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Intel 750 SSD - NVMe works natively

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So thanks to Rehabman, who noted to me in the OSX NVMe thread that the nvme patches only deal with altering the sector size used by the driver to 512 from 4096.

Knowing that Intel has a utility to set the sector size of its SSD's, I decided to gamble on getting a 750 to test with. Short story, it works with zero driver alterations or kext's.

1. I tested with the U.2 version of the 400GB model on macOS 10.12.2.
2. I did a low level format of the drive to 4k sectors with the latest intel data center tool under windows using the following command (assuming your intel ssd to be formatted is indeed index 0)

"isdct start -intelssd 0 -nvmeformat LBAFormat=3 SecureEraseSetting=0 ProtectionInformation=0 MetadataSettings=0"

3. Operation as a second drive works. Booting from it also works after some jiggering with carbon copy cloner and copying around my previous EFI. I'm not sure that was the best idea ... maybe reinstalling would be better, but what a pain that is.

4. Speed is below benchmarks in windows. I get about 850MB/sec read and write and the real speeds should be around 2.2GB read and 1.2GB write. Not sure why. I checked for 4k sector alignment and that seems fine. Just saw another post here that says they have a similar problem with the patched NVMe drivers, tho, so maybe it has something to do with the native macOS driver.

Screenshots:

Screen Shot 2017-01-11 at 2.45.09 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-01-10 at 10.37.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-01-11 at 2.24.01 AM.png
 
Very interesting! Good to know there's an (almost) native NVMe drive on the market!

Regarding your performance issues: I just found a (German) review which states similar issues when using Microsoft's own driver instead of the one made by Intel themselves, so it looks like the Intel 750 needs some special optimizations, which generic drivers don't provide...?
 
So thanks to Rehabman, who noted to me in the OSX NVMe thread that the nvme patches only deal with altering the sector size used by the driver to 512 from 4096.

Knowing that Intel has a utility to set the sector size of its SSD's, I decided to gamble on getting a 750 to test with. Short story, it works with zero driver alterations or kext's.

1. I tested with the U.2 version of the 400GB model on macOS 10.12.2.
2. I did a low level format of the drive to 4k sectors with the latest intel data center tool under windows using the following command (assuming your intel ssd to be formatted is indeed index 0)

"isdct start -intelssd 0 -nvmeformat LBAFormat=3 SecureEraseSetting=0 ProtectionInformation=0 MetadataSettings=0"

3. Operation as a second drive works. Booting from it also works after some jiggering with carbon copy cloner and copying around my previous EFI. I'm not sure that was the best idea ... maybe reinstalling would be better, but what a pain that is.

4. Speed is below benchmarks in windows. I get about 850MB/sec read and write and the real speeds should be around 2.2GB read and 1.2GB write. Not sure why. I checked for 4k sector alignment and that seems fine. Just saw another post here that says they have a similar problem with the patched NVMe drivers, tho, so maybe it has something to do with the native macOS driver.

Screenshots:

View attachment 229694

View attachment 229695

View attachment 229696


yeah I have the same issue with the same drive maxes out at 900mbps around read and write windows it goes almost double it lol but yeah.
 
So thanks to Rehabman, who noted to me in the OSX NVMe thread that the nvme patches only deal with altering the sector size used by the driver to 512 from 4096.

Knowing that Intel has a utility to set the sector size of its SSD's, I decided to gamble on getting a 750 to test with. Short story, it works with zero driver alterations or kext's.

1. I tested with the U.2 version of the 400GB model on macOS 10.12.2.
2. I did a low level format of the drive to 4k sectors with the latest intel data center tool under windows using the following command (assuming your intel ssd to be formatted is indeed index 0)

"isdct start -intelssd 0 -nvmeformat LBAFormat=3 SecureEraseSetting=0 ProtectionInformation=0 MetadataSettings=0"

3. Operation as a second drive works. Booting from it also works after some jiggering with carbon copy cloner and copying around my previous EFI. I'm not sure that was the best idea ... maybe reinstalling would be better, but what a pain that is.

4. Speed is below benchmarks in windows. I get about 850MB/sec read and write and the real speeds should be around 2.2GB read and 1.2GB write. Not sure why. I checked for 4k sector alignment and that seems fine. Just saw another post here that says they have a similar problem with the patched NVMe drivers, tho, so maybe it has something to do with the native macOS driver.

Screenshots:

View attachment 229694

View attachment 229695

View attachment 229696

ahhh ok I didn't know you could use the native NVMe drivers of mac os to run it
just be a format I pretty much did the patch not knowing if the drive woudl show up or not before i even installed it lol. then I did a carbon copy and redid the efi and BOOM!! worked like a charm.

But maybe I shouldn't have bother with the patch lol.
 
ahhh ok I didn't know you could use the native NVMe drivers of mac os to run it
just be a format I pretty much did the patch not knowing if the drive woudl show up or not before i even installed it lol. then I did a carbon copy and redid the efi and BOOM!! worked like a charm.

But maybe I shouldn't have bother with the patch lol.
Well no one had tested the 4k sector changes before ... I was waiting for someone with the drive to try it out but it wasn't happening so I just gambled on it. :)

I wonder if the throughput would be faster in multi threaded scenarios. Have not had a chance to try iometer or what not yet.
 
Well no one had tested the 4k sector changes before ... I was waiting for someone with the drive to try it out but it wasn't happening so I just gambled on it. :)

I wonder if the throughput would be faster in multi threaded scenarios. Have not had a chance to try iometer or what not yet.

I wonder what will happen if I do a Mac OS update?

how do you know if its index 0 and if not how do you find the real index number of drive?
 
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I wonder what will happen if I do a Mac OS update?

how do you know if its index 0 and if not how do you find the real index number of drive?
ok figured it out you need to do this first

https://communities.intel.com/thread/101213

first download the latest intel ssd driver for windows 10 here

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23929/Intel-SSD-Data-Center-Family-for-NVMe-Drivers

1. I download DATA center tool v3.0 from intel website.

2. Install the tool on windows10.

3. Run cmd in administrator mode.
nativate to the isdct folder should default to cd C:\isdct

4. Typing "isdct show -intelssd"

the command will allow you to see if isdct is working and also what index your using for your drive default seems to be 0
if you get "no result" in the cmd line then you either don't have the driver installed from intel or you aren't running admin rights.

then you can run the command the owner of the thread says below.
isdct start -intelssd 0 -nvmeformat LBAFormat=3 SecureEraseSetting=0 ProtectionInformation=0 MetadataSettings=0

works great my intel 750 nvme works natively also now and i can fresh install mac os no issues no kext required or anything it just works.
 
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Works as advertised! However, the Intel 750 appears as an external drive. Any ideas on how to remedy this?
 
Works as advertised! However, the Intel 750 appears as an external drive. Any ideas on how to remedy this?
ahhh I don't have that issue it shows up as internal for me are you sure you did the right format?
 
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