Skylake Thunderbolt 3 for Music Production

[zipb]

I don't think so.

You have to use Windows to update the Thunderbolt Firmware which is downloaded from the motherboard's support website. I guess you should make sure the device works in Windows before trying it in Mac OS X.

That's what I mean by 'waking up'. So, still the same from TB1 and 2 Hacks. Rats. I don't have Windows.

Other than that, I just have to plug the device in before startup if I want to use it in Mac OS X. The device is an AKiTiO Thunder3 Duo Pro.
https://www.akitio.com/desktop-storage/thunder3-duo-pro

Right.

I've ordered some USB-C alt mode adapters, and some Thunderbolt 3 video adapters, and a Thunderbolt 2 adapter, and a Thunderbolt 2 dock. I'll see if they work when they get here.

Please let us know. Working TB would be great. A list with working/not working adapters & devices would be very convenient.

 

[FrankZap]

What motherboard? This one? http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-GENE/
You should add your system to your profile so we can see what you're using or want to use.

You said HDMI and Thunderbolt. I think you meant HDMI and DisplayPort? Or just HDMI? At least your HDMI and DisplayPort should work.

The MAXIMUS-VIII-GENE does not say anywhere that it supports Thunderbolt. It does say 3-display-output support. Maybe that means the USB-C port using alternate mode adapters (USB-C to HDMI or DisplayPort)? Also, the DisplayPort connector might support a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. Anything that is HDMI can be converted to single link DVI-D (except HDMI 2.0 which is too fast).

Actually I went with the GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 instead. You're probably right about the DisplayPort, that might be what I am using, and not a Thunderbolt. I am using two monitors on a Macbook Pro (early 2013). It has two small ports on the side of it that I'm using for my screens, always thought it was Thunderbolt ports.

 

[joevt]

Actually I went with the GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 instead. You're probably right about the DisplayPort, that might be what I am using, and not a Thunderbolt. I am using two monitors on a Macbook Pro (early 2013). It has two small ports on the side of it that I'm using for my screens, always thought it was Thunderbolt ports.

You can look up the tech specs of your MacBook Pro.
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP669?locale=en_US

MacBook Pro has two Thunderbolt ports using the Mini DisplayPort connector. You can use a Thunderbolt or DisplayPort or HDMI, or DVI, or Dual Link DVI, or VGA display with appropriate adapters.

The Gaming 5 does not have Thunderbolt 3 even though it uses the same Alpine Ridge controller as other Gigabyte motherboards that do have Thunderbolt 3. The Gaming 5 uses that controller only for USB 3.1.

The Gaming 5 comes in 3 sizes: ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini-ITX. They all have an HDMI 1.4 port (4096x2304@24Hz or 3840x2160@30 Hz).
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5498#sp
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5530#sp
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5529#sp

The ATX also has a DisplayPort 1.2 connector. The Micro ATX and Mini-ITX have a single link DVI-D port. The Micro ATX also has a VGA port.

The Mini-ITX and ATX versions might allow a third display from the USB-C port using USB-C alternate mode. I'll try it when I get my parts. The Intel 6700K can support 3 displays.
http://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz

The Micro ATX version has 3 video ports already, so I don't know if it will allow a display connected to the USB port alternate mode. If it cannot, then it means that it cannot do 4K at 60Hz.

Dual mode Display Port supports HDMI 1.4 which is limited to 4096x2304@24Hz or 3840x2160@30 Hz. This explains why the Gaming 7 uses a separate HDMI chip for HDMI 2.0 output.

None of the graphics limitations matter once you add a graphics card though since you'll probably use that instead of the integrated graphics.

 

[wonderfilm]

Hey Joevt,

Wondering what Bios setting you had in order to get the Thunderbolt 3 Drive to work?

