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M4 Mac Mini works with 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

P

PhantomCypher

macrumors member
Original poster
May 21, 2015
63
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I just hooked up my 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display using the Apple thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter to my brand new M4 Mac mini. This is the base model one with 16GB ram and 256GB SSD.

Works flawlessly and even the I/O ports are working through the adapter. Speakers too!

I will update this post when I try my two daisy chained thunderbolt displays currently hooked up to my 2017 MacBook Pro.

UPDATE: 2 thunderbolt displays daisy chained together work! I had to move it to the first port closest to the outside of the Mac mini and it came right up!
 
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Good to know as I am also using a 27" TB display with my M1 Mini, which is soon to be replaced with an M4 Pro Mini. OTOH, I would be very surprised that the 27" TB display wouldn't work with the M4.

I can control brightness with my M1 Mini and would expect the same with the M4.
 
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PhantomCypher said:
I just hooked up my 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display using the Apple thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter to my brand new M4 Mac mini. This is the base model one with 16GB ram and 256GB SSD.

Works flawlessly and even the I/O ports are working through the adapter. Speakers too!

I will update this post when I try my two daisy chained thunderbolt displays currently hooked up to my 2017 MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
Can you control the speakers/display brightness as well?
 
Thanks for the confirmation.

I have 1 x ASD and 2 x TB displays, so i'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of the M4 Mini so i can run all three.
 
Apple is generally good at maintaining support for older peripherals, even going to lengths to keep graphical assets up to date. Below are a few examples from Sequoia on my M1 Macs. The only problem I've encountered was with Ventura where the brightness control on my LED Cinema Display broke with the original release, but in a later update Apple fixed the issue.

Screenshot 2024-11-11 at 8.48.36 AM.png
Screenshot 2024-11-10 at 6.36.54 PM.png
1731311492925.png
 
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Hi , do you have any updates , is it all working ok and looking good to use despite comments about some clarity issues . I just got a cheap tbd not realising connection issues and the apple adapter is expensive compared to the cost of my didplay
 
sproggy4830 said:
Hi , do you have any updates , is it all working ok and looking good to use despite comments about some clarity issues . I just got a cheap tbd not realising connection issues and the apple adapter is expensive compared to the cost of my didplay
Click to expand...
The clarity issues have to do with how macOS displays fonts on non-retina displays. Apple changed how the smoothing of fonts works way back in Mojave, so if you haven’t had any issues in the last five years you’ll be fine now as the M4 doesn’t change anything in that regard. I don’t consider it an issue, but some do, and I’m very happy with my older Apple displays on modern Macs. The Thunderbolt Display is about as good as is gets without going for a 4K or higher resolution.
 
I picked up two Apple Cinema HD 23 inch displays when they started to get cheap on the second hand market. I've kept my eye out for a Thunderbolt Display, but sellers still tend to want north of $200 for them, which is way too much. Enjoy the display!
 
DerKommissar said:
I picked up two Apple Cinema HD 23 inch displays when they started to get cheap on the second hand market. I've kept my eye out for a Thunderbolt Display, but sellers still tend to want north of $200 for them, which is way too much. Enjoy the display!
Click to expand...
This is why I keep my 14 yr old Thunderbolt Display. No way will I be giving up this fantastic display for $100 or whatever it is you all want to pay for them. Much more valuable to me being used. It's now serving as an extended display in a new base M4 mini set up. A display and a good place to park any USB-A peripherals.:)
 
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pig pile said:
This is why I keep my 14 yr old Thunderbolt Display. No way will I be giving up this fantastic display for $100 or whatever it is you all want to pay for them. Much more valuable to me being used. It's now serving as an extended display in a new base M4 mini set up. A display and a good place to park any USB-A peripherals.:)
Click to expand...
Good, but you have to realize those of us used to the 5K displays find them to be very outdated / pixelated, and worth about $100-150 sounds right :)
 
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The Apple one works. Other versions are data oriented and don’t necessarily do the video, so the simple fact is that the Apple one is the ‘it just works’ one.
 
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MacPoulet said:
Any confirmation that the Thunderbolt Display works with the Mac Mini Pro or any Thunderbolt 5 equipped Mac? I read over on PC World that Thunderbolt 5 has some backward compatibility issues when they were testing it out on the PC side.

EDIT: Here's the link https://www.pcworld.com/article/2494902/thunderbolt-5-storage-first-look-what-to-expect.html
Click to expand...
I am running the Mac mini Pro with a Studio display primary and thunderbolt display secondary and no issues whatsoever.
 
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amd is the best said:
I am running the Mac mini Pro with a Studio display primary and thunderbolt display secondary and no issues whatsoever.
Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks! I've got two Thunderbolt displays that I picked up for a song and I want to hook at least one of them up to a future M4 Studio.
 
MacPoulet said:
Awesome, thanks! I've got two Thunderbolt displays that I picked up for a song and I want to hook at least one of them up to a future M4 Studio.
Click to expand...
I'm also running a Thunderbolt display with an M4 Pro mini using the Apple Thunderbolt adapter that worked with my M1 Mini. The only odd ting so far is that the display may take a few seconds to turn on after a keypress.
 
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MacPoulet said:
Any confirmation that the Thunderbolt Display works with the Mac Mini Pro or any Thunderbolt 5 equipped Mac? I read over on PC World that Thunderbolt 5 has some backward compatibility issues when they were testing it out on the PC side.

EDIT: Here's the link https://www.pcworld.com/article/2494902/thunderbolt-5-storage-first-look-what-to-expect.html
Click to expand...
😂 backwards compatibility issues. 😂

I tested an M4 Pro with FireWire camcorders older than Thunderbolt… older than the first Mac mini… they worked fine.
 
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What 27" Apple Thunderbolt display are you using? And also what cable are you running from the TB3->2 adapter, data or a video cable?

I hold out vague hopes I can get my late 2015 iMac 5k display to work directly with my Mac Mini M4 - I am aware it does not support Target Display Mode.

I currently have a Luna Display set up over Ethernet and it generally performs well with maybe 0.5ms latency. I have an adapter and a couple of different cables arriving today to see whether it improves using Thunderbolt should it not connect directly.
 
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PhantomCypher said:
I just hooked up my 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display using the Apple thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter to my brand new M4 Mac mini. This is the base model one with 16GB ram and 256GB SSD.

Works flawlessly and even the I/O ports are working through the adapter. Speakers too!

I will update this post when I try my two daisy chained thunderbolt displays currently hooked up to my 2017 MacBook Pro.

UPDATE: 2 thunderbolt displays daisy chained together work! I had to move it to the first port closest to the outside of the Mac mini and it came right up!
Click to expand...
What cables do I need to make this happen, I suspect there should be a thunderbolt cable coming from the display, then you need the converter you speak of which takes it to the Mac Mini M4 ( I Have this model too ).?
 
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