McFiver PCIe Card
Please click the arrow next to the category to expand or collapse:
Driver (3)
Firmware (0)
Manual (1)
FAQ (9)
IDArticle TitlePost Date
814 I'm getting low throughput on macOS. How can I fix this?May-26-22
You may need to set a few parameters to enable higher performance at 10Gb/s.

1) Set the mode to full-duplex, which allows the adapter to send and receive at the same time.

To set full-duplex on macOS, go into the System Preferences->Network and select the Twin10G interfaces. Click the "Advanced..." button in the lower right. In the Advanced window select the "Hardware" tab and set "Configure:" to "Manually". Set duplex to "full-duplex".

2) If your entire network will support it, set packet size to jumbo frames which pack six times as many bytes per packet.

For a large frame to be transmitted intact from end to end, every component on the path must support that frame size. The switches, routers, and NICs from one end to the other must all support the same size of jumbo frame transmission for a successful jumbo frame communication session. Switches that don't support jumbo frames will drop jumbo frames. In the event that both ends agree to jumbo frame transmission, there still needs to be end-to-end support for jumbo frames, meaning all the switches and routers must be jumbo frame enabled. At Layer 2, not all gigabit switches support jumbo frames. Those that do will forward the jumbo frames. Those that don't will drop the frames. For a jumbo packet to pass through a router, both the ingress and egress interfaces must support the larger packet size. Otherwise, the packets will be dropped or fragmented. If the size of the data payload can't be negotiated (this is known as PMTUD, packet MTU discovery) due to firewalls, the data will be dropped with no warning, or "blackholed". And if the MTU isn't supported, the data will have to be fragmented to a supported size and retransmitted, reducing throughput.

To set Jumbo frames on macOS, go into the System Preferences->Network and select the Twin10G interfaces. Click the "Advanced..." button in the lower right. In the Advanced window select the "Hardware" tab and set "Configure:" to "Manually". Set MTU to "Custom" and enter "9000".

3) Not all devices support flow control, or the absence of flow control. If Flow Control is off, turn it on; if it is on, turn it off.

4) Update your macOS to at least 10.13.6. Earlier versions enable SMB signing by default, which can cripple 10Gb networks. Update your macOS, or disable SMB signing. (You can Google how to do this.)

5) If you're in a macOS server environment:
If your Server is running 10.13.6+ enable SMB protocol, and disable AFP protocol.
If your Server is running 10.12.6- enable AFP protocol, and disable SMB protocol.
If your Server is running 10.13.6+, update your clients to 10.13.6+ for a significant performance boost.
 
976 In a Mac Pro, the SSDs are seen as external drives, how do I prevent accidental ejects?Feb-14-23
1069 How do I configure RAID under Windows 10?Feb-14-23
1073 How do I configure RAID under macOS?Feb-14-23
1077 Programming SSDs to 4k Block Size for Compatibility With macOS 10.13.6Feb-08-23
1122 Thunderbolt 3 NVMe volumes may experience a stop error under Windows 10 version 20H2Feb-14-23
This is a Windows 10 known issue. It has been resolved in KB4586853 (OS Builds 19041.662 and 19042.662).

 
1136 How can I use my new SSD volume to hold my user folder on macOS?Feb-14-23
1) Make a backup of the user folder
2) Copy the user folder to the SSD volume.
3) In System Preferences, open Users & Groups.
4) Unlock.
5) Right-Click on the user you moved to the SSD volume and select Advanced Options
6) Point the Home Directory to the user folder on the SSD volume.
 
1183 The Write performance of my SSD is very slow under Windows.Feb-14-23
1189 The x8 PCIe lanes can deliver up to 7.8 GB/s. How do you fit the RAID, the 10gig lan and the 2x USB 3.2 in this bandwidth?Jun-08-22
The most important design feature is that every device is connected at its maximum PCIe 3.0 lanes: each SSD@x4; USB 3.2@x2; and 10GbE@x2, which gives each device its maximum usable bandwidth: SSD@3.5 GB/s x2; USB 3.2@1.0 GB/s x2; and 10GbE@1.0GB/s. Adding up the total bandwidth is indeed greater than 7.8GB/s, but considering that PCIe input and output bandwidth are independent, one can achieve the full 11MB/s bandwidth of simultaneous use of the devices as long as there is a mix of reading and writing. It is extremely unlikely that one would need to use all the ports simultaneously, at full bandwidth, and all writing-or all reading. The alternative of a larger PCIe bridge chip to connect to the computer at x16 would have increased the cost of the McFiver, without any performance gain in virtually any practical use scenario.