Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

[EugW]

I have a late ‘14 Mac mini BTO 1tb hdd. That logic board has a mini pcie bus port on the logic board for when people ordered a fusion drive, the ssd card could be connected easily then fused at apple. Originally meant for 64gb to 128 gb to give an ssd like performance without the back then, $800 up-charge for a ssd 1tb (seriously). Well I ordered a board to make my own fusion drive and dropped a 512 gm Kingston 3x4 m2 ssd stick and that machine screens. Not one issue. With the i7 and ssd unlocked, Monterrey was not the slow OS that it is with HDDs. I had the 1tb hdd as storage. Then I learned Apple made fusing split drives just a command line in terminal and had to try it with a large ssd and it worked great! Ssd speeds but a Thunderbolt 2 equipped 1.512 tb i7 with 16 gigs for like $400. C’mon. How cool. Well more is better for the addict so knowing crucial and MAC have a history of working well together I bought this 1tb crucial and holy snikeys did it work! Fast and now a 2TB 50-50 fusion drive, nuts. BUT I started getting errors. Usually when the computer went to sleep, next day, it wouldn’t wake up so I needed to restart it. I’d get the error messages that require a Rosetta Stone for computers. In it listed the device or card I used to connect the ssd to the logic board thinking apple in an update targeted third party parts but after seeing this thread, I am sure it’s this ssd. I think the x4 gen ssd is the problem, NOT the teeth or key. Proprietary style ssds are not the problem for the Kingston and PNY 3x4 gen ssds which are the ones Apple requires. It’s that or the fact the fusion drive was never meant to be 1 tb. Sadly I will not find out for I sold it today and am putting the Kington 512 in it to avoid refunds over a weird error.

It’s not the stick but the generation of the stick OR 1Tb is too large as 980’s worked. I’m going with the generation mismatch.

Hmmm.. You should have just run it as separate drives. No need to Fuse a 1 TB SSD with 1 TB hard drive.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

I have a late ‘14 Mac mini BTO 1tb hdd. That logic board has a mini pcie bus port on the logic board for when people ordered a fusion drive, the ssd card could be connected easily then fused at apple. Originally meant for 64gb to 128 gb to give an ssd like performance without the back then, $800 up-charge for a ssd 1tb (seriously). Well I ordered a board to make my own fusion drive and dropped a 512 gm Kingston 3x4 m2 ssd stick and that machine screens. Not one issue. With the i7 and ssd unlocked, Monterrey was not the slow OS that it is with HDDs. I had the 1tb hdd as storage. Then I learned Apple made fusing split drives just a command line in terminal and had to try it with a large ssd and it worked great! Ssd speeds but a Thunderbolt 2 equipped 1.512 tb i7 with 16 gigs for like $400. C’mon. How cool. Well more is better for the addict so knowing crucial and MAC have a history of working well together I bought this 1tb crucial and holy snikeys did it work! Fast and now a 2TB 50-50 fusion drive, nuts. BUT I started getting errors. Usually when the computer went to sleep, next day, it wouldn’t wake up so I needed to restart it. I’d get the error messages that require a Rosetta Stone for computers. In it listed the device or card I used to connect the ssd to the logic board thinking apple in an update targeted third party parts but after seeing this thread, I am sure it’s this ssd. I think the x4 gen ssd is the problem, NOT the teeth or key. Proprietary style ssds are not the problem for the Kingston and PNY 3x4 gen ssds which are the ones Apple requires. It’s that or the fact the fusion drive was never meant to be 1 tb. Sadly I will not find out for I sold it today and am putting the Kington 512 in it to avoid refunds over a weird error.

It’s not the stick but the generation of the stick OR 1Tb is too large as 980’s worked. I’m going with the generation mismatch.

I use a Silicon Power A80 1Tb NVMe and a Sintech Adapter with Monterey 12.6.1; and the internal SSD (1 switched the original HDD to an SSD in 2016) I use as Time Machine.
I have around 470 R/W in the internal SSD and 470/700 R/W in the A80.

I'm still undecided whether I will install Ventura on it or not.

