GC-ALPINE RIDGE in hands

[athei]

After reading the whole thread I am still not sure if it is possible to have 5K (with the LG ultrafine) support on Windows/macOS with this card. Can someone clarify this? Do I need to put in 2 display port cables into the alpine ridge from my GPU?

 

[rodman109110]

I purchased this card in hopes of using my Lacie 5Big Thunderbolt drives. I have daisy chained the drive to a display (computer - HDs - Display) and the display does work so I know the card is working. However the drives do not mount in MacOS. I believe I have everything up to date on the Windows side. The only issue I have come across is there is no Thunderbolt option in my Bios (F7). On the Mac side, as with others here, it is reporting that there are no thunderbolt drivers installed.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[joevt]

I purchased this card in hopes of using my Lacie 5Big Thunderbolt drives. I have daisy chained the drive to a display (computer - HDs - Display) and the display does work so I know the card is working. However the drives do not mount in MacOS. I believe I have everything up to date on the Windows side. The only issue I have come across is there is no Thunderbolt option in my Bios (F7). On the Mac side, as with others here, it is reporting that there are no thunderbolt drivers installed.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Is your motherboard the GA-Z270X-Gaming K7? Is the drive the Thunderbolt 1 version or the Thunderbolt 2 version? What kind of display is connected? What Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter did you use?

Display output from Thunderbolt is practically automatic. It doesn't even require that the Thunderbolt 3 add-in card be inside your computer as long as it is powered correctly.

PCIe communication over Thunderbolt is a different matter. The firmware of the computer must be updated (you said it already has the latest F7 so that's not it).

Is the add-in card in the correct slot? It must be in the PCH PCIe x4 slot. The add-in card header cable should be connected correctly.

Did you install the Thunderbolt driver, Intel USB 3.1 driver, and Thunderbolt FW Update Tool on Windows side?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-10#support-dl

Does the drive appear in Windows? In Windows, what does the Thunderbolt utility say about the versions? Does it list the drive as connected? Are the drives in the Device Manager (view by connection)? Show some screen shots.

Did you connecting the drive to your computer before booting into macOS? Use IORegistryExplorer.app to see how the Thunderbolt 3 add-in card appears.

 

[rodman109110]

Is your motherboard the GA-Z270X-Gaming K7? Is the drive the Thunderbolt 1 version or the Thunderbolt 2 version? What kind of display is connected? What Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter did you use?

Display output from Thunderbolt is practically automatic. It doesn't even require that the Thunderbolt 3 add-in card be inside your computer as long as it is powered correctly.

PCIe communication over Thunderbolt is a different matter. The firmware of the computer must be updated (you said it already has the latest F7 so that's not it).

Is the add-in card in the correct slot? It must be in the PCH PCIe x4 slot. The add-in card header cable should be connected correctly.

Did you install the Thunderbolt driver, Intel USB 3.1 driver, and Thunderbolt FW Update Tool on Windows side?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-10#support-dl

Does the drive appear in Windows? In Windows, what does the Thunderbolt utility say about the versions? Does it list the drive as connected? Are the drives in the Device Manager (view by connection)? Show some screen shots.

Did you connecting the drive to your computer before booting into macOS? Use IORegistryExplorer.app to see how the Thunderbolt 3 add-in card appears.

Thank you for the response joevt.

Yes I am using the Gaming K7

The enclosure is a Lacie 5Big Thunderbolt using Thunderbolt 1. The Display is an 27" Apple Led Cinema Display using Thunderbolt 1. I am using the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter.

I have the card in the Pcie x4 slot with the header cable connected the the Thb_C header on the mother board.

I reinstalled the thunderbolt drivers just to be safe but those were installed when I got the card. I did not see the FW Update Tool but I installed that. Am downloading Xcode now for the Ioregistryexplorer.app.

Will report back shortly.

 

[joevt]

Thank you for the response joevt.

Yes I am using the Gaming K7

The enclosure is a Lacie 5Big Thunderbolt using Thunderbolt 1. The Display is an 27" Apple Led Cinema Display using Thunderbolt 1. I am using the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter.

I have the card in the Pcie x4 slot with the header cable connected the the Thb_C header on the mother board.

I reinstalled the thunderbolt drivers just to be safe but those were installed when I got the card. I did not see the FW Update Tool but I installed that. Am downloading Xcode now for the Ioregistryexplorer.app.

Will report back shortly.

Can you try connecting the Thunderbolt 1 drive by itself without the display? Or put the display at the end of the chain?

There seem to be more than a few reports of problems with daisy chaining Thunderbolt 1 or Thunderbolt 2 devices with the Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapters. I have only one Thunderbolt 2 device. I've tried Thunderbolt 3 -> Akitio Thunderbolt 3 drive -> Startech Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> OWC Thunderbolt 2 dock. I've also tried Thunderbolt 3 -> Startech Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> OWC Thunderbolt 2 dock -> Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> Akitio Thunderbolt 3 drive -> Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter -> Dell 5K Dual DisplayPort display.

My question is, has anyone successfully had two Thunderbolt 2 devices working simultaneously from a Thunderbolt 3 port?

 

[joevt]

The Display is an 27" Apple Led Cinema Display using Thunderbolt 1. I am using the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter.

I am confused by the display. The Apple LED Cinema Display is different than the Apple Thunderbolt Display. What is the model number? The LED Cinema Display is not a Thunderbolt display. It uses mini DisplayPort instead.

 

[rodman109110]

I am using the Thunderbolt Display.

I had the Display plugged into the enclosure and then the enclosure plugged into the card. The enclosure is now plugged in by itself but still no luck.

