I was not aware that Apple had ever produced a RAID card for the Mac Pro until today. And at the same time I learned how relatively useless this once-costly card is.
The RAID card supports up to 4 SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) and/or 3 Gbps SATA Rev. 2 drives. It must be plugged into the top PCEe slot, which is marked 4x/RAID.
Choose from: LaCie 16TB 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 RAID Storage,LaCie 8TB 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 RAID Storage,PROMISE Pegasus32 R4 16TB RAID System. RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, which is a storage method that combines multiple physical disk drives into one virtual drive. A RAID setup can be faster than a single.
There were two versions of the Mac Pro RAID Card. The first one was designed specifically for the original 2006 Mac Pro, the 2007 8-core revision to it, and the Early 2008 model. It retailed for $999. The original card requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later and an iPass cable.
On the plus side, because of the iPass cable (built into 2009 and later models), you don't have to run multiple cables to your Mac Pro's hard drives. On the minus side, the original card does not support sleep mode.
2009 Mac Pro RAID Card
The 2009 version of the Mac Pro RAID Card is compatible with all Mac Pro models from 2009 through 2012. It requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard or later with the Early 2009 Mac Pro, 10.6.4 Snow Leopard with the Mid 2010 Mac Pro, and 10.7.3 Lion with the Mid 2012 model. Retail price was a more affordable $699.
One unusual feature of the Mac Pro RAID Card is a rechargeable battery that keeps the 512 KB write buffer alive and supplies power to the SATA or SAS drives should the Mac Pro ever lose power. But if the battery is dead, the buffer is worthless. In fact, unless the battery is fully charged, the buffer is disabled – charging the battery can take up to 12 hours! (According to Bare Feats, the 2009 version of the card allows full-speed writes while the battery is charging. Unlike the earlier RAID card, the 2009 one also supports sleep.)
Further, when Bare Feats benchmarked the Mac Pro RAID Card, it discovered that the tested alternatives were all faster than Apple's $700 card.
Considerations
If you really want to improve your Mac Pro's performance with SATA drives, invest in a 6 Gbps SATA Rev. 3 PCIe controller. Other World Computing recommended the Highpoint RocketRAID 2721 card, but it is no longer in production.
Raid Card For Mac
The sad truth is that the software RAID available in the Mac's Disk Utility program creates a faster SATA RAID system than this hardware solution. If you want to use SAS drives, it might make some sense, but not for SATA.
And if you want to use Boot Camp, forget about it. Boot Camp does not allow for installing Windows on hardware or software RAID drives.
Further, if the battery is shot and will no longer fully charge, the write buffer won't do a thing for you. If you do want to use one of these cards, be forewarned that a replacement battery will cost more than the used RAID card.
Finally, make sure that your Mac Pro and the RAID Card both have the latest firmware installed, as this improves reporting battery status and compatibility with Mac OS X.
Further Reading
- Apple Mac Pro RAID Card Is an SAS Controller, Seth Weintraub, Computerworld, 2007.11.17
- 2009 Apple RAID PCI Card, Still Useful Today?, Jay, The House of Moth, 2017.07.03
- Apple Pro RAID Card for Nehalem Mac Pro versus Third Party Alternative, Bare Feats, 2009.06.15.
- How to Use an Apple RAID Card, Elizabeth Mott, It Still Works, 2017.09.26
- Mac Pro (Early 2009) RAID Card: Identification and Compatibility, Apple
- Mac Pro (Mid 2012 and Earlier): Frequently Asked Questions About the Mac Pro RAID Card and Xserve RAID Card, Apple
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The Mac Pro introduced in 2019 has eight PCIe slots:
- Four double-wide slots
- Three single-wide slots
- One half-length slot preconfigured with the Apple I/O card
Mac Pro includes one or two Radeon Pro MPX Modules that occupy slots 1-2 and slots 3-4. You can choose your MPX Modules when you order your Mac Pro or order them separately from Apple. Learn how to install PCI cards in your Mac Pro (2019).
Mac Software Raid
Raid Card Battery Mac Pro
Apple AMD Radeon MPX Modules
Apple currently has four different Mac Pro Expansion (MPX) Modules that contain AMD Radeon Pro graphics processing units (GPUs). Radeon Pro MPX Modules can use slots 1-2 and slots 3-4, and you can install one or two of each module:
Mac Software Raid
Raid Card Battery Mac Pro
Apple AMD Radeon MPX Modules
Apple currently has four different Mac Pro Expansion (MPX) Modules that contain AMD Radeon Pro graphics processing units (GPUs). Radeon Pro MPX Modules can use slots 1-2 and slots 3-4, and you can install one or two of each module:
- Radeon Pro 580X MPX Module: one module only
- Radeon Pro W5700X MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro Vega II MPX Module: one or two modules
- Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX Module: one or two modules
You can use Radeon MPX Modules along with other third-party PCIe graphics cards. If you use Boot Camp, using a Radeon MPX Module and a third-party AMD graphics card isn't supported when your Mac is using Windows. Learn about using AMD graphics cards with Microsoft Windows on Mac Pro (2019).
Apple I/O card
Mac Pro comes with the Apple I/O card, which has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Apple I/O card comes preinstalled in slot 8 and can't be installed in another slot.
Third-party PCIe cards
You can install many different PCIe cards in your Mac Pro, such as fibre channel cards, fibre networking cards, and pro video and audio interface cards. The PCIe bus on your Mac Pro provides up to 300W auxillary power. If your PCIe card requires additional power, such as a GPU, use the Belkin Aux Power Cable.
Mac Pro supports the same GPUs that are supported by external graphics processors (eGPUs). If you use Boot Camp and want to install a NVIDIA card to use in Windows on your Mac, don't install the card in slot 2. Learn about using AMD graphics cards with Microsoft Windows on Mac Pro (2019).
Some older PCI cards might use 32-bit Option ROMs that aren't compatible with your Mac Pro. If you install a PCI card that uses 32-bit option ROMs, your Mac Pro might not start up correctly.
Afterburner
Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card made by Apple. Learn more about Afterburner.
RAID cards
If you want to add additional storage, you can install a third-party RAID card, such as a SAS RAID card, or you can install the Promise Pegasus R4i 32TB RAID MPX Module in one of the two MPX bays. If you use Boot Camp on your Mac, Windows doesn't support Apple software RAID volumes.
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