This is the link:

Using a Standard M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in the 2014 Mini

In searching the web a month ago, I wasn't able to find articles on using a standard M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in the 2014 Mini. I was going to order a Toshiba/OCZ RD400 for some yet-to-be-defined future use NOT in the 2014 Mini (it's a good PCIe SSD that Toshiba will be discontinuing and the 256GB...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[mork4]

Hello,
I'm getting this speeds on SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB on MBP 15 Mid 2015.
Isn't it too slow ?
For example on second MBP 15 Mid 2015 I have Sabrent Rocket 1TB and gets better speeds.
What could be problem ?
I'm using short Sintech adapter, bud on second mac i have long and a tried them both but no difference.

 

[otosan]

Hello,
I'm getting this speeds on SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB on MBP 15 Mid 2015.
Isn't it too slow ?
For example on second MBP 15 Mid 2015 I have Sabrent Rocket 1TB and gets better speeds.
What could be problem ?
I'm using short Sintech adapter, bud on second mac i have long and a tried them both but no difference.

Maybe your 1st macbook still doing some background indexing/mds_stores process ? those processes eat a lot of IO

 

[otosan]

Hi All,

I have followed this thread with interest and have upgraded a 13" MBP Early 2015 with a new crucial P2 SSD 500gb with the Sintech NGFF M.2 NVMe SSD adaptor. I installed macOS from USB installer. I feel the MacBook is very sluggish and disappointed that I didn't get more out of the upgrade. I know I have to check myself and realise its 7 years olds. Before I do, is there anything else I can look at to improve speed...

P2 itself is not a stellar option.

Btw, the sluggishness is normal for the first 5-15 minutes after fresh install. Let it sit for a while, until all mds process done.

and,

Monterey also have memory leak which affect some users. Especially one who use spotlight and search a lot.

I, for the first time in years, happy to say that updating major OS (to Ventura) actually make my macbook better/faster. I thought it was just placebo effect, but at least my Excel performance and overall UI transition is much smoother,

not to mention that it save 6-8GB of system space on Intel model. (because it throw away old code for older models)

 

[mork4]

Maybe your 1st macbook still doing some background indexing/mds_stores process ? those processes eat a lot of IO

No it’s been idle for while before I run tests.

 

[vince22]

Hello,
I'm getting this speeds on SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB on MBP 15 Mid 2015.
Isn't it too slow ?
For example on second MBP 15 Mid 2015 I have Sabrent Rocket 1TB and gets better speeds.
What could be problem ?
I'm using short Sintech adapter, bud on second mac i have long and a tried them both but no difference.

quick check your NVme link speed, you could always return it and buy another one if you think you have a defective item.

 

[mork4]

Hello,
I'm getting this speeds on SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB on MBP 15 Mid 2015.
Isn't it too slow ?
For example on second MBP 15 Mid 2015 I have Sabrent Rocket 1TB and gets better speeds.
What could be problem ?
I'm using short Sintech adapter, bud on second mac i have long and a tried them both but no difference.

So I’ve made some tests and got interesting results.
I’ve downloaded latest MacOS Catalina and made a fresh install on that Hynix Gold P31 drive. Then I’ve put this drive into first MacBook Pro 15 Mid 2015 which I use daily for work and made test trough disk mark. Results was as I expected. Then I put it back into second MbP 15 Mid 2015 and made same test. Results was as before, lower read speeds.
Only difference between those Mac’s is in bootrom version, faster has older bootrom 428.60.3.0.0 and second has newest bootrom 470.0.0.0.0. Next difference is first is with IG iris pro and second is with DG but i thinks it doesn’t matter in this case.

Has anyone any clue why would be newer bootrom be in some way bottleneck in term of speed ?

I’m going to update also first Mac bootrom with original apple ssd and then installing latest Monterey. Then I’ll put p31 back and test again to see if it was really bootrom or some other hw issue.

What do you think ?

 

[vince22]

So I’ve made some tests and got interesting results.
I’ve downloaded latest MacOS Catalina and made a fresh install on that Hynix Gold P31 drive. Then I’ve put this drive into first MacBook Pro 15 Mid 2015 which I use daily for work and made test trough disk mark. Results was as I expected. Then I put it back into second MbP 15 Mid 2015 and made same test. Results was as before, lower read speeds.
Only difference between those Mac’s is in bootrom version, faster has older bootrom 428.60.3.0.0 and second has newest bootrom 470.0.0.0.0. Next difference is first is with IG iris pro and second is with DG but i thinks it doesn’t matter in this case.

