M.2 NVMe SSDs in the 2023 Mac Pro. Use a Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe card

RAID uses a device driver stored on the drive itself, to be certain the drive is not accessed as if it were a single drive and mucked up. So when starting up, the drives are not available unless/until that device-driver is loaded off the drive and activated.

That is generally a little slower to get started, but if there are ongoing issues, this could be a new bug. You should try to work closely with your RAID software vendors. OWC/SoftRAID, for example, just fixed a bug where certain brand new, factory-formatted drives would crash the system when first accessed. They issued updated Drivers, but some Users had to send their new drives back for re-formatting at the factory.

The Mac Pro can get very close to full performance, full duplex, for every PCIe device you can install. It is common to modestly over-configure the PCIe slots, knowing that EVERY device running full duplex at exactly the same instant is extremely unlikely, and if that does occur, it will only be a momentary slowdown. So the configurator allows to to modestly over-configure.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

<<. At this moment it’s unclear how many PCIe lanes the Pro can accommodate, >>

The Mac Pro can get very close to full performance, full duplex, for every PCIe device you can install. It is common to modestly over-configure the PCIe slots, knowing that EVERY device running full duplex at exactly the same instant is extremely unlikely, and if that does occur, it will only be a momentary slowdown. So the configurator allows to to modestly over-configure.

Yeah, that's kind of like getting a reservation on an airline, paying for your ticket, and then getting bumped because they oversold since it never happens that everyone books this flight. I'm not a fan of hope or "it shouldn't be a problem - like that's really super rare or something" when it comes to an expensive computer that I rely on. But these aren't strictly speaking workstation-class in the way that the previous models were, and that's fine, as long as you know what you are buying. I have a Mac Studio Ultra, and I'm comfortable with what I ask it to do, as it's all within spec with no guesswork, but I felt like if I bought the Pro that I'd ask it to do things that ultimately it wouldn't do at some point because of the number of lanes present.

When Apple telephone support people have a training day, they are trained about how to be nicer to customers. Deep training the advanced bus performance of their highest-end systems is never the subject of their training. So of course they cannot provide the assurances you are looking for.

If you NEVER want to encounter the situation when traffic gets momentarily slowed, then configure STRICTLY within the ability of each set of Busses bus to provide 100 percent support on each bus set, A and B. The configurator tells you that information.

Your 'getting completely booted off' airline analogy is not applicable here. This is more like a situation where, if completely overbooked, you arrival time will be delayed by 1/1000 second. And 'overbooking' would requires EVERY device, including the boot drive, to be Reading AND Writing as fast as possible at exactly the same time.

they're newest card is the 8x4 Pcie 4.0

from they're website...* Only in a 2023 Mac Pro (M2 Ultra), the initial release of macOS 14 (Sonoma) does not properly access the data in the M.2 8x4 PCIe Card. Users with macOS 13 installed should not update to macOS 14 at this time. We expect Apple to fix this anomaly in an update. (The data will not be lost, just inaccessible.) The card will continue to work fine under macOS 14 in an Intel Mac Pro, or with any Mac using a Thunderbolt expansion system.

i was confused when he said newest....he's talking about the 4x4

rosindabow, did you ever get the new Sonnet 8x4 card? I have a very similar situation to yours. Recently got a 2023 Mac Pro, using it in the studio with an Apogee Symphony MkII.

Anyway, I did go ahead and buy the new Sonnet 8x4 NVMe card, and put 8 Crucial P3+ 4Tb NVMe sticks on it. Installed it in Slot 2 of the new Mac Pro, but the computer just does not see it. Sonnet included a power cable, which I used. It's an 8 pin connector on the computer side and a 6 pin connector on the PCIe card side (with an extra 2 pin plug not used). I'm assuming this is the right cable to use. The original instructions say to use a 6 pin to 6 pin cable (but that wasn't included). Revised instruction mention and 8 pin cable.

The LED power lights on the Sonnet board are on, but it's not visible in system report. I tried reseating the card, and also tried slot 1, with no luck. I've contacted Sonnet, and they asked me for a .spx report, and I sent that. But, no answers so far. They did send a .pdf for an RMA form if I want to return it.

