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Transporteur

macrumors 68030
Nov 30, 2008
2,729
3
UK
Given that USB 3.0 requires additional drivers to work with OS X, and the fact that there is no indication for that product that it comes with such a driver, no, probably not.

Lacie and Caldigit have compatible cards that come with drivers. Should be a hassle free installation.

You can, however, try this card with hacked Lacie drivers. The card you linked uses the same NEC chip, so you might get it working. Again, MIGHT! This has not been confirmed yet.
 

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,834
3,511
Given that USB 3.0 requires additional drivers to work with OS X, and the fact that there is no indication for that product that it comes with such a driver, no, probably not.

Lacie and Caldigit have compatible cards that come with drivers. Should be a hassle free installation.

You can, however, try this card with hacked Lacie drivers. The card you linked uses the same NEC chip, so you might get it working. Again, MIGHT! This has not been confirmed yet.


The Caldigit driver is now no longer locked to Caldigit peripherals, however initial tests seem to indicate disapointing speeds compared with Windows.

We may have to wait for Sandy Bridge to get USB 3.0 to perform to its full potential under OSX.
 

Transporteur

macrumors 68030
Nov 30, 2008
2,729
3
UK
Meh.... Who needs clean clothes. You were supposed to stuff the MP in the suitcase instead (OK, maybe some clean underwear and socks, as they make good packing material). :D :p

Fair enough. But you have to give me tutoring on how to get the Pro in my hand luggage next time. :p


We may have to wait for Sandy Bridge to get USB 3.0 to perform to its full potential under OSX.

Which is probably a year from now (at least!). :rolleyes:
No thanks! :cool:
 

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,671
1,378
I tried that EVGA card which I use in a PC after installing the caldigit card and drivers in my mac pro. It didn't work even though they are both based on the same NEC chipset. The caldigit one is ok, but performance of a pcie card compared to onboard usb 3.0 in a PC is seems to be diminished somewhat from my limited testing of a couple supertalent usb 3.0 flash drives. I notice that it takes longer to mount the drive when plugged in that the usb 2.0 plug. Once in though it is faster than usb 2.0, but that initial lag in mounting is annoying. No such lag when pluging the same drive into a pc with a NEC based PCIE usb 3.0 card, so probably the Mac software drivers slowing it down. It's definitely got a way to go to be really useful.
 

tibbyme

macrumors newbie
Nov 15, 2010
3
0
ca
The Caldigit driver is now no longer locked to Caldigit peripherals, however initial tests seem to indicate disapointing speeds compared with Windows.

We may have to wait for Sandy Bridge to get USB 3.0 to perform to its full potential under OSX.

How did you test to get your speeds? What were your speeds? I have one and when I tested it with AJA, I got around 140. Pretty good if you ask me. I also did a transfer test using a good sized file (quicktime movie) and the speeds of USB 3 were almost 50% faster than when I used FW800.

Overall, I'm happy with my card. Haven't had any problems with it so far.
 

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,671
1,378
How did you test to get your speeds? What were your speeds? I have one and when I tested it with AJA, I got around 140. Pretty good if you ask me. I also did a transfer test using a good sized file (quicktime movie) and the speeds of USB 3 were almost 50% faster than when I used FW800.

Overall, I'm happy with my card. Haven't had any problems with it so far.


I tested mine with some supertalent usb 3.0 flash drives. It is still definitely faster than usb 2.0 but not nearly as fast as what an on-board usb 3.0 option is on a PC. Even when testing on a mac pro booting win 7. I just think the pci express slot is slowing things down a bit. I see the same slow down on a PCI Express usb 3.0 card on a PC. I think it's the nature of these NEC based cards.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
I tested mine with some supertalent usb 3.0 flash drives. It is still definitely faster than usb 2.0 but not nearly as fast as what an on-board usb 3.0 option is on a PC. Even when testing on a mac pro booting win 7. I just think the pci express slot is slowing things down a bit. I see the same slow down on a PCI Express usb 3.0 card on a PC. I think it's the nature of these NEC based cards.
The current USB 3.0 chips use a single PCIe lane, so the max bandwidth between the card and system is 500MB/s (Gen. 2.0 lanes for all slots in the 2009/10 systems). Worse yet, the drivers used could be slowing you down even further.

You might want to note that if it's in Slots 3 or 4, and both slots are filled, you're sharing the 4x lanes with both slots (neither is dedicated; 4x lanes run to a PCIe Switch which is then attached to both of those slots). There wasn't a choice here by sticking with the chipset (36 lanes for PCIe slots), and not opting for a 3rd party chip like the NF200.

Those with earlier MP systems will be influenced by which slot it goes in (not all lanes are Gen 2.0, and Gen 1.1 lanes run at 250MB/s).

USB 3.0 won't really hit it's full capability (real world transfers) until PCIe lanes change to Gen 3.0 (spec = 1GB/s per lane), and newer chips ship that are compliant with that spec.
 
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