MBP 16" Compatible Docks with 96W/100W Power

[hipnetic]

Possibly a bit off-topic, but I remember trying to find an affordable dock with lots of ports, the ability to drive two monitors (in my case, 2160p), and power my company-supplied MBP 15 (2017, I think). In addition to the headaches of trying to find one that supplied enough power, I also discovered that not all of them would drive 4k displays.

I was also in the process of redoing my home office and wanted a super-clean desktop without a lot of clutter and wires, and I quickly discovered that most of these docks had super-short hard-wired cables, so you were pretty much forced to have the dock (and all of the crap plugged into that dock) be completely visible and cluttering up the desktop, unless you were also willing to forego using your laptop's built-in display, keyboard, and trackpad. There are limitations to how long of a TB3 cable you can use if you want to driver higher-res displays, and there also did not seem to exist such a thing as a TB3/USB-C extension cable.

I ended up throwing in the towel and just buying two dedicated TB3-to-mini-displayport cables, plugging in my Apple-supplied power adapter, and also plugging in a small USB-C dongle/dock that gives me a few USB 3.0 ports and an ethernet port. It all looks awful, of course.

I see now that there *are* TB3/USB-C extension cables available, so I'm tempted to give this all one more shot.

 

[Chronos___]

I was also in the process of redoing my home office and wanted a super-clean desktop without a lot of clutter and wires, and I quickly discovered that most of these docks had super-short hard-wired cables, so you were pretty much forced to have the dock (and all of the crap plugged into that dock) be completely visible and cluttering up the desktop, unless you were also willing to forego using your laptop's built-in display, keyboard, and trackpad.

I use something like this laptop cooling to place my macbook on. You don't need the fans (I even honestly don't feel like they would do much) and can place the dock directly below the Macbook - so it looks much cleaner. Also I feel like the macbook is much cooler, compared to placing it directly on my desk.

 

[zhenya]

They told me that when idle, the MBP 16" takes the same amount of time to charge using the TS3+ vs. the original AC adapter and when doing office productivity, the charging is almost the same. Is this true?

yes.

Possibly a bit off-topic, but I remember trying to find an affordable dock with lots of ports, the ability to drive two monitors (in my case, 2160p), and power my company-supplied MBP 15 (2017, I think). In addition to the headaches of trying to find one that supplied enough power, I also discovered that not all of them would drive 4k displays.

I was also in the process of redoing my home office and wanted a super-clean desktop without a lot of clutter and wires, and I quickly discovered that most of these docks had super-short hard-wired cables, so you were pretty much forced to have the dock (and all of the crap plugged into that dock) be completely visible and cluttering up the desktop, unless you were also willing to forego using your laptop's built-in display, keyboard, and trackpad. There are limitations to how long of a TB3 cable you can use if you want to driver higher-res displays, and there also did not seem to exist such a thing as a TB3/USB-C extension cable.

I ended up throwing in the towel and just buying two dedicated TB3-to-mini-displayport cables, plugging in my Apple-supplied power adapter, and also plugging in a small USB-C dongle/dock that gives me a few USB 3.0 ports and an ethernet port. It all looks awful, of course.

I see now that there *are* TB3/USB-C extension cables available, so I'm tempted to give this all one more shot.

Most decent docks these days use detachable cables including the CalDigit. Usually the included cable is short because longer cables must be active to be fully TB3 compliant, and they are expensive. However I’ve been docked through a long cable for a couple of years now with the CalDigit dock.

 

[hajime]

CalDigit mentioned that for non-Mac machines, longer 2.0m cable causes some issues.

 

[Basic75]

I also discovered that not all of them would drive 4k displays.

And then you have to check whether they support 4K only at 30Hz or at full 60Hz.

 

[zhenya]

CalDigit mentioned that for non-Mac machines, longer 2.0m cable causes some issues.

I am using a Thinkpad connected to a 4K display fwiw.

 

[Lacos]

One question for the lower spec i7 with 16GB Ram:

Do this Macbook really need full 96W Power under heavy load? Or is this a theoretical value maybe for the higher spec versions?

What I do not want is that the battery suffers in any way.

 

[matram]

I honestly think this power debate is way overblown.

The SUSTAINED power that you MBP can draw is determined by the thermal limit of the chassis. I believe that to be about 60W. That is basically independent of CPU and RAM.

The PEAK power is higher, unclear how much, but I have heard that it could go above 100W for the i9. But this will last only some tens of second before the CPU starts to throttle when the temperature reaches 100 C.

Of course under light load the power draw is more like 10W and you can run your MBP of a 28W charger in a pinch. I and others have done it!

