m1 max compatible Thunderbolt Docks

[rbmanian75]

I tried three thunderbolt docks with m1 max and they all have these problem

Problem 1:
When dock connected and restarting the mac causes the magsafe to stay amber.

Docks having this problem : Amazon Thunderbolt Dock, Caldigit TS3 Plus Dock
Docks without this problem: Anker 13 in 1 Dock

Problem2:
Ethernet chipset is realtek and the speed is capped at 700 Mbps

Docks having this problem: Amazon Thunderbolt Dock, Anker 13 in 1 Thunderbolt Dock
Docks without this problem: Caldigit ts3 plus

Can anyone please suggest a dock that dos not have above mentioned problem. I am expecting 1 display port or hdml, 1 tb3 port, 1 usb c port, ethernet port and usb a ports.

Thanks

 

[Donsell]

Are you using Magsafe and the doc at the same time? I'm not sure how the Mac handles two power sources at the same time.

 

[rbmanian75]

Are you using Magsafe and the doc at the same time? I'm not sure how the Mac handles two power sources at the same time.

yes i am using both at the same time. The mac gets the power from magsafe only and it is not using the docks pd. I can confirm this in the system report. i am using mag safe because it is 140W and the docks PD is limited to 100 W max.

 

[satcomer]

You want a Thunderbolt 4 powered Dock! Everyone seems to love the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub!

Here is video on it:

 

[jdb8167]

You want a Thunderbolt 4 powered Dock! Everyone seems to love the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub!

Here is video on it:

No Ethernet on that one.

 

[beach bum]

I have the Caldigit TS3 Plus dock and only have the one cable running from the dock to the MBP to charge at 87W. There really is no reason to use the MagSafe charger at the same time unless you are running really intensive tasks or charging additional externals at the same time.

 

[rbmanian75]

You want a Thunderbolt 4 powered Dock! Everyone seems to love the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub!

Here is video on it:

It does not have ethernet port. I doubt if i connect usb ethernet dongle to this dock will it give full 1gbps speed? I dount this because when i connected the usb ethernet dongle to ts3 plus usb port the speed was capped at 700 mbps. I am not sure how this one behaves

 

[rbmanian75]

I have the Caldigit TS3 Plus dock and only have the one cable running from the dock to the MBP to charge at 87W. There really is no reason to use the MagSafe charger at the same time unless you are running really intensive tasks or charging additional externals at the same time.

battery charges fast with magsafe 140 W. with 87w it charges slow. that is the reason i would like to hook up magsafe always.

 

[beach bum]

battery charges fast with magsafe 140 W. with 87w it charges slow. that is the reason i would like to hook up magsafe always.

Are you using your MBP docked or are you portable? Did you turn off Optimized Battery Charging?

If docked, fast charging vs slow really shouldn’t be an issue. If you are fast charing and portable, then that is another story.

 

[satcomer]

It does not have ethernet port. I doubt if i connect usb ethernet dongle to this dock will it give full 1gbps speed? I dount this because when i connected the usb ethernet dongle to ts3 plus usb port the speed was capped at 700 mbps. I am not sure how this one behaves

Then you the OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock that has Gigabit port on it too!

Here is video on it:

 

[rbmanian75]

Are you using your MBP docked or are you portable? Did you turn off Optimized Battery Charging?

If docked, fast charging vs slow really shouldn’t be an issue. If you are fast charing and portable, then that is another story.

yes i tried turning off optimized batttery charging and it does not help. i do want fast charging and portable. in either case the magsafe should not turn amber when it restarts. may be a problem with mac or dock i dont know. because this problem does not happen in anker 13 in 1 dock.

 

[rbmanian75]

Then you the OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock that has Gigabit port on it too!

Here is video on it:

thanks. seems to be a good choice. but i would like to know whether the ethernet chipset in this is usb realtek or pcie intel? any idea? Difficult to locate stock of this item in europe.

 

[satcomer]

thanks. seems to be a good choice. but i would like to know whether the ethernet chipset in this is usb realtek or pcie intel? any idea? Difficult to locate stock of this item in europe.

The MacSales does ship to UK and you read about here!

 

[rbmanian75]

The MacSales does ship to UK and you read about here!

Thank you. i will try to find out whether the ethernet chipset is realtek or intel and if it is not realtek i will try it out.

 

[Gnattu]

The restart means "wake up from sleep" or "reboot the system"?

 

[rbmanian75]

The restart means "wake up from sleep" or "reboot the system"?

reboot the system

 

[Buckehteadron]

I tried three thunderbolt docks with m1 max and they all have these problem

Problem 1:
When dock connected and restarting the mac causes the magsafe to stay amber.

Docks having this problem : Amazon Thunderbolt Dock, Caldigit TS3 Plus Dock
Docks without this problem: Anker 13 in 1 Dock

Problem2:
Ethernet chipset is realtek and the speed is capped at 700 Mbps

Docks having this problem: Amazon Thunderbolt Dock, Anker 13 in 1 Thunderbolt Dock
Docks without this problem: Caldigit ts3 plus

Can anyone please suggest a dock that dos not have above mentioned problem. I am expecting 1 display port or hdml, 1 tb3 port, 1 usb c port, ethernet port and usb a ports.

