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Mac Pro (late 2013) SSD Upgrade

Hej


I got recently purchased the trashcan Mac Pro and wanted to give an upgrade of the storage with a 1TB M.2 NVME Samsung 980 Pro series.


My question, does this adapter works with it:

https://www.amazon.se/dp/B08HPGZL8S/ref=pe_24982401_503747021_TE_SCE_dp_1



Thanks!

Posted on Nov 24, 2022 12:44 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 26, 2022 10:40 AM

Hej man :) thank you for helping me out.


I did install the 980 Pro with the M.2 NVME adapter into my Mac Pro but the read/write speed of the drive is reaching between 1300/1400MB (see attached).


Could this be caused because of the M.2 adapter as I was expecting it to perform exactly how samsung describes it on paper 7000MB/read 5000MB/write?


13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 26, 2022 10:40 AM in response to lørdberg

Hej man :) thank you for helping me out.


I did install the 980 Pro with the M.2 NVME adapter into my Mac Pro but the read/write speed of the drive is reaching between 1300/1400MB (see attached).


Could this be caused because of the M.2 adapter as I was expecting it to perform exactly how samsung describes it on paper 7000MB/read 5000MB/write?


Nov 26, 2022 4:31 PM in response to lørdberg

Taking some of those values quite literally, x4 slot is four bits wide (actually 4 one-bit serial streams wide, but it works out to the same thing).


5.0G Transfers/sec means that you can theoretically transfer 2.5 GigaBytes/sec, or 2,500 MegaBytes/sec. Each byte of data is 8bit/10bit encoded, which drops the rate closer to 2,000 M Bytes /second, and overhead and drive latency leaves you with a nominal 1500 M Bytes/sec, which is about what you measured.

Nov 26, 2022 2:31 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I totally understand what you mean now.


Exactly, because 980 Pro is a much higher calibre of Mac Pro 2013 (makes sense if the Mac Pro does not support that read/write speed). So quite pointless going for the 980 Pro on a device such as Mac Pro that does not support those numbers.


Anyway, do you think OWC drives would perform better or any other drive at all or does Mac Pro disk speed peaks at 1300MB/1400MB?


Please see attached for system report specs also:

Nov 26, 2022 1:04 PM in response to lørdberg

 menu >about this Mac > (system Report) > PCIe slot ...


the two last lines will be:


Link Width: {x1, x4, x8, x16}

Link Speed: {2.5GT/s, 5.0GT/s, 10GT/s}


-------

My guess is that those will be x4 and 5.0GT/sec [PCIe 2.0], which corresponds perfectly to your tested speed of around 1500 M Bytes/sec.


This is confirmed by EveryMac.com:


Instead, the Cylinder Mac Pro models have only one internal "blade" SSD. Specifically, the SSD uses a custom Apple design with a PCIe 2.0 x4 interface, which is capable of a theoretical maximum speed of 2 GB/s.

from:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/mac-pro-cylinder-faq/how-to-upgrade-mac-pro-cylinder-ssd-storage.html


You can't run a really fast drive on a much slower bus and get any better performance that what the bus supports. In 2013 when that Mac was issued, those speeds were very impressive.



Nov 26, 2022 2:49 PM in response to lørdberg

<< do you think OWC drives would perform better or any other drive at all or does Mac Pro disk speed peaks at 1300MB/1400MB? >>


No drive can do better because the limiting factor is the SLOT, not the drive.


the report you posted is showing the speed for one of the two graphics card slots. Look further down the list and you may find your drive, or perhaps it is on the NVMExpress pane.



Nov 26, 2022 6:47 PM in response to lørdberg

External drives will also be limited to the Thunderbolt equivalent of an x4 slot, and perform at about the same about 1500-ish M Bytes/sec level.


A newer Mac Pro with PCIe-3 slots, or any Mac with wider PCIe Slots could have faster transfers.

RAID sounds great, but its payback using already low-latency SSD drives is very small, and it has the same speed limits as any Thunderbolt device.

Nov 28, 2022 12:03 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

okay so in a nutshell the traschan 2013 wont perform any numbers over than 1500MB/sec whatsoever, whether it is USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt 2


I think I can live with that, if thats the case since thunderbolt 2 has a special place in my heart so it wont be any big issue with running outdated stuff..


At the end of the day 99% of the reason I did this upgrade was for music production and just for music production only..

Mac Pro (late 2013) SSD Upgrade

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