Beware that externally connected equipment that draws power from your MBP will also need to be supplied by the charger.

 

[bsbeamer]

Do this Macbook really need full 96W Power under heavy load? Or is this a theoretical value maybe for the higher spec versions?

There was a report that the 85W/87W charger basically was allowing/forcing the battery to draining at 4-10% under full/heavy load. After several hours, this would result in either not enough combined battery and power to continue operations, or I assume massive throttling to let the battery catch up.

The lower than 96W chargers will CHARGE the MBP 16, but at a slower rate.

 

[K3it4r0]

How can I check how much power is passing throughout the adapter and is delivering to the computer? I have a chance to check the AUKEY CB-C71

 

[joelhinch]

How can I check how much power is passing throughout the adapter and is delivering to the computer? I have a chance to check the AUKEY CB-C71

This is what I use, sure there are also others.

iStat menus will show you what power supply it detects (ie. 60w, 86w , 96w)

Battery Health 3 will show draw.
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Well that's because they are not actual Thunderbolt 3 docks, only USB, so can't natively support two monitors. Thanks, but no thanks.
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How do you know that?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1201552875022766080

 

[bsbeamer]

That flat out sucks. Purchased the TS3 Plus directly from Apple on discount last week explicitly for using it after the previously discussed/promised firmware update. Will have to look at other options.

Considering an eGPU setup with Sonnet 650 eGFX, which says it’s providing 100W PD. Might be best option short term.

 

[danwells]

Where will iStat show you detected charger type? I can't find it anywhere. Machine charges really fast on my 100W Zendure adapter, almost not at all on my 60W OWC dock (it probably does while sleeping - I tried it while doing large file transfers, but not otherwise using a lot of power). That OWC charged the 15" a lot better than it does the 16".

 

[bsbeamer]

CalDigit on Twitter:

“As for the wattage level: our docks will not provide 96W but will do 87W instead, as mentioned in our other tweets and social media posts. Our sincere apologies if we haven't been clear enough on this part.”

Basically exact opposite of CalDigit support messages. Would not recommend for MBP 16” unless you already own it.

Now need to decide if it’s worth keeping TS3 Plus for an under $225 purchase price or not. Hasn’t even been turned on yet since I’m still waiting for 16” to arrive.

 

[Basic75]

How can I check how much power is passing throughout the adapter and is delivering to the computer? I have a chance to check the AUKEY CB-C71

Open the "System Information" app, one way is from Apple menu select "About This Mac", then "System Report...". Then, in "System Information", select "Power" on the left and it should tell you everything.

 

[Quu]

CalDigit on Twitter:

“As for the wattage level: our docks will not provide 96W but will do 87W instead, as mentioned in our other tweets and social media posts. Our sincere apologies if we haven't been clear enough on this part.”

Basically exact opposite of CalDigit support messages. Would not recommend for MBP 16” unless you already own it.

Now need to decide if it’s worth keeping TS3 Plus for an under $225 purchase price or not. Hasn’t even been turned on yet since I’m still waiting for 16” to arrive.

You know, when the laptop is fully charged it draws only 35 to 55 watts from my charger when idle. At a high CPU load it consumes 65 watt, at a high CPU and GPU load it consumes 80 watt from the charger. I've yet to be able to max it out to a degree that the battery starts to drain while it's in use with my CalDigit dock being its source of power.

I did some tests where I used the included charger for a while and saw the same power draw numbers under the same conditions. Now obviously it can go to 97 Watts if you are truly maxing the system but load scenarios that push everything it has to 100% are I think kinda rare. I mean if you're video editing it uses CPU and GPU somewhat, exporting it uses the CPU a lot. Gaming it uses the GPU at 100% but not all of the CPU cores. Even virtual machines are unlikely to max out everything etc

I think you'll find once you get the laptop, hook it up and such that you won't notice the slightly lower power delivery.

Also I noticed when charging the laptop (I had it at 10% and plugged it into the official Apple charger that it came with) it doesn't draw 97 watts when charging, it draws at most 75-80 Watts from what I saw in iStat Menus.

This is the same amount of power it's drawing from the dock when it charges from that too. I am going to assume it won't draw the full 97 Watts unless it's both charging and you're doing something very demanding at the same time cause it doesn't seem like the battery likes to receive that amount of incoming power just for itself.