I'm on a Gigabyte Z170x ud5th and just updated to 10.11.5 and tried to connect a G-Raid Thunderbolt 2 drive to my hackintosh with the Startech Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter and am getting no love (connected and powered on when I turn on the hackintosh). Wondering if I had to do something different in Bios first? Did you go the route of first enabling thunderbolt in windows before trying this? Any other tips? What system definition (imac etc) are you using? When you go to system report, what does osx see for Thunderbolt? Mine still is saying no Thunderbolt hardware found. Would love to get this going if possible. Really just wondering what the differences are between your setup and mine as to how you got OSX to recognize the TB3 port. Thanks for any advice.

 

[joevt]

I don't know what steps are required to make it work.

I got the Thunderbolt 3 and the drive working in Windows first (download the Thunderbolt driver by downloading it from the motherboard support website, and use it to update the Thunderbolt firmware).
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5479#driver

Connect the drive, and Windows should detect it. Use the Thunderbolt software to enable the device. Here's some notes:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=17220.0
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers...x-gaming-ud5-motherboard-owners.html#17859728

In the BIOS -> Peripherals -> Intel(R) Thunderbolt ->
Intel Thunderbolt Technology = Enabled
ThunderBolt Boot Support = Enabled
Security Level = Unique ID
Thunderbolt PCIe Cache-line Size = 32
Ignore Thunderbolt Option Rom = Disabled
Thunderbolt SwSMI Delay = 0
TBT Device IO resource Support = Enabled
Reseved Memory = Medium
Reseved Mem per phd slot = 32
Reseved Poem per phi slot = 32

I'm using iMac17,1

OS X doesn't see anything for Thunderbolt in the system report. It says no Thunderbolt hardware found.

My Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter won't arrive for awhile. I should have ordered it from a store that had them in stock...

 

[wonderfilm]

Ok- just went through the process of reflashing mobo bios to f5 (latest) and booting in windows 10, installing Tb3 driver, and then using gigabyte's tool to flash the tb firmware successfully in windows 10. When I connect the Startech TB3 to TB to some G-Raid TB2 drives I have, Windows sees them and asks if I always want to allow them to mount- obvious yes.
(Windows isn't mounting them, but it could be because they are mac formatted and I didn't want to dive into paragon or such in windows which I barely ever use to get them to mount- figured that if windows thunderbolt app is seeing them on the bus that things are working???)

And then I tried your settings and also security level legacy to see if I could get them to show up in osx, but no dice.

Still no Thunderbolt hardware found in sys report. Will tinker again in a week or so when I have more free time.- Maybe start with confirming that TB2 drives can mount via paragon or such in windows 10 and then maybe order a tb3 drive to test-

Joevt- what filesystem is your TB3 drive formatted with?

Thanks for the thorough response btw

Hope this can get figured out as the ability to use TB drives would be a huge help to my video editing workflow which has been hampered by Apple twiddling their thumbs on releasing TB3 equipped computers.

 

[wonderfilm]

One more little update- After a restart with the tb2 drives connected via a startech tb3 to tb adapter, System profiler now says: No Drivers Loaded for Thunderbolt, vs No hardware found.

Not sure if anyone has seen that behavior in older x99 boards with tb2?

Wondering if it's because I performed the 10.11.05 update before I did the TB3 driver/firmware in windows? Perhaps the installer looks for TB hardware during the update? Anyone have any guesses?

 

[tonymacx86]

Interesting results- thanks! I'd try using Legacy mode for the security setting in BIOS. It's necessary on my Z87 with TH2.

 

[joevt]

Ok- just went through the process of reflashing mobo bios to f5 (latest) and booting in windows 10, installing Tb3 driver, and then using gigabyte's tool to flash the tb firmware successfully in windows 10. When I connect the Startech TB3 to TB to some G-Raid TB2 drives I have, Windows sees them and asks if I always want to allow them to mount- obvious yes.
(Windows isn't mounting them, but it could be because they are mac formatted and I didn't want to dive into paragon or such in windows which I barely ever use to get them to mount- figured that if windows thunderbolt app is seeing them on the bus that things are working???)