Has anyone any clue why would be newer bootrom be in some way bottleneck in term of speed ?

I’m going to update also first Mac bootrom with original apple ssd and then installing latest Monterey. Then I’ll put p31 back and test again to see if it was really bootrom or some other hw issue.

What do you think ?

no difference or identical from MacOS Bigsur(older firmware) and Monterey with my early 2015 13"MacBook Pro, Hynix P31 1TB, fresh install with MacOs Ventura with newest firmware 476.0.0.

 

[mork4]

I upgraded bootrom on the first Mac but my theory was wrong, speeds was fast as before. Now both MacBooks has same bootrom difference is only in SMC version which I don’t know what is it.

quick check your NVme link speed, should be the same below, you could always return it and buy another one if you think you have a defective item.

View attachment 2106387

Link speed is correct. Thanks🙂

 

[otosan]

I upgraded bootrom on the first Mac but my theory was wrong, speeds was fast as before. Now both MacBooks has same bootrom difference is only in SMC version which I don’t know what is it.

quick check your NVme link speed, should be the same below, you could always return it and buy another one if you think you have a defective item.

Link speed is correct. Thanks🙂

The only think i noticed differ is your processor.

Somehow, your 4770HQ unit is getting faster sequential NVME speed than your 4870HQ,

but when you see the random and 4K speed, your 4870 is faster, by quite margin as well,

so i think it might also related to how each CPU handle the PCI bandwith

in daily life, the one with 4870HQ might actually perform better.

Sequential speed is rarely maxed out in daily task, it's the random one that play big part in responsiveness etc

 

[mork4]

The only think i noticed differ is your processor.

Somehow, your 4770HQ unit is getting faster sequential NVME speed than your 4870HQ,

but when you see the random and 4K speed, your 4870 is faster, by quite margin as well,

so i think it might also related to how each CPU handle the PCI bandwith

in daily life, the one with 4870HQ might actually perform better.

Sequential speed is rarely maxed out in daily task, it's the random one that play big part in responsiveness etc

Another difference is also graphics card, first Mac has Intel Iris Pro and second has AMD Radeon R9 M370X.
About CPU, it does make sense but when I search for differences between 4870HQ and 4770HQ then it should be only clock speed and nothing else.

I think some other user have simillar problem:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-422?post=31128445#post-31128445

and another:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-31123441

and another:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-31128296

All with MBP 15 Mid 2015 with DG has slower read speeds then write.

Have you guys figured it out? @2five @aaddixx

Somebody say it's slower because macbook has discrete graphics card which may be using shared PCIe lanes.

I'd be like if someone who has MBP 15 Mid 2015 2.5Ghz with AMD discrete graphics post their results with SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB or other NVMe which should have read speeds faster then 3000MB/s.

Or if anyone have any idea how to debug such things i'd be grateful.

 

[otosan]

Another difference is also graphics card, first Mac has Intel Iris Pro and second has AMD Radeon R9 M370X.
About CPU, it does make sense but when I search for differences between 4870HQ and 4770HQ then it should be only clock speed and nothing else.

I think some other user have simillar problem:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-422?post=31128445#post-31128445

and another:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-31123441

and another:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-31128296

All with MBP 15 Mid 2015 with DG has slower read speeds then write.

Have you guys figured it out? @2five @aaddixx

Somebody say it's slower because macbook has discrete graphics card which may be using shared PCIe lines.

I'd be like if someone who has MBP 15 Mid 2015 2.5Ghz with AMD discrete graphics post their results with SK Hynix Gold P31 1TB or other NVMe which should have read speeds faster then 3000MB/s.

Or if anyone have any idea how to debug such things i'd be grateful.

If your macbook is indeed have different GPU configuration as well,

then your speed is totally normal,

1 lane occupied by the Radeon R9 would roughly translate to 700Mbish difference in peak speed.

Am not sure whether the PCI Lane for GPU is always activated/pre-occupied. You can always try to do speed test when your macbook is on integrated graphic mode, and see whether there's any difference.

