Card Thunderbolt For Mac Pro

MSI ThunderboltM3 Add-On Card. Type: PCI Express to Thunderbolt; External Ports: 2 x Thunderbolt 3 port (type C) 1 x 5 pin TB header 2 x DisplayPort input ports; Specifications: Chipset: Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4 Capabilities: Supports Display Port 1.2 with max. 4K x 2K @60/24 Hz Accessories: 1 x TB header cable. With the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro, you can enjoy Ultra-High Definition monitor support, up to 40 Gbps transfer rates, 85W of power to your MacBook, and support for multiple peripherals via Thunderbolt, USB-A, USB-C, Ethernet, SD and Audio ports — all through a single cable.

An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.

eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac¹ running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.

An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:

Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
Connect additional external monitors and displays
Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac²
Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)

eGPU support in apps

eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.³

In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:

Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)

You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.

Use the Prefer External GPU option

Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:

Quit the app if it's open.
Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
Open the app to use it with the eGPU.

You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.

Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display

If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:

Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.

If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.

About macOS GPU drivers

Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.

Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.

The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.

Supported eGPU configurations

It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.

Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.

Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products

These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:

Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro⁴
Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box⁴
Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck⁵

AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
PowerColor Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴
PowerColor Game Station⁴
HP Omen⁴
Akitio Node⁶

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
PowerColor Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴
PowerColor Game Station⁴

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴

AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary

If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴

Learn more

Learn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.

1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.

2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.

3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.

4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.

6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.

Expansion and I/O Challenges with Older Macs

Imagine the average 8-12 year old Mac sitting on your desk today.. Many are getting long in the tooth and have limited external upgrade potential or simply can’t even keep up with the best options offered today in terms of approaching optimal throughput for external graphics (also known as eGPU) or getting the most out of blazing fast NVMe storage. In most Macs of this vintage, you’re looking at Thunderbolt 1 as your best option for external devices (in 2011 and 2012 Macs) and are thus limited to bi-directional 10 Gb/s, which indeed is nearly double the 6 Gb/s offered by SATA III and these Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Macs. If you look at the majority of 2008-2010 Macs, you then step down to SATA II and 3 Gb/s data rates and max out at 800 Mb/s data rates for external devices with FireWire-800 ports.

No matter what, all of these options are a far cry from the 40 Gb/s data path offered by modern Macs equipped with Thunderbolt III, but what about the cMP (known commonly as the classic Mac Pro)? Is there any black cauldron, dark magic wizardry add-in Thunderbolt 3 cards?? As a matter of fact there are!

The Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 Continues Strong Thanks to the GC Titan Ridge and Alpine Ridge

Feast your eyes on a couple amazing devices from the hardware manufacturer Gigabyte.

Enter the GC Titan Ridge and the GC Alpine Ridge…

Recent Advancements Make the GC Titan Ridge and GC Alpine Ridge a Boon for Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 Users

These devices have been around a couple of years, but unfortunately (until this year), obtaining one and planning to use with your Mac required you to have Windows installed in Boot Camp alongside MacOS. Previously, booting into Windows first (with the proper Thunderbolt Drivers installed for the card) and modifying the supplied USB type C header cable or adding a jumper was needed. Then you had to switch back to Mac OS via boot screen or via the Boot Camp startup disk selector in Windows to get the card working on the Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 (the drivers would stay alive when warm booting back to MacOS and voila – Thunderbolt 3 on you Mac Pro). That was a bit of a turnoff for Mac users who did not want Windows, but had to deal with the inconvenience simply for the sake of having this card installed on their Mac (there were also some glitchy behaviors noted). In the last 6 months or so however, firmware and hardware modders have found ways to get the Titan Ridge and Alpine Ridge working with full functionality in MacOS with no dependency on Windows at all and have nearly ironed out all the bugs. There are even full step-by-step instructions out there for those who want to do it themselves!

This is truly amazing and opens up all kinds of doors for the Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 once again.

