Mac Pro 5.1 OS 10.10.5 Yosemite M.2 NVME SSD Support (Boot not required)

Question

Mac Pro 5.1 OS 10.10.5 Yosemite M.2 NVME SSD Support (Boot not required)

So I am planning to add another SSD to my aging Mac Pro currently running 10.8 Mountain Lion. I am already using a Kingston HyperX Predator AHCI as the boot drive. To cater to demanding software, I need to add another PCIE NVME SSD.

I came across a few posts (Like this HERE) that says Mac 10.10.3 onward supports NVME as storage medium. I did a test upgrade to OS 10.10.5 but still not able to detect the drive. I have tried using the Silverstone Dual M.2 PCIE X4 SSD riser and the Kingston SSD riser that came with the HyperX (tested to work with AHCI SSD).

Is there any way I can use the NVME SSD as storage device without having to update to OS High Sierra or Mojave.

Thanks

Shailesh

The system does shows NVME support though.

Posted on Jan 19, 2019 3:37 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,326 points

Jan 19, 2019 6:36 PM in response to blaring pixels

NVME memory, or basically SSDs that fit on a board that has a width end connector port like a RAM port are designed only for Apple notebooks and PCI cards that support it. Apple in its wisdom chose no less than 5 NVME standards! And the cylindrical Mac Pro, which your Mac is not is the only other Mac that supports similar SSDs. If interested in SSD technologies for your Mac Pro, get SATA based SSDs.

A listing of the various Mac compatible SSD technologies are here:

https://www.microsatacables.com/drive-adapters-and-drive-converters/apple-ssd-adapter

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Answer 2

Jan 21, 2019 3:23 PM in response to a brody

I was able to get the NVMe working shortly after writing this post. Macvidcards drivers did the trick. After updating the OS to Yosemite, ran the security update (Essential for NVME support), installing the NVME drivers did the trick. While the FAQs on Macvidcards.com says its compatible with 10.11 and onward, it worked with 10.10.5 as well.

P.S.: Mac Pro as old as 4.1 supports M.2 form factor SSDs through a PCI-E riser. SATA SSDs have limited capabilities so PCI-E is the way to go. M.2 AHCI are natively supported by Mac Pros.

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Mac Pro 5.1 OS 10.10.5 Yosemite M.2 NVME SSD Support (Boot not required)

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