In the old time, we also can manually switch graphic using gfxcardstatus app (which i dont think still work on current OS)

but then, again, you have nothing to worry about in term of speed i think, 2 thousand MB per sec is good enough for almost any use case. Lol

 

[pgolik]

I installed Adata 8200Pro 2TB in my mid 2015 15" (dGPU) MBP, and it works fine, but the battery life suffers. I installed ssdpmenabler, and that brought idle current consumption down by about half, to about 0.11A (0.2-0.25A before ssdpmenabler). My question is - will adding nvmefix and lilu improve it significantly, or is that as low as this drive will go? I'm on latest Monterey, with the current EFI.

 

[mork4]

I installed Adata 8200Pro 2TB in my mid 2015 15" (dGPU) MBP, and it works fine, but the battery life suffers. I installed ssdpmenabler, and that brought idle current consumption down by about half, to about 0.11A (0.2-0.25A before ssdpmenabler). My question is - will adding nvmefix and lilu improve it significantly, or is that as low as this drive will go? I'm on latest Monterey, with the current EFI.

Yes it will, copy Lilu and NVMeFix with right ownership to /Library/Extensions

sudo chown -R root:wheel Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel NVMeFix.kext
sudo cp -r Lilu.kext /Library/Extensions/
sudo cp -r NVMeFix.kext /Library/Extensions/

and then boot with cmd+r and set bootargs with:

nvram boot-args="keepsyms=1 -nvmefaspm"

then you can delete ssdpmenabler as it does same thing as NVMeFix.
Could you please post your speeds from AmorphousDiskMark ?

 

[pgolik]

Yes it will, copy Lilu and NVMeFix [...]
Could you please post your speeds from AmorphousDiskMark ?

Thanks, that did make a change, now down to 10 mA on idle! Also, with SsdPmEnabler some programs, including AmorphousDiskMark and DriveDx crashed, and now they work again.
Here are the speeds.

 

[linux_is_better]

Thanks to all the people who contributed to this thread.
My experience with mac book Air 2015:
1. Updated mac to the latest version
2. Bought on Amazon "Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year) (Black)" and "SK hynix Gold P31 500GB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD | Up to 3500MB/S | Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SK hynix SSD | Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash, 500 GB"
3. Inserted hynix into my windows laptop, installed windows 10 on it, and updated firmware to the latest version using https://ssd.skhynix.com/download/
5. Created bootable usb installer on mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
6. Installed carbon copy on mac(free trial). Made a full backup on an external USB drive.
7. Inserted hynix into mac
8. Did a fresh install on mac onto hynix.
9. When install finished, the migration assistant asked to restore from backup. Pointed it to the external drive with Carbon Copy backup.
10. Done! The new disk writes about 1200MB/s, and read about 1300MB/s. The old disk had about 600 for reading.

Thank you all!

 

[otosan]

I installed Adata 8200Pro 2TB in my mid 2015 15" (dGPU) MBP, and it works fine, but the battery life suffers. I installed ssdpmenabler, and that brought idle current consumption down by about half, to about 0.11A (0.2-0.25A before ssdpmenabler). My question is - will adding nvmefix and lilu improve it significantly, or is that as low as this drive will go? I'm on latest Monterey, with the current EFI.

Just want to inform any of ssdpmenabler user that it has dependency issue on Ventura,

so, a heads up to @kvic as well. Maybe you want to have a look.

It's something with indirect dependencies which can't be resolved, com.apple.iokit.IOPCI something i think

 

[pgolik]

The macs discussed in this thread are mostly not supported by Ventura anyway. But even on Monterey I had crashes with some programs when using ssdpmenabler that went away after I replaced it with nvmefix.

 

[xboxbml]

Thanks to all the people who contributed to this thread.
My experience with mac book Air 2015:
1. Updated mac to the latest version
2. Bought on Amazon "Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year) (Black)" and "SK hynix Gold P31 500GB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD | Up to 3500MB/S | Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SK hynix SSD | Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash, 500 GB"
3. Inserted hynix into my windows laptop, installed windows 10 on it, and updated firmware to the latest version using https://ssd.skhynix.com/download/
5. Created bootable usb installer on mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
6. Installed carbon copy on mac(free trial). Made a full backup on an external USB drive.
7. Inserted hynix into mac
8. Did a fresh install on mac onto hynix.
9. When install finished, the migration assistant asked to restore from backup. Pointed it to the external drive with Carbon Copy backup.
10. Done! The new disk writes about 1200MB/s, and read about 1300MB/s. The old disk had about 600 for reading.