And then I tried your settings and also security level legacy to see if I could get them to show up in osx, but no dice.

Still no Thunderbolt hardware found in sys report. Will tinker again in a week or so when I have more free time.- Maybe start with confirming that TB2 drives can mount via paragon or such in windows 10 and then maybe order a tb3 drive to test-

Joevt- what filesystem is your TB3 drive formatted with?

Thanks for the thorough response btw

Hope this can get figured out as the ability to use TB drives would be a huge help to my video editing workflow which has been hampered by Apple twiddling their thumbs on releasing TB3 equipped computers.

It shouldn't matter how the drive is partitioned or how it is formatted. I used an old 2.5" FireWire drive in the AKiTiO Thunder3 Duo Pro. It uses the APM (Apple Partition Map) instead of GPT or MBR. I have MacDrive 10 to mount Apple disks, even APM disks. If your partitions don't mount, then you should at least see the disk controller in the Device Manager in Windows, or in Mac OS X. There's a screenshot of the Device Manager in the link I posted earlier. Here it is again:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers...x-gaming-ud5-motherboard-owners.html#17859728

The screenshot shows the AKiTiO Thunder3 Duo Pro uses an Asmedia 106x SATA/RAID Controller. The screenshot shows the hard drive is a Hitachi drive.

In Mac OS X, the thunderbolt devices look like this in IORegistryExplorer.app:


The Asmedia chip is highlighted. It is connected to one of the Thunderbolt 3 bridges.

The Thunderbolt 3 controller (DSL6540) also has two USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports which are handled by the AppleUSBXHCIPCI driver, but it doesn't support USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). I don't know if there is a third party driver that can handle that.

I've ordered another Thunderbolt 2 adapter which should arrive sooner than the first one.

I've tested some adapters in Windows:

HDMI / single link DVI (pass through) 1920x1200@60Hz
DisplayPort to dual link DVI-D (active adapter) 2560@1600@60Hz
DisplayPort to HDMI (dual mode DP++) 3840@2160@30Hz
USB-C to HDMI (USB-C DisplayPort alternate mode) 3840@2160@60Hz (I don't have a 4K 60Hz HDMI display to test)
USB-C to VGA (USB-C DisplayPort alternate mode) 1920x1200@60Hz
USB-C to DisplayPort (USB-C DisplayPort alternate mode) 3840@2160@60Hz
Thunderbolt 3 to dual HDMI (Thunderbolt 3 DisplayPort alternate mode x 2) 3840@2160@30Hz
Thunderbolt 3 to dual DisplayPort (Thunderbolt 3 DisplayPort alternate mode x 2, does not include dual mode DP++) 3840@2160@60Hz

I've connected them to the integrated graphics ports (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-C on the Akitio drive) and to the NVidia graphics card (HDMI, DisplayPort). They all worked as documented.

For integrated graphics, 3 displays are supported from any combination of the ports. I have a Dell UP2715K which is a 4K (one DisplayPort) or 5K (two DisplayPort) display. 2 displays is supported if you use dual DisplayPort (DisplayPort and USB-C) for 5K (but only at 30Hz - maybe it's not using both cables?). Nvidia can do 5K at 60 Hz.

The Thunderbolt 3 adapters only allow one display connection on my motherboard. Other motherboards may vary. This is documented on the manufacturer's website.

The USB-C to VGA adapter seems to be more capable than advertised. I tried the following resolutions:
800x600@120Hz,83.49MHz
1024x768@120Hz,138.46MHz
1280x960@120Hz,218.31MHz
1400x1050@120Hz,261.63MHz
1600x1200@100Hz,281.15MHz
1920x1440@75Hz,297.82MHz
2048x1536@60Hz,266.95MHz

I haven't tested them in Mac OS X since integrated graphics doesn't work well. Currently I can only run one display. I'll try one display at a time in each of the 3 ports.

 

[zipb]

Thanks for the info.