Booting from NVMe on Mac Pro 5,1 (macOS Sierra)
Using an NVMe SSD via a PCIe adapter is one of the best upgrades for the classic Mac Pro 5,1. However, native NVMe boot support was not introduced until macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) along with a specific Boot ROM update (140.0.0.0.0 or 144.0.0.0.0). If you strictly need to boot macOS Sierra (10.12.6) from an NVMe drive, you will face limitations.
Native Support Limitations
macOS Sierra does not include the native NVMe drivers required to boot directly from these drives. Even if you update your Mac Pro's Boot ROM using a High Sierra or Mojave installer, Sierra itself lacks the OS-level drivers to initialize the drive at boot time without third-party patches.
How to Make It Work
- Upgrade to High Sierra or Mojave: This is the highly recommended path. Upgrading to 10.13.6 or 10.14.6 will flash your Mac Pro's firmware to natively support NVMe booting.
- Use OpenCore: If you must use Sierra, you can install OpenCore on a standard SATA SSD or USB drive. OpenCore can inject the necessary NVMe drivers (NvmExpressDxe.efi) into the pre-boot environment, allowing the Mac Pro to see the PCIe NVMe drive and boot Sierra from it.
- Use a SATA/AHCI PCIe Blade: If you don't want to use OpenCore, your only alternative on 10.12.6 is to buy an AHCI-based PCIe SSD (like the Samsung SM951 AHCI version or older Kingston HyperX Predator). These are natively bootable on older OS versions, but they are expensive and outdated.
Step-by-Step with OpenCore
- Format a standard SATA SSD or USB drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
- Install OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) or configure a vanilla OpenCore EFI specifically for the MacPro5,1.
- Ensure
NvmExpressDxe.efiis present in yourEFI/OC/Driversfolder and enabled in yourconfig.plist. - Boot from the OpenCore drive, which will then load the NVMe drivers and allow you to select your macOS Sierra NVMe partition.
Conclusion: For the best stability and native support without relying on bootloaders, upgrading to High Sierra or Mojave is the way to go.
Original Question: "MP5,1 -> PCIe-NVME bootable to OS 10.12.6?"
So everything I do revolves around Adobe CS6. That's hands-down, *THE* most important part of this.
It's currently on an old maxed out MP3,1 , but I've been toying with the idea of migrating it to an MP5,1 to squeeze more performance out of it. The headaches begin.
CS6 seems stable on Sierra - but people report issues on High Sierra. High Sierra has native nvme support if you have the 144 boot, but Sierra doesn't.
So if I upgrade the firmware to 144, can I install OS X Sierra - 10.12.6 - on to a bootable PCIe -> NVME drive? Will it boot?
Would this process require OCLP of some kind?
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⚠️ WARNING:
Installing macOS Tahoe on unsupported hardware is NOT supported by the OpenCore Legacy Patcher developers. Please be aware that numerous users have attempted installation, often resulting in serious issues including hardware malfunctions and complete data loss.
Also understand that OCLP supports over 83 Mac models! Just because it "worked" on one, does not mean it will not cause major issues on your device.
NOTE: You might have seen a new piece of software called OCLP-Mod. The OCLP developers do NOT recommend using any modification of the genuine OCLP software. Keep in mind, anyone is able to make a fork of OCLP (a fork is a modification of the original project). No other software is checked and verified safe or actually working on all 83 Mac models.
In closing, please only use the genuine version of OCLP. Do not install Tahoe until a fully compatible public version of OCLP is released. Thanks!
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