Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro
- Thread starter ActionableMango
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
I think each port can still deliver 10Gbps individually, but just can't do that simultaneously.
IMO, that still better than a 2 ports x4 card. In worst case, I just treat the extra 2 ports as backup ports.
Mac Hammer,
Is it possible to list the 19 pin power adapter you bought? As well as how you hooked it up? Maybe pictures?
Thanks.
Buck
To update from my post in November - no major issues using this card so far. I'm running the latest version of high Sierra (10.13.4 as of this post) and Windows 10 (whatever the latest stable release is, no insider build) in UEFI mode (clean install to separate SSD, no bootcamp). Plug-and-play in both OSes, no extra drivers needed.
The only issue thus far is that my Anker USB3.0 hub (connected via this adaper cable) doesn't work 100% when coming out of sleep in Windows 10. My Sandisk USB3 flash drive works fine and my Qi charger works fine, but my Xbox 360 wireless receiver will only come back if I plug into the built-in USB2.0 ports. Can't tell if it's an issue with the hub or the receiver.
My Xbox 360 wireless receiver works fine via PCIe 3 card, or hub (in both Windows 10 and macOS).
Hi everybody. I apologize if this has been covered, but if it was I missed it.
I'm looking for a USB express card with at least 4 usb ports that works in High Sierra. The ones I've seen recommended here that are compatible seem to be 2 ports. I recently bought an Inateck kt4001 because I had seen some reports of it working in High Sierra, but I can't get it to work.
Any suggestions for a compatible card would be greatly appreciated.
thanks!
I'm looking for a USB express card with at least 4 usb ports that works in High Sierra. The ones I've seen recommended here that are compatible seem to be 2 ports. I recently bought an Inateck kt4001 because I had seen some reports of it working in High Sierra, but I can't get it to work.
Any suggestions for a compatible card would be greatly appreciated.
thanks!
KT4004 is the popular one - https://www.inateck.com/inateck-kt4...-e-express-card-without-power-connection.html
Thanks for the reply. I was thrown off because it says on amazon for the kt4004 card:
"Incompatible with Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or Above"
Hello everyone. Any suggestion for a USB3 card that has back ports and an internal header so I can connect it to a drive bay that has USB3 ports? thanks
ps. something available in Aliexpress or ebay?
ps. something available in Aliexpress or ebay?
Last edited:
another question please.
is ASM1042a natively supported in Sierra/High Sierra?
I was looking at a spares box and I found this card lying around. Thanks
---------------
EDIT: This card is compatible with High Sierra. It was detected and using native drivers.
is ASM1042a natively supported in Sierra/High Sierra?
I was looking at a spares box and I found this card lying around. Thanks
---------------
EDIT: This card is compatible with High Sierra. It was detected and using native drivers.
Last edited:
I have a RocketU 1344U installed in my 5,1 Mac Pro - I doubt that this has one controller per port, since only two controllers seem to be present under 'PCI' in System Information. Under 'USB' two USB 3.1 bus entries show up.
When I had all the ports connected, I could see two drives were connected under one of the bus entries under 'USB'.
To compare, my 4,1 Mac Pro has a RocketU 1144D and four controllers show up under 'PCI' in System Information and four USB 3.0 bus entries can be seen
I tested the 5,1/1344U with a brand new 500GB Samsung T5 SSD - the only device connected and got approx 490 MB/s writes and 520 MB/s reads. It's my understanding that most external SSD's are still SATA internally, so max speed would be 6 Gb/s (probably around 550 MB/s with overhead).
I also tested the T5 on a 2017 MBP and got the same speeds.
Probably will return the 1344U and replace it with a 1144D. One controller per port is more important to me. I do large backups/file transfers regularly. I had an Ableconn 3.1 controller in the 5,1 machine and it'd drop the connections occasionally. No drops with the 1344U (or the 1144D in the 4,1 either) so far.
I think the card itself is OK, however, can't work properly on cMP, especially in slot 2
Before you return the card, can you try to install that in slot 3. And see if it can properly negotiate at PCIe 2.0 x2? Which should give each controller 1GB/s throughput on cMP (instead of 2GB/s with PCIe 3.0 x2 connection for each controller).
On the cMP. due to each controller is limited to PCIe 2.0 x2. Therefore, each port under the same controller can deliver up to 1GB/s max. Or each port can still deliver 500MB/s when both ports stressed at the same time.
If each individual controller on the 1144D can only deliver 500MB/s per port. The overall throughput of 1344A and 1144D is actually the same on cMP theoretically. But 1344A is more flexible. It is possible to deliver 1GB/s on a single port (when the 2nd one is idle), but 1144D cannot.