I had gotten an email from them about the card not being compatible with Sonoma, but I'm running Ventura. I did not receive any subsequent email saying it was okay to go to Sonoma.

If it worked, this would be an impressive card. From my experience, though, I'm thinking it's not ready for prime time. I'd love to hear someone else's report of success.

If I decided to go with another PCIe NVMe option, I'm not sure what I want. The only other 8 NVMe Gen 4 card out there is the OWC product, but it has a fan. I don't want any additional fans in my studio, if I don't have to have them. The other option is to just get two OWC 4M2 four NVMe cards. Sonnet also has a 4 NVMe card, but I don't know if I want to try my luck. I've alway had good luck with OWC. I'm also looking at the fact that the OWC 4x4 cards can work in either a x8 or x16 slot. So if I buy those now, if I ever upgrade to a Gen 4 card (when the technology stabilizes), I can move the OWC 4M2 cards to x8 slots, and use them for additional utility storage.

Need to make a decision, though. I've got these 8 4Tb sticks, and they're the new plan. I really want to reorganize all of my sample libraries as I configure this new machine (upgrading from a 2019 MP).

This is an ongoing issue seen by many with any nvme storage in pcie slots on Mac Pros 2019 and 2023 (7,1 and 8,1). It happens on direct passthrough cards sometimes but nearly always if there is a apple raid set built or a pcie card using a controller to support multiple nvme drives is used. On my 2019, I can restore the volume by shutting down, performing an SMC reset, booting into recovery, running First Aid in disk utility on the nvme raid set, and then rebooting. This works but sometimes I have to do it twice.

There have been multiple posts about this issue but Apple seems to be ignoring it.

Hi Grant. I was googling info on SSD drives for my new Mac Pro 2023 and came across this group....wondering if you could assist me? I've just bought a Mac Pro 2023 refurb from Apple for Music Production which I do profesisonally. Orinially I wanted to keep things simple by buying PCIE SSD's to just sot into the 5 available PCIE slots....however, I read somewhere that it's best to use as chassis such as the Sonettech 4 slot PCIE....loaded with 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD or similar......I've spoken to numerous sellers and everybody suggests different options...whoch doesn't help me as I'm not technical at all so I can't understand the jargon! I was interested to read what you said about not needing the fastest drives for music production...I'd certainly rather not spend money unnecessarily having shelled out for the Mac Pro! So.....can you recommend some solutions that would work in the mac Pro based on a single 4TB and 2 x 2TB SSD drives, either directly mounted in the PCIE slots, or via a chassis of some kind?

Many thanks

Pascal

When I got my 2023 Mac Pro last year, my intention was to use it with the Sonnet M.2 8x4 Silent Gen4 PCIe Card that had just been put on the market. I ordered one and installed it with eight Crucial P3+ 4Tb NVMe sticks, but couldn't get it to work. Sent it back and got a refund, and then got an OWC Accelsior 8M2, and it works perfectly. I had been worried that the fan on the Accelsior card would be audible, but I can't hear it at all (my Mac Pro is about six feet away from my head, but I can't hear it up close to the machine, either). Very happy with it. I'm a music producer, and I keep all of my sample libraries on that card (I have a LOT of content). I also have three OWC 1M2 PCIe cards with single sticks, and they also work perfectly. If my storage requirements continue to increase, I'll get a 4 stick card, or maybe another 8M2, but that's down the road. I also have the Sonnet hard drive carrier with two 18Tb mechanical drives at the top of the machine, for archival storage. Everything works well.

Previously, with my former 2019 Mac Pro, I had four four SSD drive cases from OWC hooked up via Thunderbolt, and a couple of cases with mechanical drives. I really like having everything inside the Mac Pro now, eliminating that rat's nest of cases and wiring.

Your symptoms, man! Post your symptoms.

<< external HDs mostly in OWC USB 3.2 cases. they are very slow. >>

How slow is slow?

{in my opinion] if you configure up to 100 percent on each of A and B, you get full performance without relying on any trickery or overbooking.

But knowing what 100 percent is is the trick, right?

Not compatible with sonoma yet...PCIe 4.0

i guess i got confused by the question..the newest sonnet 8x4 gen 4

is not yet compatible...stated on sonnets website.