Z390 and Thunderbolt 3

[IITravel01]

Well, this is definitely odd, but the Z390 AORUS Xtreme resolution specs. won't let you figure out if it's Alpine Ridge or Titan Ridge but the output resolution is maxed out for Alpine Ridge. Without a DisplayPort 1.4 input, you can't use an external graphics card with the Thunderbold 3 so it might as well be Alpine Ridge. Much better to get the 1/2 price Z390 Designare if you want Thunderbolt 3 (Titan Ridge) onboard.

 

[ed_co]

To be honest, and considering the price guys, the "Gigabyte Z390 Gaming SLI" is the best bet, as you can add the AIC Titan Ridge natively (and the only one that supports on CPU instead of PCH) and this motherboard is cheap because doesn't have wifi nor TB3 (and you can buy the other AIC with the saved money)!!
If I was going to buy one Z390 board should be this one

 

[MyTosh]

To be honest, and considering the price guys, the "Gigabyte Z390 Gaming SLI" is the best bet, as you can add the AIC Titan Ridge natively (and the only one that supports on CPU instead of PCH) and this motherboard is cheap because doesn't have wifi nor TB3 (and you can buy the other AIC with the saved money)!!
If I was going to buy one Z390 board should be this one

Yeah but the Gaming SLI + Titan Ridge comes to about the same as a Designare. So what would be the point? In what way is Gaming SLI better in your opinion than Designare? And wouldn't it be better to have thunderbolt natively on the mobo like on Designare? Genuinely interested if I have missed something here?

 

[ed_co]

I don’t know the price or the designare, but I think is more. Even though as @kgp said (author of iMac Pro guide) is better to have it in a separate card, just in case a new technology emerges like happened with alpine ridge and titan ridge and for this you should have a tb header which the natively mobos doesn’t...

 

[Jamesbond007]

I don’t know the price or the designare, but I think is more. Even though as @kgp said (author of iMac Pro guide) is better to have it in a separate card, just in case a new technology emerges like happened with alpine ridge and titan ridge and for this you should have a tb header which the natively mobos doesn’t...

You may not be able to use these "new technologies" on "older" motherboards when they appear.

The thing to remember is, these Thunderbolt add-in cards require BIOS support on the motherboards for them to be usable, and by the time the "new technologies" appear, "older" motherboards like those based on the Z370 and Z390 may not be able to use them because the motherboard manufacturers may not bother to make any more BIOS updates for them. So you may still need to get a whole new motherboard in order to use those "new technologies".

As an example, the Gigabyte GC Titan Ridge has recently be released. I see BIOS updates available on Gigabyte Z370 motherboards which have Thunderbolt headers (like a Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming 2.0 that I recently acquired), so Z370 motherboards can use it. However, I don't see any corresponding BIOS updates for the slightly older Z170/Z270 motherboards (like my own Z270X-UD5, which is only a little more than 1 year old from the time when I bought it in July last year) which have Thunderbolt headers, so you can be sure they can't use the GC Titan Ridge, only the older Alpine Ridge card can be used.

 

[scottkendall]

(like my own Z270X-UD5, which is only a little more than 1 year old from the time when I bought it in July last year) which have Thunderbolt headers, so you can be sure they can't use the GC Titan Ridge, only the older Alpine Ridge card can be used.

Thats is not 100% true before there was an update for the z370 Gaming 5 to make the Titan Ridge AIC show in the bios the card was detected by Mac OS and the TB device was plugged in at boot. Was HotPluggable in windows. Nothing really changed when the bios was updated other the thunderbolt settings showed up. USB 3.1 stuff is and has always been Hotplug even without the bios update I just do not have hot plug TB. Have you tried to plug the TR into your old z270 board?

 

[Jamesbond007]

Thats is not 100% true before there was an update for the z370 Gaming 5 to make the Titan Ridge AIC show in the bios the card was detected by Mac OS and the TB device was plugged in at boot. Was HotPluggable in windows. Nothing really changed when the bios was updated other the thunderbolt settings showed up. USB 3.1 stuff is and has always been Hotplug even without the bios update I just do not have hot plug TB. Have you tried to plug the TR into your old z270 board?

