Lack of x8 slot on my Mac Pro

[Rick Darge]

Hello, I have the latest Mac Pro system. Just installed my Rocket card and now it is giving me this warning upon Redcine-X startup,

RedRocket is in a 4x PCI-Ex Lane. Rocket requires an 8x lane to perform properly.

How do I solve this problem? I currently have a eSata card installed and my ATI Radeon HD 4870 card which as far as I know, is taking up 16 lanes already.

Am I limtied to 4 lanes?

I am running a 2x2.26 GHz Quad-Core with 8GB of RAM

Thanks

[Johnny Friday]

mine works fine with this configuration:
From bottom of PCIE slots going up (with one being at bottom)
1. 4870 card (bottom card)
2. second slot is actually covered by 4870 card
3. Rocket card
4. Sonnet Esata (4 connectors)
5. Matrox MXO2 video card

in this order i have no problems. I've heard that some folks need to move PCIE cards around to get performance--i think i just lucked out.
Good Luck

[Deanan]

Which slot is it in?

[Chris Parker]

there are four PCIe lanes richard. the first one is double height, for a thicker card.

the rocket sits nicely in slot 2.

you could move your esata card to slot 3 if you liked.

you'd still have lane 4 available after that.

[CJ Roy]

I've have this same issue as well, but haven't had time to send the card down to RED to check it out.

Even though it says 4x, it still runs and plays back in realtime.

[Rick Darge]

Which slot is it in?

3rd slot from the bottom.

Right now, bottom is ATI card, then slot above that is ATI, then eSATA, then Rocket, then HDSDI connectors

[CJ Roy]

Richard-

If you look on the right side, inside the lip of your PCI slots on the back of your computer, the slots are numbered.

-CJ

[Deanan]

3rd slot from the bottom.

Right now, bottom is ATI card, then slot above that is ATI, then eSATA, then Rocket, then HDSDI connectors

The best slot in that mac is the second from the bottom (x16 next to the graphics card). The manual has some pictures showing which slot is ideal.

[Kevin Wild]

Unfortunately, this is where the Kona LHe card wants to go, too.

We are having a lot of issues just recently with our Rocket. It's causing the fans to never stop. Not only is this loud, but it doesn't sound good for the computer with them going all the time at a high rev. We also have had some stability issues so we took the Rocket card out and the Mac seems to be happier. Hope these get worked out soon...especially if it could work in another slot without bugs/loss of speed.

[Deanan]

Unfortunately, this is where the Kona LHe card wants to go, too.

We are having a lot of issues just recently with our Rocket. It's causing the fans to never stop. Not only is this loud, but it doesn't sound good for the computer with them going all the time at a high rev. We also have had some stability issues so we took the Rocket card out and the Mac seems to be happier. Hope these get worked out soon...especially if it could work in another slot without bugs/loss of speed.

When there are numerous cards in the mac, the fans automatically go to high rev on the mac in order to make sure the cards and the system are being kept cool. GPU+Rocket+kona means a fair amount extra cooling is needed.

Speed loss in a 4x slot is going to mainly affect dealing with full 4k frames going back to the computer.

[Kevin Wild]

But, Deanan:

-This just started happening. I don't think the fans were staying on all the time before the past couple weeks. Did the new REDCine-X do something?

-Extra cooling when not being used? I'm talking the fans on when NOTHING is being done...as in all night long. Sleeping the computer doesn't help.

Seems buggy to me...just recently. Hope our card isn't going bad.

[Deanan]

But, Deanan:

-This just started happening. I don't think the fans were staying on all the time before the past couple weeks. Did the new REDCine-X do something?

-Extra cooling when not being used? I'm talking the fans on when NOTHING is being done...as in all night long. Sleeping the computer doesn't help.

Seems buggy to me...just recently. Hope our card isn't going bad.

Rocket only controls it's own fan it's generally not what you're hearing in a mac (the mac fans are what's usually the loudest when the crank up). If you can, try and see how much the system fans are blowing as it's more likely that for some reason those are now blowing much harder.

[Kevin Wild]

Okay, but when we take out the RR card, the fans don't blow. It's definitely related to RR.

I'll do some tests...probably this weekend.

Thx.

[PatrickW]

Okay, but when we take out the RR card, the fans don't blow. It's definitely related to RR.

I'll do some tests...probably this weekend.

Thx.

Introducing another card into a system will do two things which increase the heat within the system and therefore raise the rpms on the fans resulting in more system noise.

Adding an extra card will decrease the airflow withing the system, and as the card itself is a processor creating heat, it is raising the ambient temperature of the system.

Everything is thermally controlled, so its no big deal.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The Mac Pro will ramp up fan activity right from start-up if there are more cards installed. Call it a preemptive measure to control heat. I don't know if it's based on the number of active slots or on the amount of power drawn.