Thank you all!

Good job! That should give you more years of service as long as it's enough space.. If my Adata ever dies I'll spring for the 2TB SK..

 

[vince22]

The macs discussed in this thread are mostly not supported by Ventura anyway. But even on Monterey I had crashes with some programs when using ssdpmenabler that went away after I replaced it with nvmefix.

my unsupported 2015 MBP 13" with Hynix P31 NVme works very well OCLP-Ventura, no ssdpmenabler needed, I was encoding 4k dolby vision downscale to 1080p with Handbrake, max out CPU used and yet SSD 3.3v only uses 0.6A, that's pretty good.

 

[duncho]

As advised by macpro_mid2014, I purchased SK Hynix P31 and installed it on my MBA 13" (2017) after disappointing results with Crucial SSDs. I no longer experience low SSD speeds after SSD data is encrypted, although R/W speed isn't 1330MBps, but a bit lower at 1250MBps which anyhow is still a great result!

@macpro_mid2014 thanks a lot for good advise!

My primary goal for SSD upgrade was an issue with not smooth video playback if video file has higher resolution (4k). Even 4K video file downloaded from iPhone isn't played smoothly, but it is highly freezing during the playback although audio plays in real time.

1. Can someone advise please, what may cause not smooth high res. videos playback on my MBA 13" (2017)?​

Another issue I experienced after installing iStat Menus sftw is that right after installation it shows SSD power consumption but after a while it drops to 0.00A and will no longer show any values except zeros.

2. Is there any workaround displaying SSD drain current if iStat Menus sftw. won't work?​

​

3. Are any other SSD tweaks available for SK Hynix P31 1TB, to increase performance and battery life of MBA 13" (2017)?​

Thank you all in advance, Dan.

 

[EugW]

My primary goal for SSD upgrade was an issue with not smooth video playback if video file has higher resolution (4k). Even 4K video file downloaded from iPhone isn't played smoothly, but it is highly freezing during the playback although audio plays in real time.

1. Can someone advise please, what may cause not smooth high res. videos playback on my MBA 13" (2017)?​

What kind of 4K video? Broadwell 5xxx series CPUs cannot do hardware HEVC decode.

You need a Skylake 6xxx series CPU for hardware 8-bit HEVC decode, and a Kaby Lake 7xxx series CPU for hardware 10-bit HEVC decode.

 

[duncho]

What kind of 4K video? Broadwell 5xxx series CPUs cannot do hardware HEVC decode.

You need a Skylake 6xxx series CPU for hardware 8-bit HEVC decode, and a Kaby Lake 7xxx series CPU for hardware 10-bit HEVC decode.

4K / 60FPS HEVC made on iPhone 12 mini

Where can I found what exactly CPU is installed on my MBA? It isn't shown in System Report. I have this MBA: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP753

Thank you

 

[EugW]

4K / 60FPS HEVC made on iPhone 12 mini

Where can I found what exactly CPU is installed on my MBA? It isn't shown in System Report. I have this MBA: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP753

Thank you

2015 & 2017 MacBook Airs came with Broadwell 5xxx series (5th Generation Intel Core).

The problems it has playing back 4K HEVC video have nothing to do with the SSD. It's because your Broadwell CPU (from 2015) is too old and thus is missing a critical feature.

If you want the 4Kp60 videos from your iPhone 12 mini to work properly on your Mac, you need to switch to h.264.

[EDIT] I think Apple has removed the h.264 option, at least in iOS 16, because I can't find that setting anymore. However, there is an HDR setting that you can turn off. If you turn off 10-bit HDR recording on your iPhone, it will record 8-bit non-HDR videos instead, which will make it easier for your Mac to decode the videos in software. Turning it down to 4Kp30 instead of 4Kp60 would also help. [/EDIT]

[EDIT again] No, the h.264 option is still there, under the Formats section [/EDIT again]