I said above BIOS updates are available for Z370 motherboards like your Gaming 5 to use the Titan Ridge card. (You don't see that?) My point is, older motherboards may not have them so they probably can't use the Titan Ridge card.

If the BIOS updates are not required for the Titan Ridge card why are they made available on the Z370 motherboards then? Gigabyte could have saved a lot of work here.

I will be happy to be proven wrong though. I don't have the Titan Ridge card so I can't test.

I wasn't able to make the native Thunderbolt 3 port on my motherboard to work in MacOS anyway, not even after installing a copy of Windows 10, installing the Thunderbolt driver in Windows, then checking to see a Thunderbolt external drive I have works in Windows, then back into MacOS to see that the same drive was not detected (even after I made sure to connect it and power it on before booting into MacOS). I don't have the time and patience to investigate further at this time.

 

[scottkendall]

I said above BIOS updates are available for Z370 motherboards like your Gaming 5 to use the Titan Ridge card. (You don't see that?) My point is, older motherboards may not have them so they probably can't use the Titan Ridge card.

If the BIOS updates are not required why are they made available on the Z370 motherboards then? Gigabyte could have saved a lot of work here.

I will be happy to be proven wrong though. I don't have the Titan Ridge card so I can't test. I wasn't able to make the native Thunderbolt 3 port on my motherboard to work in MacOS anyway, not even after installing a copy of Windows 10, installing the Thunderbolt driver in Windows, then checking to see a Thunderbolt external drive I have works in Windows, then back into MacOS to see that the same drive was not detected (even after I made sure to connect it and power it on before booting into MacOS).

As I said BEFORE the update to the bios the TB3 AIC worked in my gaming 5 that did not support the card before. And if you do not have a titan ridge then how can you make such accusations that it will not work if the bios does not support it. Fact is my gaming 5 supported the titan ridge 100% in windows before the bios supported it, and TB devices worked under MacOs as long as they were plugged in at boot.

 

[Jamesbond007]

As I said BEFORE the update to the bios the TB3 AIC worked in my gaming 5 that did not support the card before. And if you do not have a titan ridge then how can you make such accusations that it will not work if the bios does not support it. Fact is my gaming 5 supported the titan ridge 100% in windows before the bios supported it, and TB devices worked under MacOs as long as they were plugged in at boot.

Oh? You are saying that the Titan Ridge card was usable in Windows 10 and MacOS on your Z370 motherboard without the most recent BIOS update (F11) to support it, even though Gigabyte says you need that BIOS update? That is news to me.

If that is true, my bad then. I was under the impression that BIOS support is required to use the card (and any future cards), as that is what Gigabyte says. Seems I was wrong this time. Thanks for your correction. I would be interested to know the BIOS version of the motherboard you have.

But if what you said is true, then I am curious : why does Gigabyte still make that BIOS update? Should it just save the effort to make it if the card actually works on "any" recent Gigabyte motherboards that have the required Thunderbolt headers without the necessary BIOS update?

I will have to do a test using an Alpine Ridge Rev 2 card I have on my X99-UD4, which has a Thunderbolt header but no such BIOS updates ever, to see if MacOS Sierra / High Sierra can work with it. Gigabyte did not list the motherboard as compatible with the Alpine Ridge card. Hopefully I can find the time to do it.

 

[scottkendall]

Oh? So the Titan Ridge card was usable in Windows 10 and MacOS even before the most recent BIOS update to support it on Z370 motherboards? That is news to me.

Here is what happened, I ordered the card I just assumed that it would work. I then installed booted to windows installed the TB software and shut down. Plugged the TB drive in turned the system on went into bios to check setting but no TB options. Let the system boot noticed the drive that was plugged into TR was showing in clover since it was a cloned drive I choose to boot from the drive. System booted without issue from the drive plugged into the TR. I was not able to archive Hotplug with Thunderbolt device before or after the bios update but for usb 3.1 devices with C plug work great. Also note that the card only works in the PCI-E x4 slot when I plug it into the x8 it does not work. I am not 100% sure the header even needs to be plugged in, there is a post somewhere about some guy with a Mac Pro 5,1 that I think has a titan ridge working in his system. I guess when my new CPU arrives I could test the card in z370HD3 that does not even have a header and see if I at least get it to connect the drive.