I put my Rocket card in slot-2 and that's where it has stayed for the past few months since getting it. Initially I tried to have it in slot-3, but I had some stability issues with it there, moving to slot-2 fixed that. It may perform better in slot-3 now. Bandwidth didn't seem to be a problem back then with slot-3. For the most part, none of the outboard codecs, like ProRes, scale well across multiple CPUs or make efficient use of system resources to any extent where the Rocket can't feed the uncompressed frames faster than the codec can handle them. The only situation I saw a speed increase by moving the Rocket to a faster slot was for 2K DPX transcodes, which are very fast.

Anyway, leaving the Rocket in slot-2 forced me to pull my Kona LHi from the system since it refuses to run in a 4X slot. I borrowed a Kona3 from someone and have been using it. The system runs really hot with the Kona, Rocket, ATTO R380 and GTX 285 in there!!! But the Kona3 likes slot-3 just fine. I have to give it back. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about the LHi card. I'm thinking I may pick up another Mac Pro and make it my Kona system. Will probably wait for the new models (due real soon) and will look for a deal on an '09 Mac. Unless Apple gives us a better PCI configuration in the updated models (we can dream, right?). Either way, I'm going to wait for NAB to see if any other new products show up. I'm expecting a new card offering from AJA sometime between NAB and Siggraph. It's been a while since they have offered any new cards and I'd love to see an updated Kona LHi or similar that is PCI-E 2.0 compliant and perhaps supports HDMI 1.4.

@ Deanan... I've been curious since its release and have to ask. How come the RED Rocket wasn't designed to be a PCI-E 2.0 capable card? That would've solved much of the bandwidth concerns.

[Deanan]

x8 is really more for when you're transferring full res 4k rgb back to the computer. Transferring 4k scaled to 2k RGB back from the card is well under the bandwidth for x4.

Kevin, adding the rocket triggers the macpro to increase the cooling through the system. More cards, more drives, the faster the fans go.

[Rick Darge]

I was able to resolve my problem by moving the card from Slot 3 to Slot 2.

Thank you

[Johnny Friday]

Deanan,
I came across a statement on another thread that the RR card belongs in a 16x slot....and see from one of your statements within this thread you have confirmed this. NOW, if I am running a Radeon HD4870 card at the bottom---It's a fat card and takes up two slots---my only other option is the next one up a x8 slot.

QUESTION:
Is this then limiting performance of the RR card?? AND should i look for an alternative DISPLAY card OTHER THAN the Radeon 4870 card that is THINNER ?? If so, what are some recommendations?

Thanks for monitoring so close these threads Deanan.

[Dan Blanchett]

Did you solve your problem with the ATI? That's the card I am leaning toward since in every other respect it seems to play well.



Deanan,
I came across a statement on another thread that the RR card belongs in a 16x slot....and see from one of your statements within this thread you have confirmed this. NOW, if I am running a Radeon HD4870 card at the bottom---It's a fat card and takes up two slots---my only other option is the next one up a x8 slot.

QUESTION:
Is this then limiting performance of the RR card?? AND should i look for an alternative DISPLAY card OTHER THAN the Radeon 4870 card that is THINNER ?? If so, what are some recommendations?

Thanks for monitoring so close these threads Deanan.

[Jody Neckles]

Anyway, leaving the Rocket in slot-2 forced me to pull my Kona LHi from the system since it refuses to run in a 4X slot. I borrowed a Kona3 from someone and have been using it. The system runs really hot with the Kona, Rocket, ATTO R380 and GTX 285 in there!!! But the Kona3 likes slot-3 just fine. I have to give it back. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about the LHi card. I'm thinking I may pick up another Mac Pro and make it my Kona system.

I'm running a Kona LHi just fine in my new MacPro in slot 3.

The configuration is as follows (reading from my system profile):
ATI Graphics Slot1 x16
Rocket Slot2 x 8
Kona LHi Slot3 x4
Apple Raid Slot4 x4

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I'm running a Kona LHi just fine in my new MacPro in slot 3.

Which drivers? The 3/22 drivers where not available in mid-february when I pulled the card, nor at the time of my post you quoted. AJA told me at the time that they were working on a fix -- this was a known issue with '08 and '09 Mac Pro systems, the LHi and LHe cards would only work intermittently in slots 3 or 4, it was a driver issue. In some systems it would not run at all in those slots, depending on other cards installed and resources used. At NAB, I was told it was now working with the latest drivers. I didn't know if they meant with the 3/22 release or with something newer that hasn't appeared on the download page yet.

...I'm still running that Kona3 instead as I just have not pulled it, and the guy I borrowed it from says he hasn't needed it.

[Jody Neckles]

Which drivers?

I'm running Driver version 7.5 NDD.