New Mac Pro and PCIe card compatability

[Renaissance Man]

Thank you HCMarkus. I took one of your earlier suggestions, did some research and found a 2012 Apple 12 Core 5,1 Mac Pro 3.46GHz + 128GB RAM + 1TB SSD + 4TB HD + GTX 680 with Mac OS 10.14 Mojave. Not an ideal situation, and way more RAM than I need, but the fastest 2012 machine I could track down. It's supposed to show up later this week. Hopefully it will buy me some time and I can squeeze more life out of my interfaces.

[HCMarkus]

Hope it works well for you!

You may want to consider which version of macOS you run with. There may be a more optimal OS than Mojave for DAW/DP use. IIRC, there were some issue in Mojave that were never addressed. It has been a couple of years for me, so my memory is foggy in this regard.

Perhaps others can weigh in here.

[Renaissance Man]

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully I can source an earlier version of Mac OS (High Sierra?) without too much difficulty if Mojave is an issue, and the GTX 680 video card will be supported. No turning back now...

[HCMarkus]

I just googled "macOS High Sierra"

and the link "macOS High Sierra on the Mac App Store" worked

[mikehalloran]

Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully I can source an earlier version of Mac OS (High Sierra?) without too much difficulty if Mojave is an issue, and the GTX 680 video card will be supported. No turning back now...

I just googled "macOS High Sierra"

and the link "macOS High Sierra on the Mac App Store" worked

If it installs, great. There are reasons why it may not — if so, I'll post instructions how to take the machine offline and a set of Terminal commands that reset the clock back to a date that will allow installation (thank You, Apple Security!). After installation and back online, the clock will reset automatically and you'll be good to go.

High Sierra 10.13.4–6 crippled certain GPU (and all eGPU not over Thunderbolt 3) functionality that was restored in Mojave—which crippled certain Core Audio over USB until fixed in 10.14.4 (MOTU Audio drivers did not have a problem).

Unless you are depending on 32bit applications (Encore, BIAS Peak Pro etc.), I have found Catalina to run best on 2012 Macs or Mojave otherwise. I keep a pair of 2012 MacBook Pros, one running over Mojave for Encore (horrible over High Sierra) and another running Catalina that I use for beta testing backward compatibility for certain apps.

[Renaissance Man]

Thank you both. I'll have to wait to see which version of Mojave is loaded on it and go from there.

[Renaissance Man]

Along with the 2012 Mac I just bought, the seller included a flash drive with Mac OS High Sierra and Mojave on it.
Since I have no information on the age or service hours that are on the 6G 1-TB SSD that came in the used Mac, I thought it would be a good idea to install a new OWC Mercury Electra 3G 1-TB SSD for the Mac OS/program drive. I'm thinking a known good drive would greatly reduce the chances of any potential SSD Mac OS drive failures. (I chose the 3G drive instead of a 6G because that is the fastest speed supported in the drive bays if this 2012 Mac) Note: The seller has everything loaded and working on the included 6G SSD.

After installing Mojave on the new SSD, the Mac has to be rebooted to complete the set up process. When it reboots, the displays are just black and white horizontal lines. I'm probably wrong but my understanding is that it may be due to the video card - that the Mac has to have the correct card installed in it in order to display properly during the set up process? This mid 2012 Mac has a GTX 680, which I think is metal compatible
I'm looking for a work around to get Mojave installed in this new 3G SSD. I really appreciate you guys experience and direction.

[Renaissance Man]

I was able to get 10.14.6 Mojave up and running with the new SSD and dual displays so that part is fine. Turns out you can only have ONE display connected when loading and updating the Mojave software.

My next hurdle, the Mac doesn't see the PCIe card. In System Information it shows up on the list as:

pci137a,5:
Type: Audio
Driver Installed: No
MSI: No
Bus: PCI
Slot: Slot-4@5,0,0
Vendor ID: 0x137a
Device ID: 0x0005
Revision ID: 0x00ff

But it shows up as "no driver installed".
I scoured MOUT's website and support and con't see a download for the PCIe424 card, only a "PCIe-424 Card User Guide for Mac" and "CueMix FX TouchOSC Layouts"
Does anyone know where I can find the PCIe424 card drivers?

[mikehalloran]

It's there. You need to know what to look for and where. The 324/424 take the MOTU Audio Installer, same as most older and a few current interfaces.

MOTU Audio Installer
Version: 73220

Release Date: July 1, 2017

Supported Platforms
macOS 10.14, macOS 10.13, macOS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.11, Mac OS X 10.10, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X 10.8, Mac OS X 10.7, Mac OS X 10.6

If you go to 2408mk3 in MOTU Downloads, then click on VIEW ALL DOWNLOADS and flip through the pages you'll see it.

This is also found under the 828mk3 Hybrid which is still a current interface along with the Catalina and later drivers (your 2012 will run macOS 10.15 without a hack).

[Renaissance Man]

I had installed the 73220 software 5 or 6 times. But With help from MOTU tech support, I found the problem! He sent me to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and on the top menu (General) there was a notification on the bottom half of the page that said the software was being blocked. Checked it and Viola! It loaded and is working now!
It's hard to get good at all this stuff when you do so seldom. Which is a testament to the stability of the system I suppose.

[mikehalloran]

(General) there was a notification on the bottom half of the page that said the software was being blocked. Checked it and Viola! It loaded and is working now!
It's hard to get good at all this stuff when you do so seldom. Which is a testament to the stability of the system I suppose.

Since High Sierra. Thanks again, Apple Security. It gets more complicated with later versions of the macOS.

Glad you now have it working.

[Renaissance Man]

More complicated- that's something to look forward to...
I'm still in the process of updating/reauthorizing all my plug-ins- fun fun fun. Once I get that done I'll be able to run this machine through the paces. Hopefully the gains will justify the investment of effort and expense...
Thanks for your help.