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- #BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC THUNDERBOLT PRO#
- #BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC THUNDERBOLT SERIES#
- #BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC THUNDERBOLT FREE#
#BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC THUNDERBOLT SERIES#
If it’s a fault in M1 series chips, then Apple should have informed users and qualified its claim for the compatibility of these ports. If it’s a bug in the firmware of the Fabric core(s) responsible, it should have been fixed over a year ago. This shortcoming appears to have been present in all M1 Macs for nearly 18 months.Users with USB 3.1 Gen 2 devices should connect them to a Thunderbolt 3 Dock, or the USB ports on a Studio Display, where they should perform better.In those, expected transfer rates of 900 MB/s are likely to be reduced to less that 500 MB/s, doubling the time required to read or write files. Greatest impact is likely with external storage capable of transfer speeds approaching 10 Gb/s, such as RAID arrays and NVMe SSDs with USB 3.1 Gen 2 rather than Thunderbolt 3.For external storage used to store Time Machine backups, this isn’t likely to have any significant effect, as backup I/O is throttled anyway. For SATA/USB-C storage, the impact on performance is limited, reducing transfer speeds from an expected 500 MB/s to 400 MB/s.
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10 Gb/s SuperSpeed+ in USB 3.2 devices does appear to be supported by the Thunderbolt ports of M1 Macs.The only ports in M1 Macs that currently appear to support USB 3.1 Gen 2 fully are those on the front of the Mac Studio Max.Currently, and as far as I’m aware since their release in November 2020, no Thunderbolt port in any M1 model appears to fully support 10 Gb/s SuperSpeed+ in USB 3.1 Gen 2, at least for SSDs.Key among them is that the fastest storage devices perform at about half their expected speeds the limitation appears to be present in all M1 Macs using a Thunderbolt 4 cable to connect a USB-C device to the front USB-C ports on a Mac Studio Max results in speeds below 10% of that expected even the latest Mac Studio models don’t support USB 3.1 Gen 2. The piece details the actual speeds achieved, suggesting the following conclusions. Oakley again compared Intel and M1 Macs, finding that real-life speeds were lower with the newer machines. The procedure detailed as the ‘Gold Standard’ test was followed.
#BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR MAC THUNDERBOLT FREE#
Transfer rates were measured using my free app Stibium, version 1.0 (55), which wrote a total of 160 files of sizes from 2 MB to 2 GB in size to a folder on the SSD being tested, and read those same files back (Series Write and Series Read Tests as detailed in Stibium’s Help reference). Again, each was verified by establishing SuperSpeed+ 10 Gb/s connections to an Intel Mac.Ĭonnection speeds were read from the SSD’s entry in the USB data given in System Information. Oakley first tested this with Intel Macs, to verify that his test SSDs and cables were definitely compatible.Įach was connected to an Intel Mac (including an iMac Pro) and it was verified that they established connection at SuperSpeed+ 10 Gb/s with those Macs.Ĭables used included a certified Thunderbolt 4 model, and the USB-C (data) cables provided with the cases. The first is to see what theoretical speeds are reported by the machine. There are two ways of establishing the speed capabilities of a data connection.