Thanks

Hmmm.

Problem 1 may not really be a problem.

I noticed this on my 16" M1 Max Macbook Pro and simply pulling the magsafe off and then immediately reattaching it makes the light go to green if you're at 100% charge. Even after a restart, the color goes to amber even if you are at 100% charge. Apple will have to fix that if they care to, but its not a big deal. I'm using two docs actually, one connected to the other. I'm using the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub (https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/) which adds 3 additional TB4 ports and 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-A ports. I then connect that to a Wavlink Universal 5K USB-C/A Laptop Docking Station (https://www.newegg.com/black-wavlink-69dk1/p/1DN-0023-00014?Item=9SIA6PF5SY3895) which adds another 6 USB-A ports as well as 2 DisplayPort ports and 2 HDMI ports as well as audio and Gigabit Ethernet.

Problem 2. This brings me to problem 2. Ethernet on this secondary dock works pretty well. I've enclosed a speed test to show what I routinely get. I bought this on sale during Black Friday for $99. It's still on sale at Newegg for about $112 which is still about $40 less than Amazon. I am on Verizon FIOS Gigabit internet service which supports 960 Mbps downloads by 840 Mbps uploads.

 

[rbmanian75]

Hmmm.

Problem 1 may not really be a problem.

I noticed this on my 16" M1 Max Macbook Pro and simply pulling the magsafe off and then immediately reattaching it makes the light go to green if you're at 100% charge. Even after a restart, the color goes to amber even if you are at 100% charge. Apple will have to fix that if they care to, but its not a big deal. I'm using two docs actually, one connected to the other. I'm using the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub (https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/) which adds 3 additional TB4 ports and 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-A ports. I then connect that to a Wavlink Universal 5K USB-C/A Laptop Docking Station (https://www.newegg.com/black-wavlink-69dk1/p/1DN-0023-00014?Item=9SIA6PF5SY3895) which adds another 6 USB-A ports as well as 2 DisplayPort ports and 2 HDMI ports as well as audio and Gigabit Ethernet.

Problem 2. This brings me to problem 2. Ethernet on this secondary dock works pretty well. I've enclosed a speed test to show what I routinely get. I bought this on sale during Black Friday for $99. It's still on sale at Newegg for about $112 which is still about $40 less than Amazon. I am on Verizon FIOS Gigabit internet service which supports 960 Mbps downloads by 840 Mbps uploads.

We are paying premium for this computer as a consumer and i expect to be without annoying issues like magsafe staying amber

for me the max ethernet speed i get is capped at 700mbps with the docks i mentioned above. may be you dont have the issue because you are using a thunderbolt 4 dock. where as with the same dock in windows/linux i get 950 mbps. seems to be problem with apple hardware/software. i am trying to find a dock that goes well m1 max.

 

[ekwipt]

You want two docks a thunderbolt 4 and a thunderbolt 3 dock.

I'm using a OWC Thunderbolt 4 and a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD

the Belkin dock has a Intel Ethernet

PCIe Ethernet in Thunderbolt docks

Hello! Currently I'm in the market for Thunderbolt docks to pair with my 14" MacBook Pro. I've been looking on the market for docks with better reli...

egpu.io

The good thing about this combo is it's all daisy chained through one another to one thunderbolt port that also charges

 

[Buckehteadron]

We are paying premium for this computer as a consumer and i expect to be without annoying issues like magsafe staying amber

for me the max ethernet speed i get is capped at 700mbps with the docks i mentioned above. may be you dont have the issue because you are using a thunderbolt 4 dock. where as with the same dock in windows/linux i get 950 mbps. seems to be problem with apple hardware/software. i am trying to find a dock that goes well m1 max.

The Wavlink I have is not a Thunderbolt 4 dock, it's just a USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-C dock with ethernet. Docks differ in the way they behave, unfortunately. I'll have to run a test with another dock I have access to that you have, the Caldigit T3 to see if it works for me as yours did. I generally only use it with an M1 Mac Mini and I don't use the ethernet port on it at all.

 

[rbmanian75]

The Wavlink I have is not a Thunderbolt 4 dock, it's just a USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-C dock with ethernet. Docks differ in the way they behave, unfortunately. I'll have to run a test with another dock I have access to that you have, the Caldigit T3 to see if it works for me as yours did. I generally only use it with an M1 Mac Mini and I don't use the ethernet port on it at all.

i have speed problems with docks having realtek chipset ethernet port. intel chipset ethernet docks like ts3 plus are maxing out the speeds.

 

[ekwipt]

Apple doesn’t use Realtek in any of their products, They don't have any drivers in MacOS and the Realtek driver isn't supported by Monterey.