The GC Titan Ridge Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 DIY Route

There’s some good info on the entire process to get the Titan Ridge working on the Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 on GitHub, but this will require you to have an EEPROM programmer and the version 23 custom firmware found on MacRumors, which allows you to run this card in the Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1. You must be cognizant of voltages of your EEPROM programmer, understand risks and follow the entire process correctly or it won’t work. Failure to perform any step incorrectly could result in headaches, repeated flashing attempts and in a worse case scenario – a bricked card and a wasted $150 or so.

Or…..

Get your GC Titan Ridge or GC Alpine Ridge Card Flashed or buy Pre-Flashed from an Professional

Mac Pro Pcie Slots

You could just buy a pre-flashed card from an amazing asset to our Low End Mac community on eBay, who sells under the name “Superchief9”:

Thunderbolt Card For Mac Pro 2008

Search for “Titan Ridge” or “Alpine Ridge” (depending on what you need from Superchief9) – see the differences of hardware noted below. You will not be disappointed! A pre-flashed card is simply plug and play (don’t forget to plug your header cable into the card – the other end does not need to go anywhere). Superchief9 also sells the flashing services for either card if you find a great deal on one on the open market and want to send it in for service (see items list link above for current pricing).

GC Titan Ridge vs GC Alpine Ridge

There are a couple minor differences to note between the GC Titan Ridge and GC Alpine Ridge in terms of the ports offered and overall capabilities (the only immediate obvious one besides the packaging and label on the unit is the difference of a DisplayPort output on the Titan Ridge versus an HDMI output on the Alpine Ridge):

This is a close-up of the ports offered by the Titan Ridge. You get two DisplayPort input connector links (offered by way of Mini DisplayPort), two Thunderbolt 3 inputs and one DisplayPort output.

Installed in a Mac Pro 3,1 is an Alpine Ridge. On the Alpine Ridge you get the same two DisplayPort inputs (via Mini DisplayPort), two Thunderbolt 3 outputs and one HDMI 2.0 output.

The biggest differences however are really “under the hood”. The video throughput that can be passed from your GPU to the DisplayPort connections on the Alpine Ridge versus the Titan Ridge are quite different and so are the link speeds (as well as power supplied), as a result of the different chipsets used:

Alpine Ridge:

The Alpine Ridge uses Intel chipset DSL6540, and the video links are negotiated at DisplayPort 1.2 speeds and sent down over either HDMI 1.4 or Thunderbolt 3. The manual states to officially allow for a maximum resolution of 4K 24Hz over the HDMI port, but the Thunderbolt ports allow for up to 4K 60Hz (a single 5K Thunderbolt display can allegedly work on the Alpine Ridge as well). Only bus power is provided with the Alpine Ridge unfortunately and the card is supplied with a total of 38W, which allows you to power typical USB devices, but does not provide enough power for device fast charging (such as a MacBook Pro).

Note:

The GC Alpine Ridge is not a GPU. You need a GPU to pass video signals to it. It’s primary purpose is providing Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.

Titan Ridge:

The Titan Ridge on the other hand uses the Intel chipset DSL7540 and negotiates over DisplayPort 1.4. You can use a combination of 2 of the 3 outputs (DisplayPort or the two Thunderbolt 3 ports) at up to 8K 60Hz or allegedly can drive a single 4K display at 120Hz that is FreeSync/G-Sync/VRR or native 120Hz capable! This could be a game changer (no pun intended). Depending on the requirements of the device, with the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the Titan Ridge, you may also be able to fast charge your devices right out of the box without adding additional power, as you get up to 75W of bus power. A current 16″ MacBook Pro will require 87W, and thus, at least one of the 3-pin PCIe power taps on the card need to be connected up to something (powering both taps is probably a good idea to give the card its full 100W).

Note:

The GC Titan Ridge is not a GPU. You need a GPU to pass video signals to it. It’s primary purpose is providing Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, but it does provides some advancements and advantages over the Alpine Ridge at just a small premium in price.

Final Thoughts

I have personally installed the Titan Ridge and at first had ordered the card accepting the old method of booting into Windows first since I was using Boot Camp anyway and then found out about Superchief9’s services. The service was an incredible value – especially if I ever decide to move away from Windows altogether one day (I use it mainly for gaming and Oculus Rift right now). Buying a pre-flashed card frankly to me is the only way to go now.