Good info! Thanks for sharing. I'll take some time today to move it over to slot 3 and test it. I figured slot 2 would be better due to it being a x16? I guess I was mistaken.
x16 is a better slot for x8 or x16 card, but won't help anything for a x4 card. However, due to some unknown reason. For PCIe 3.0 card, if installed in slot 1 or 2. It may unable to negotiate at the correct PCIe 2.0 speed, but fall back to PCIe 1.1 speed.
If you install the card in slot 3. Since the card now is connected via a PCIe switch (slot 3 and 4 share use the same x4 lane), the switch make it able to correctly negotiate at PCIe 2.0 speed.
The same phenomenon also observed on the PCIe SSD. All PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD unable to automatically negotiate at PCIe 2.0 speed without any PCIe switch on cMP (those Amfeltec / Highpoint card has PCIe switch on board, that's why they can make the PCIe SSD negotiate at the correct speed).
Alright, I moved the 1344 up to slot 3. When testing two USB 3.1 gen 2 SSD drives on their own (Samsung T5 and G-Drive mobile), speeds are pretty much the same as slot 2.
However, when I stress test both drives at the same time, I don't see any drop off in speeds. In slot 2, there was a drop in speeds when stressing both drives.
For fun, I configured the drives in RAID 0, and saw a noticeable speed increase when running the card in slot 3.
However, the card still reports that it's running at x2 link width & 8.0 GT/s in slot 3. I have a 10GbE card in slot 4 that's reporting x4 and 5.0 GT/s.
FWIW, the 1144 card in the other Mac Pro reports x1 & 5.0 GT/s per controller, and the Samsung drive benchmarks significantly lower (mid 300's on both read/write). This card is in slot 2 because the boot SSD is on a OWC (?) SATA to PCIe card in slot 3, and slot 4 is filled with a 10GbE card as well.
(edited to add info on 1144 card in the other Mac Pro)
However, when I stress test both drives at the same time, I don't see any drop off in speeds. In slot 2, there was a drop in speeds when stressing both drives.
For fun, I configured the drives in RAID 0, and saw a noticeable speed increase when running the card in slot 3.
However, the card still reports that it's running at x2 link width & 8.0 GT/s in slot 3. I have a 10GbE card in slot 4 that's reporting x4 and 5.0 GT/s.
FWIW, the 1144 card in the other Mac Pro reports x1 & 5.0 GT/s per controller, and the Samsung drive benchmarks significantly lower (mid 300's on both read/write). This card is in slot 2 because the boot SSD is on a OWC (?) SATA to PCIe card in slot 3, and slot 4 is filled with a 10GbE card as well.
(edited to add info on 1144 card in the other Mac Pro)
Last edited:
So, it seems my theory is right. You may put that PCIe 2.0 x4 card into slot 2. If that's a real PCIe 2.0 (but not 3.0 fall back to 2.0), that card should able to negotiate at PCIe 2.0 x4 in slot 2.
And you can install the 1344A in slot 3 to fully utilise that PCIe 2.0 x4 bandwidth.
The controller itself is good to handle two 1GB/s transmission at the same time. But in cMP, the best will be single 1GB/s, or two 500MB/s. If you install that into slot 2, then will further fallback to single 500MB/s, or two 250MB/s.
And if you have a device that can achieve 1GB/s via a single USB connection. I think you can achieve that on the 1344A card. (the T5 can only transfer up to 540MB/s, not way to test the port's max ability)
The common/cheap ASM1142 cards have slot edges that imply x4 cards, but they are electrically only x2 cards.
I don't know why they occasionally operate as x1 cards, but x2 is normal, and x4 is not possible (depending on the exact card--there may be one or more cards that actually are electrically x4).
My understanding is that there are two controllers on each card. And each of them negotiate at PCIe 2.0 x2. Therefore, the card totally negotiate at PCIe 2.0 x4.
That's a nice usb card you got there Tastannin,
Looking at a picture of the Highpoint RocketU 1344a card I can see there are 2 controller chips. Further confirmation comes from here: https://www.techpowerup.com/240643/highpoint-rocketu-1344a-guarantees-full-bandwidth-usb-3-1-ports
"A PLX PCI-Express gen 3.0 bridge chip segments a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface into two gen 3.0 x2 connections to ASMedia-made 2-port USB 3.1 controllers. Each controller is fed with 20 Gbps of bus bandwidth, and hence the overhead on each port is minimized."
Ok so a PCIe 3.0 x2 connection would be ablw to saturate both ports simultaneously while the PCIe 2.0 x2 connection on the Mac Pro 5,1 is going to be limited to 10GT/s or 1000MB/s close to half speed compared to PCIe 3.0 x2. I'm not sure why System Information lists a link speed of 8GT/s instead of 10GT/s for you, still it seems like you ought to be able to get 2 out of 4 ports going faster than the 625MB/s USB 3.0 limit with that card in a Mac Pro, neat.
Does anybody used this card on a 5,1 Mac Pro (Mid 2012) running High Sierra 10.13.4? Still good to ignore the mfr's statement?