Thunderbolt Mac Pro Early 2009 (5,1)

This is my story to add Thunderbolt support to my Mac Pro Early 2009 (5,1). Before we begin a quick disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: Try this at your own risk. I do not guaranty that this will work for you but I hope it does. This is purely for educational purposes and I am not responsible for any void in warranty.

About my Mac Pro 5,1

My mac pro has the following configurations:

• Processor: 2 x 3.33 Ghz 6-Core Intel Xeon (X5680)
• Memory: 96 GB 1066 Mhz DDR3 ECC
• Graphics Radeon RX 580 8 GB

My Thunderbolting Story

I was in the market looking around for a PCIE based solution for running my Apple Thunderbolt Displays off of. I found the following options which look compelling looking at the reviews:

• ASUS Expansion Card for Z170 & X99 Motherboards ThunderboltEX 3 Amazon ~$60.
• Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge (Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Card Component) Amazon ~$100.

Tried both these cards on my system and this are my thoughts:

• ASUS ThunderboltEX 3: Click here [Work In Progress] for my findings.
• Gigabyte GC-Titan Ridge: Click here for my findings.