I'm still here. Nice writeup but unfortunately I gave up on the older technology a few years back. I use to have the early 2008 Mac Pro and I ran 6 internal drives with an internal blu ray optical, three SSD and three platter drives. I do use a Samsung 970 NVMe with the Sintech adaptor or my 2013 Mac Pro. I'm stuck at PVl 2 not 3 and Gt/sec =5 not 8. Both these make world of difference in speed. Although I've learned to accept what I have currently because its better than what I had when I first bought this machine. The only thing I can say about this stuff is its much better NVMe wise on a Mac 2015 or later if the hardware can be addressed.
The best solution is to find a real Broadcom card from a Mac. Consult this post for working models: link YMMV as the card's performance as it's tied directly to the PCI adapter you purchase alongside it. Anecdotal reports I've heard from various sources suggest the BCM94360CS2 is the least problematic. But performance is also quite poor. In addition to providing helpful upgrade videos, Other World Computing sells a variety of PCIe cards as well as other upgrades - for all of the Mac Pro models. Popular PCIe card upgrades from OWC include USB 3.0 cards, higher performance video cards, eSATA controllers, and PCIe cards equipped with fast SSDs, although other upgrade options are.
I can't really help because I don't have the hardware but when I did swap out the SSD in a late 2013 rMBPro with the 2013 Mac Pro SSD the 4 lane default SSD from the Mac Pro only showed 2 lane in the late 2013 MBPro. AND...the SSD from the late 2013 MBPro showed only two lane in the 2013 Mac Pro. BUT....when I swapped out both of these SSD with a Samsung NVMe 970 in either machine it was 4 lane and trim=YES. That was nice. But...the write & Read speed was capped off as Gt/sec =5 and PCl=2 and when I swapped in that Samsung in my mid 2015 MBPro then it showed 4 lane, Trim=YES and Gt/sec =8 and write speed went from 1224 to 2508 and read speed 1438 to 3119. A shame that little 2015 MBPro crushed the 8 core 2013 Mac Pro but that's the way it is...I still have 8 core to over ride so that's worth something to keep hold of...good luck
Jan 13, 2019 4:27 AM
The Mac Pro introduced in 2019 has eight PCIe slots:
- Four double-wide slots
- Three single-wide slots
- One half-length slot preconfigured with the Apple I/O card
Mac Pro includes one or two Radeon Pro MPX Modules that occupy slots 1-2 and slots 3-4. You can choose your MPX Modules when you order your Mac Pro or order them separately from Apple. Learn how to install PCI cards in your Mac Pro (2019).
Apple AMD Radeon MPX Modules
Apple currently has four different Mac Pro Expansion (MPX) Modules that contain AMD Radeon Pro graphics processing units (GPUs). Radeon Pro MPX Modules can use slots 1-2 and slots 3-4, and you can install one or two of each module:
- Radeon Pro 580X MPX Module: one module only
- Radeon Pro W5700X MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro Vega II MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX Module: one or two modules
'Quad Core' 3.0
You can use Radeon MPX Modules along with other third-party PCIe graphics cards. If you use Boot Camp, using a Radeon MPX Module and a third-party AMD graphics card isn't supported when your Mac is using Windows. Learn about using AMD graphics cards with Microsoft Windows on Mac Pro (2019).
Apple I/O card
Mac Pro comes with the Apple I/O card, which has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Apple I/O card comes preinstalled in slot 8 and can't be installed in another slot.
Third-party PCIe cards
You can install many different PCIe cards in your Mac Pro, such as fibre channel cards, fibre networking cards, and pro video and audio interface cards. The PCIe bus on your Mac Pro provides up to 300W auxillary power. If your PCIe card requires additional power, such as a GPU, use the Belkin Aux Power Cable.
Mac Pro supports the same GPUs that are supported by external graphics processors (eGPUs). If you use Boot Camp and want to install a NVIDIA card to use in Windows on your Mac, don't install the card in slot 2. Learn about using AMD graphics cards with Microsoft Windows on Mac Pro (2019).
Will A GTX 1050 Work On My Mac Pro? - Apple Community
Some older PCI cards might use 32-bit Option ROMs that aren't compatible with your Mac Pro. If you install a PCI card that uses 32-bit option ROMs, your Mac Pro might not start up correctly.
Afterburner
MacPro1,1
Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card made by Apple. Learn more about Afterburner.
RAID cards
If you want to add additional storage, you can install a third-party RAID card, such as a SAS RAID card, or you can install the Promise Pegasus R4i 32TB RAID MPX Module in one of the two MPX bays. If you use Boot Camp on your Mac, Windows doesn't support Apple software RAID volumes.
Learn more