M1 USB Ethernet issues

My mini has more stuff running than the MacBook so that shouldn’t be the problem. I also made sure that there was nothing running in the background

forums.macrumors.com

PCIe Driver Support​

Currently in macOS Big Sur/Monterey, there are 3 PCIe Ethernet Vendors natively supported. Besides the Intel8254X driver, all other drivers in macOS natively support both Intel and Apple Silicon machines:

• Drivers can be found under /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/

Vendor	Driver	Supported Architectures	Hardware
Intel	AppleIntel8254XEthernet.kext	x86_64	80003ES2LAN, 82545EM, 82571EB/82571GB
Intel	AppleIntelI210Ethernet.kext	x86_64, arm64e	i210, i225
Intel	Intel82574L.kext	x86_64, arm64e	82574L, 82566DC
Broadcom	AppleBCM5701Ethernet.kext	x86_64, arm64e	5764M, 57761, 57762, 57765, 57766
Aquantia	AppleEthernetAquantiaAqtion.kext	x86_64, arm64e	AQC107, AQC113

 

[rbmanian75]

Apple doesn’t use Realtek in any of their products, They don't have any drivers in MacOS and the Realtek driver isn't supported by Monterey.

M1 USB Ethernet issues

My mini has more stuff running than the MacBook so that shouldn’t be the problem. I also made sure that there was nothing running in the background

forums.macrumors.com

PCIe Driver Support​

Currently in macOS Big Sur/Monterey, there are 3 PCIe Ethernet Vendors natively supported. Besides the Intel8254X driver, all other drivers in macOS natively support both Intel and Apple Silicon machines:

• Drivers can be found under /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/

Vendor	Driver	Supported Architectures	Hardware
Intel	AppleIntel8254XEthernet.kext	x86_64	80003ES2LAN, 82545EM, 82571EB/82571GB
Intel	AppleIntelI210Ethernet.kext	x86_64, arm64e	i210, i225
Intel	Intel82574L.kext	x86_64, arm64e	82574L, 82566DC
Broadcom	AppleBCM5701Ethernet.kext	x86_64, arm64e	5764M, 57761, 57762, 57765, 57766
Aquantia	AppleEthernetAquantiaAqtion.kext	x86_64, arm64e	AQC107, AQC113

The realtek ethernet usb dongles when directly connected to mac they give max speed and does not have any problem in monterey 12.1. I am using this way now.

The speed capping only happens in realtek ethernet ports present in thunderbolt docks.

the driver is
Driver: com.apple.DriverKit.AppleUserECM

 

[ekwipt]

The realtek ethernet usb dongles when directly connected to mac they give max speed and does not have any problem in monterey 12.1. I am using this way now.

The speed capping only happens in realtek ethernet ports present in thunderbolt docks.

the driver is
Driver: com.apple.DriverKit.AppleUserECM

so it might be how this driver handles the offloading, it goes through the USB chipset rather than directly through pcie and doesn't have enough bandwidth when other devices are plugged into it (via thunderbolt) and that’s why plugging it directly in aleviates the problem

Why PCIe over USB​

With macOS, Apple generally prioritizes PCIe devices over USB for better driver support as drivers are written explicitly for them (see next section). Whereas with USB, Apple writes semi-generic drivers based off USB CDC (Controller Device Class). As of Monterey, the following are supported:

• ACM: Abstract Control Model
• DMM: Device Management Model
• ECM: RNDIS, Ethernet Control Model
• EEM: Ethernet Emulation Model
• NCM: Network Control Model
• WCM: (WebCaM) Device Management Model

Additionally PCIe NICs generally offload much of the compute task from the CPU onto the on-board controller, giving your system some headroom during bandwidth intensive tasks. Compare this to USB, much of the compute task is still on the CPU side.

• Note 1: Not all USB Ethernet devices are supported in macOS (namely AX88179) however the vast majority are thanks to this generic driver struture.
• Note 2: Apple may sometimes have additional support for certain USB Ethernet controllers via add-on drivers such as AppleUSBRealtek8153Patcher.kext

Finally the most noticable issue with USB NICs is that they share bandwidth with the rest of your USB devices on the same controller. USB 3.0 for example has a shared bandwidth of 5Gbps, and when you have a dock with multiple devices plugged in, that takes up precious resources:

Device	Bandwidth	Notes
USB to SATA HDD	3Gbps	Lower end HDD (SATA 2 speeds)
USB to SATA SSD	5Gbps	SATA 3 SSD (capped at USB 3.0)
USB Ethernet NIC	1Gbps	Standard 1Gbe
USB Capture Card	5Gbps
TOTAL	14Gbps

As you can see, devices will be strained for bandwidth as we’re exceeding the 5Gbps bandwidth allowed under USB 3.0. Removing devices from this chain can greatly alliviate contrains, allowing your NIC to run without comprimise as well as allowing other USB devices to run faster.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thank you. i will try to find out whether the ethernet chipset is realtek or intel and if it is not realtek i will try it out.

The ethernet speed on that dock is not capped at 700. I have the dock and can consistently get 900+.