF-8643 connectors to attach U.2 SSD´s.
If successful, it should be able to reach speeds about 3.500 MB/s.

Im thinking maybe it will be possible to use any of the other 3x free connectors to attach a portable SSD device to be able to make backups at 3.500 MB/s.

Anyone know if there are any external chassis on the market that houses a U.2 SSD that connects over SFF-8643 or SFF-8639 ?

 

[nekton1]

I have a flashed (NVM23) and jumpered (pin 1 to 3) Titan-Ridge Version 2 AIC in an OCLP (0.2.2) booting cMP 3,1. The PCI and Thunderbolt/USB4 Hardware System Information show up correctly, but devices like TB disks and TB to Ethernet adapter don't mount/function. Reading this long thread it seems I need a modded SSDT-TBOLT3.aml file and a modded config.plist for the cMP 3,1. I've tried using the versions for cMP 5,1 but no go. I have no idea about how to create or mod the existing SSDT-TBOLT3.aml file and config.plist for the 3,1. Could some wizard here take a look and give me a "how to for dummies" explanation of what to do?
I attached SDT-TBOLT3.aml file and config.plist and ioreg output too. Thanks in advance for any help.