Mac Mini M1 to 2018 Mac Mini File Transfer Speeds

[smithdr]

Hi All:

I have the following configuration: Mac Mini M1 (MacOS 11.6) connected to a CalDigit TS3+ via Thunderbolt 3. The CalDigit TS3+ is connected to a router and the 2018 MacMini (MacOS 11.6) is connected to the router via the 10 GBe port on the 2018 Mini. The 2018 Mini is connected to RAID 5 drive set.

In the past, when I was using the 2016 MBP 15 connected to the TS3+ I got very high file transfer speeds. However, with the M1 Mini the file transfer speeds are incredibly slow by a factor of 10.

Does anyone have suggestions for me.

Don

 

[joevt]

Can you include some numbers?

 

[smithdr]

Hi Joevt:

Not quite a factor of 10 that I quoted. Mac Mini M1 (RAM= 8 GB) transfers at 9 GB/sec. The 2016 MBP15 (RAM = 16 GB) transfers at 15 Gb/sec. All using the same pathway described in the original post.

Don

 

[joevt]

Your tests:
test 1: 15 Gb/s on 2016 MBP.
test 2: 9 Gb/s on M1 Mac mini
Both tests are using the CalDigit TS3+ for the Ethernet connection. Both connected to the same router. Both communicating with a 2018 Mac mini connected to that router.

Factor of 10 if you're speaking binary and rounding to the nearest integer
You're getting 60% of the expected bandwidth. That's not good but not horrible. I guess there's some inefficiency in the M1 architecture when it comes to I/O. I know about USB issues but haven't heard much about Ethernet.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ally-10gb-s-also-definitely-not-usb4.2269777/

But wait. The M1 Mac mini has its own Ethernet port. What transfer rate do you get with that?

 

[smithdr]

Hi joevt:

I try an experiment and see what I get.

Don

 

[smithdr]

Hi joey:

I tried the following test. I connected the Mac Mini M1 to the router with a Cat 6 cable and eliminated the Thunderbolt 3/TS3+ connection. The Mac Mini M1 is configured with a gigabit ethernet port. Connection speeds improved to 10.5 MB/sec. Still no where near 15 MB/sec I obtained with 2016 MBP15.

Don

 

[joevt]

I am confused about the numbers.

b = bits;
B = bytes; 1B = 8b
Kb = kilobits; 1Kb = 1000b
KB = kilobytes; 1 KB = 1000B = 8000b
Mb = megabits; 1Mb = 1000Kb = 1000000b
MB = megabytes; 1 MB = 1000KB = 8000Kb = 8000000b
Gb = gigabits; 1 Gb = 1000 Mb = 1000000 Kb = 1000000000b
GB = gigabytes; 1 GB = 1000 MB = 1000000 KB = 1000000000B = 8000000000b

so you can't get 10.5 GB/s (which is actually 84 Gb/s).

Using AmorphousDiskMark.app, my Mac mini 2018 (with GbE) can communicate with my Mac Pro 2008 at 117/69.54 MB/s (read/write). Thats 936 Mb/s which is very close to the 1 Gb/s max.

For RAM, there are binary units:
KiB = 1024 bytes
MiB = 1024 KiB
GiB = 1024 MiB
but we're discussing storage bandwidth so we use the base 10 units.

 

[smithdr]

Hi joevt:

I mistyped all of these. All transfer rates should be MB/sec. I have gone back and corrected my posts. Please excuse my error.

Don

 

[joevt]

15 MB/s seems slow. That's only 120 Mb/s.
What are you using for benchmarking? Finder? Try AmorphousDiskMark.app.

My Mac mini/Mac Pro are connected to an Ethernet switch. The router is further up the Ethernet tree. But I don't think the Ethernet layout should cause much of a performance change.

 

[smithdr]

Hi joey:

I was doing average calculations based on file size and time. Thank you for the suggestion of using AmorphousDiskMark.app. I will give that a try to see what it shows. May take me a couple of days to get back with you. Again, thanks for the suggestion.

Don