When I run the Thunderbolt FW update it says "controller not found". The drive does NOT display in windows.

 

[joevt]

I am using the Thunderbolt Display.
I had the Display plugged into the enclosure and then the enclosure plugged into the card. The enclosure is now plugged in by itself but still no luck.
When I run the Thunderbolt FW update it says "controller not found". The drive does NOT display in windows.

I think you need to get it working in Windows before you start trying it in macOS. Try talking to Gigabyte technical support.

The Thunderbolt driver is supposed to be installed first. Then instal the FW Update Tool.

Maybe you need a Thunderbolt 3 device to be connected first, then boot into Windows. Then try the FW Update Tool.

Check the Device Manager. View by Connection. What does it look like? The root port for the PCH PCIEX4 slot should have four bridges: NHI, port 1, USB 3.1 controller, port 2.

Try connecting a USB device into the Thunderbolt 3 port?

Maybe there's a problem with the motherboard or add-in card? Try a different motherboard. Try a different GC-ALPINE RIDGE card. Make sure the header cable is connected correctly to the correct header on the motherboard. Or maybe boot without the header cable connected?

 

[auwri]

Hi all, I'm considering buying this Alpine Ridge add-in card.

I recently built a new system using a Gigabyte Z270X-UD5 TH motherboard. This mobo has onboard Thunderbolt 3, but it can thus only use the iGPU for video output (I also have a standard 1920x1200 monitor connected to my Nvidia GTX 1060 via DVI).

My problem is that my secondary monitor (an Apple Thunderbolt Display) seems to consistently misbehave when using this onboard Thunderbolt (via Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-Thunderbolt 2 adapter). I applied the various needed DSDT patches to remap GFX0 to IGPU, and PEGP to GFX0, etc., so I am able to boot with both monitors active: one using the Thunderbolt display via iGPU, and the other using my GTX 1060's DVI-out.

However, the Thunderbolt display seems to cause issues around USB and system stability. The system occasionally black-screens and reboots spontaneously, mid-task (not related to CPU load; sometimes I'm just browsing Chrome or typing in Sublime). These reboots don't leave any record in the console, or kernel panic logs, or anything that would help pin down the root cause. They seem to only occur while the Thunderbolt Display is plugged in, although I haven't had the system long enough to know for sure.

After this sort of reboot, the boot logs spew a long stream of messages relating to USB problems (USBXHCI or UHCI, etc), and the startup process stops at the iGPU initialization phase. I usually need to restart the machine by hand from this point. Sometimes I have to power down the system completely and start it up again from scratch to get the USB complaints to stop. I'm assuming they are related to the USB ports on the Thunderbolt display and some kind of power status problems.

Anyways, my questions are (a) has anyone else had stability problems with connecting Thunderbolt displays via their onboard ports/iGPU, and (b) would this add-in-card potentially help?

If I use it purely for mini-DP video output, not even connecting my motherboard's headers, it should function as basically an expensive active video adapter, right?

But if I do connect my mobo Thunderbolt headers to it, would performance be any different than the existing onboard Thunderbolt? Thanks.

 

[joevt]

Anyways, my questions are (a) has anyone else had stability problems with connecting Thunderbolt displays via their onboard ports/iGPU, and (b) would this add-in-card potentially help?

If the problem is with the iGPU then not using the iGPU would help. I don't know how well mixing iGPU and Nvidia works. I avoid it because iGPU support seems broken in Hackintosh for multiple displays.

If I use it purely for mini-DP video output, not even connecting my motherboard's headers, it should function as basically an expensive active video adapter, right?

The GC-ALPINE RIDGE doesn't have mini-DP output. You need a USB-C DisplayPort alt mode to mini-DP cable for that. The GC-ALPINE RIDGE has the following functions (I don't think any of these functions require the header cable because they all seem to work in macOS on my Z170X-Gaming 7 which doesn't have a Thunderbolt add-in card header):
1) Two 4 lane DisplayPort 1.2 to USB-C DisplayPort alt mode adapters.
2) Two 4 lane DisplayPort 1.2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapters.
3) Dual 4 lane DisplayPort 1.2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter.
4) Two port USB 3.1 gen 2 controller with 2 lane DisplayPort 1.2 alt mode capability for each port.
5) Thunderbolt 3 NHI (not useable on hackintosh yet?)
6) (I'm ignoring the HDMI output of the GC-ALPINE RIDGE because I don't know what it's good for since it's only HDMI 1.4)

It's the only solution that does all that so I don't think you can call it expensive. The Sunix UPD2018 and Delock 89582 don't have Thunderbolt and only have one DisplayPort input.

But if I do connect my mobo Thunderbolt headers to it, would performance be any different than the existing onboard Thunderbolt? Thanks.

Your onboard Thunderbolt controller only gives you one Thunderbolt 3 port and it has only one DisplayPort input so you can't do 5K or two 4K displays, and the input is from the iGPU. The second Thunderbolt 3 port is USB 3.1 gen 2 only with no DisplayPort.

The GC-ALPINE RIDGE has two DisplayPort inputs so you can do 5K or two 4K displays and you can choose to use the IGPU or your graphics card, and it has two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Other than that, there's no performance difference.

The Thunderbolt NVM firmware versions may be different. For example, The GC-ALPINE RIDGE has a newer version than my motherboard. It doesn't look like Gigabyte will ever upgrade my Z170X-Gaming 7 Thunderbolt NVM version. I don't know what version your motherboard has. It doesn't look like there's a firmware update for it yet. Intel should not have given control of the firmware updaters to the motherboard manufacturers because they won't update them.
https://communities.intel.com/thread/111547