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I have a 2008 Mac Pro that I used to have a USB 3.0 card installed on that has stopped working with each OS release and is dependent on the use of a Kext Wizard which can create compatibility and sometimes other issues that make it more difficult to troubleshoot and lag a couple months behind a release of the OS update as well as getting rid of the kexts can be a pain if they are creating conflicts. It also is an issue when doing clean installs.

The card I have does not have an FCC ID or brand label on it and is simply labeled as "USB 3.0" with 2 USB 3.0 ports. The single chip on it says:

D720200AF1 112EV073G CHINA

Those that I have looked at already:

  1. The LaCie USB 3.0 LaCie ExpressCard for Mac has not had a driver update in 2+ years.
  2. The Sonnet Allegro USB 3.0 on Amazon card looks physically the same as the unmarked board I have but with additional printing.
  3. There are some cards on eBay that claim to use the NEC/RENESAS chip or same specifications but it looks the same as the card I have and as the Sonnet card and sound like they require a Kext. Note I got my card from eBay years ago as well

I am looking for a specific card by an established vendor for the 2008 Mac Pro to get USB 3.0 speeds (not just a 2.0 with some boost, but true USB 3.0) that doesn't require the use of Kext Wizards and as much chasing of emulation drivers used in Hackintoshes and has been confirmed to work with Yosemite.

Has anyone found that that exists?

Note: It is my assumption/opinion 10.10 Yosemite will likely (based on its age and is already oldest version supported and the hardware unique to the 2008 and not as upgradable as the 2009+ doesn't support many of features of Yosemite {airdrop, handoff, support for current version of Bluetooth, USB, CUDA, etc...) be the last to support the 2008 Mac Pro but the system still is going strong and close comparable benchmarks to my 2012 & 2013 ones so I would like to continue to use it as long as possible. I am only noting this to try to mitigate some of the editorial comments and keep the discussion 'on topic'.

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  • Based on what information do you suspect that 10.10 will be the last to support the 2008 Mac Pro?
    – bjb
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 17:53
  • @bjb Comment off question topic, see updated posted.
    – CRSouser
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 18:08

2 Answers 2

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(Just wanting to close the loop on this topic since it's an old question without a definitive answer)

The chip for the device referenced by the OP - D720200AF1 - has long since been EOL'd by the manufacturer. There have been some references to "hacks" to get this to work, but ultimately, they are unreliable because a device driver is more than just support for a particular chipset. Ultimately, no native driver exists for card in question.

That said, to get USB 3.0 on a Mac Pro (2008 through 2012 models), Inatek makes a very good 4 port USB 3.0 PCIe adapter card. Their specifications state that it works with Yosemite and above and I can confirm that it works with El Capitan (it also works with Windows XP through 10).

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My understanding is that recent OS X versions have a built-in driver for the "Fresco Logic" FL1100 USB 3 chipset, which is used in the new Mac Pros. So a card with that chipset should "just work", and not require any extra driver.

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