Fellow LEM Staffer, Mark Sokolovsky also has the Titan Ridge installed in his Mac Pro 5,1 and the Alpine Ridge installed in two of his Mac Pro 3,1 units. These cards are awesome since they let you connect modern peripherals such as Thunderbolt 3 docks (like the Wavlink Thunderdock v2 I obtained shown below), eGPU solutions and much more, truly adding all sorts of new capabilities to the cMP. The manuals for the Alpine Ridge and Titan Ridge do state these cards as being PCIe v3 4x, so that should theoretically be the same as PCIe v2 8x. I need to run some further test to verify overall throughput in my Mac Pro 5,1, but will need a blazing fast NVMe solution to really put it to the test. Nonetheless, this thing works beautifully once you have it going.

Here’s proof of the card being recognized:

Here’s the dock I got:

Card Thunderbolt For Mac Pro Download

And lastly, here’s the Wavlink dock being recognized in MacOS:

As a final note, you may need to reboot your Mac Pro a second time after a cold boot if you shut down your Mac when using the flashed card. I’ve had mixed experiences so far, but things actually seem to be more consistent if you have something connected to a dock you are using. Even if I wind up needing to reboot once, it’s a small price to pay (of maybe 20 seconds or so – and that’s just with a cheap SATA 2.5 SSD running in SATA II right now) to get Thunderbolt 3 on my Mac Pro 5,1. I just can’t say enough good things about Superchief9’s service and how well this product functions even if there is a small quirk here and there. Once the card is active and recognized by your Mac, you can hot plug/unplug devices connected to a Thunderbolt 3 Dock from what I have seen so far and you can boot back in forth between MacOS and Windows. I have tested this in MacOS High Sierra, Mojave and Windows 10 so far. It has been stated that this card works in Mavericks on up.

Unfortunately, it’s a no-go for the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 (no one has figured out yet and confirmed what the actual hardware limitation is), but I have a hunch this device requires processors that have SSE v4 execution or greater, which in turn is why it likely works on the Mac Pro 3,1 on up.

Rating Breakdown (Titan Ridge):

In closing, I will give a quick review of the Titan Ridge. I don’t have the Alpine Ridge personally, so I don’t feel it fair to review, but frankly, the Titan Ridge is only $40 more than the Alpine Ridge and is definitely worth it for the extra features it provides, so here it goes..

“Bang for the Buck”: 5/5

These cards can currently be had for around $166 pre-flashed as of July 2020. Prices are always subject to change. Revision 1 and Revision 2 cards work the same, but it will be unknown if future versions of these cards change anything (if brought to market) in terms of functionality or ability to flash to a known working firmware for MacOS. Nontheless, the value is incredible for what it can add to a Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1. The cards also work in the Mac Pro 7,1.

Useability/Sentiment: 4.5/5

The amount of devices you are capable of plugging into a Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 exponentially increases after installing a GC Titan Ridge or GC Alpine Ridge. There are a few quirks here and there such as the need to sometimes reboot your Mac from a cold boot at times and you might find that all devices don’t work (and some may not have exactly 100% functionality of all features), but based on community sentiment, I’d feel confident saying that at least 97-98% of Thunderbolt 3 certified devices work with these cards and overall that 97-98% of all features across those devices work fine with both cards. You will need to take it with a grain of salt that this is custom firmware and that it won’t be 100% perfect, but it’s going to be pretty darn close and that’s good enough for me if you stick to known working devices.

Note:

A Facebook forum is available that is dedicated to the Flashed Titan Ridge and it’s use on the cMP (currently named: Mac 5,1 Titan Ridge TB3 Custom Firmware).

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Of all the hardware add-ons I’ve purchased and used with my Macs over the years, the GC Titan Ridge perhaps might be the one that has added the most value and capability yet. This takes your Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 up to date with modern I/O courtesy of an add-on card it was never intended to be able to use natively and gives you so many options you never could have had before. The enduring power of these old 3,1 to 5,1 cMPs will never cease to disappoint. Perhaps the new “Low End” will be a 20 year old Mac Pro 3,1 in 8 years running some fairly recent software and add-on devices???

LEM Editors Choice Award – Totally Worth It!