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Artagra

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2007
122
42
No, unfortunately not.

From your link:

The cards aren't completely independent, and can't just be plugged into any motherboard with a PCI-Express 2.0 x4/x16 slot. It requires a special header that's used for timing, and low-level system interface, and optionally, an end-to-end DisplayPort (if you want to relay display from your graphics card through the common Thunderbolt pipe). A list of compatible motherboards can be found on the product page.

Only works with Asus motherboards, and only certain compatible Asus motherboards. Adding Thunderbolt to any of the tower Mac Pros would be very difficult, and very unlikely to happen. Someone would need to design a card similar to the Asus card from the link, and along with it a custom GPU with a connector to pass video signals to the Thunderbolt card. Without this, it wouldn't meet the Thunderbolt specification and Intel wouldn't sell them Thunderbolt controllers.

Sorry to rain on your parade :(
 

eyeangle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 2, 2014
153
19
Melbourne, Australia
Thanks guys. Bummer! I really want thunderbolt on my Mac. I'm too attached to the Mac Pro 5,1 and I don't want (and can't afford) the new one.
 

goMac

Contributor
Apr 15, 2004
7,662
1,694
Thunderbolt, as the spec is designed now, will never ever ever work on a stand alone PCI-E card (without a special motherboard).

Unless the spec changes, the answer for an oMP will always be no.
 

Artagra

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2007
122
42
Thunderbolt, as the spec is designed now, will never ever ever work on a stand alone PCI-E card (without a special motherboard).

Unless the spec changes, the answer for an oMP will always be no.

Are we sure that's the case? From my reading / understanding of the spec, you theoretically could make a thunderbolt adapter for any motherboard with enough PCI-E slots & lanes. You'd need a card with a GPU on it and a special output, going to a second card with the thunderbolt chip on it (same as this Asus setup, but with the GPU rather than onboard GPU providing the graphics output).

Of course, this will never happen - market isn't big enough. And there's also a large chance that Intel wouldn't approve it, and that it would cause all kinds of weird compatibility issues depending on the motherboard.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
It's just not viable for a company to produce or research TB on older MP's. Since the new one has it natively, I'm afraid the older models are out if luck.

You can add in plenty of SSD drives though, and they aren't exactly slow:)
 

owenave

macrumors newbie
Jan 18, 2016
8
2
Lancaster, CA
It is too bad I really hate working on Widows for Audio...
But Apple keeps giving me reasons to hate their company.
I am sure they could release something or code to make
a PCIe to Thundercrap card work. But they want to force
people into buying their new Crap Trash Can's.
And now the latest ban that you can't download a fresh
copy of your OS if installer was made before Feb 2016
Is just more CRAP. But I guess they are only interested
in making larger iPads.
I just wish Apple would read these forums to see
how their customers really feel.
But sadly they don't care.
 

Machines

macrumors 6502
Jan 23, 2015
426
89
Fox River Valley , Illinois
And now the latest ban that you can't download a fresh copy of your OS if installer was made before Feb 2016

I just confirmed that two of my archived installer images (Yosemite and El Cap) I made before Feb 2016 can no longer be used to make USB OS X installers . I thought they became corrupt (which is a very rare circumstance as I keep immaculate archives .) Now I am beginning to think Apple is playing games with us . Should we make a new thread with this issue ?
 

owenave

macrumors newbie
Jan 18, 2016
8
2
Lancaster, CA
I just confirmed that two of my archived installer images (Yosemite and El Cap) I made before Feb 2016 can no longer be used to make USB OS X installers . I thought they became corrupt (which is a very rare circumstance as I keep immaculate archives .) Now I am beginning to think Apple is playing games with us . Should we make a new thread with this issue ?
There have been posts about it on here but for some reason they keep getting deleted or moved.
Here is what you have to do.
--------
In case anyone encounters this problem ("OS X Installers Downloaded Prior to February 14 No Longer Work After Certificate Update”), here’s the fix
(Cut and paste):
1. In the OS X Installer, choose Utilities > Terminal.
2. Enter date 0201010116 and press Return.
3. Quit Terminal and continue the install.
That Terminal command sets your system date to 1 February 2016 -- before the certificate's expiration -- so the installer can continue. Once you have completed the installation, visit System Preferences > Date & Time to reset the system date.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
What? When did this happen? I downloaded Yosemite and El Capitan installers from the App Store just a few days ago.
 
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