 

[K3it4r0]

I confirm that the AUKEY CB-C71 it only deliver 60W (version from amazon.de)

 

[Arise2B]

I confirm that the AUKEY CB-C71 it only deliver 60W (version from amazon.de)

That's bad.. I have been planning to get this one.. :-(

 

[bsbeamer]

General question - has iStat menus been OFFICIALLY updated for MBP 16" yet? Many people are citing the stats in several different threads and things seem like they are slightly off with some of the reports. Some aren't even in line with Apple's own system report info.
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I am going to assume it won't draw the full 97 Watts unless it's both charging and you're doing something very demanding at the same time

If that is the case, how/why did several of the reports state a 4%-10% battery drain under full load with a less than 96W/100W charger? Not questioning your personal experiences with the machine. Engaging the battery at ANY time under load should not be necessary when plugged into a power source, especially in a desktop-like scenario.

 

[matram]

They state so on their twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1196927153566150656

I have also been in contact with their support around an issue with configuration of iStat menus for the 16" and there was no mention of any lack of support for the 16".

Some things to be aware of, Bjango do not show the build number of the App. There are v6.40 that work and that do not work on the 16". You have too check the dates of on the App as the version numbers are identical for different Apps. Bad form in my book! "Do not work", here means you only get SSD sensor info, nothing more. That is obviously not the problem for the people here.

Also note that iStat menus power draw is the instantaneous draw. While remaining time from Apple is a kind of sliding average. The two can give quite different indications without there being an error.

 

[Quu]

General question - has iStat menus been OFFICIALLY updated for MBP 16" yet? Many people are citing the stats in several different threads and things seem like they are slightly off with some of the reports. Some aren't even in line with Apple's own system report info.

It is indeed updated fully for the 16" MacBook Pro. It was actually already updated before I received my machine according to their software release notes. I think it's pretty accurate, it's just reading data that Apple's own monitoring hardware is reporting.

If that is the case, how/why did several of the reports state a 4%-10% battery drain under full load with a less than 96W/100W charger? Not questioning your personal experiences with the machine. Engaging the battery at ANY time under load should not be necessary when plugged into a power source, especially in a desktop-like scenario.

Well I've not been pushing the system to its maximum TDP. I don't run the GPU + CPU at 100% load which would be required for it to need 97 Watts as that's the maximum load Apple would have determined that wattage is needed for.

For a lesser load for example only stressing the CPU or only stressing the GPU or a bit of both but not completely loading them both to 100%, 97 Watts shouldn't be needed.

I've yet to have the battery drain while connected to my dock while watching 4K Content, browsing with lots of tabs open on intensive websites full of Javascript, compiling code, video editing, transcoding video, transcoding audio etc - That's a mix of light, medium and heavy loads but nothing that really pegs both CPU and GPU to 100% utilisation at the same time.

 

[nethead]

I benchmarked a couple of my software development tasks that really tax the CPU.

According to iStat Menus, the MBP can definitely sustain close around 100W of power usage under full load and I saw peaks up to 130W. Note that this is only with the CPU - the GPU is idling most of the time, pulling only a constant ~5W, as I used an eGPU.

The "DC In" sensor is the one that's important to judge how much power it can pull from the power supply - and I saw a lot of surprising things there:

- Apple 96W charger with supplied USB-C charging cable: DC In = 93W under full load, no visible battery drain.
- LG UltraFine 5K monitor (the new model, 27MD5KL, marketed as "up to 94W"): 84W, battery drains under full load. Even Apple says now on their store website for this monitor: "This display provides host charging power to your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. For optimal performance on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, connect to power using the MacBook Pro’s 96W adapter.")
- Razer Core X Chroma eGPU (marketed as "100W power"): 80W, battery drains. This was really disappointing, as it means I need to connect the 96W charger in addition to the eGPU.

I would recommend to not rely on whatever is reported in "System Information" in the "Power" area, but to measure how much power the MBP can actually pull from the charger under full load. So far, I haven't found a single charger that matches the Apple 96W.

Also, this means that "Don't worry, 87W is definitely enough" is just not true if you really run a lot of computations on your MBP.

 

[Quu]

I benchmarked a couple of my software development tasks that really tax the CPU.

According to iStat Menus, the MBP can definitely sustain close around 100W of power usage under full load and I saw peaks up to 130W. Note that this is only with the CPU - the GPU is idling most of the time, pulling only a constant ~5W, as I used an eGPU.

The "DC In" sensor is the one that's important to judge how much power it can pull from the power supply - and I saw a lot of surprising things there:

- Apple 96W charger with supplied USB-C charging cable: DC In = 93W under full load, no visible battery drain.
- LG UltraFine 5K monitor (the new model, 27MD5KL, marketed as "up to 94W"): 84W, battery drains under full load. Even Apple says now on their store website for this monitor: "This display provides host charging power to your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. For optimal performance on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, connect to power using the MacBook Pro’s 96W adapter.")
- Razer Core X Chroma eGPU (marketed as "100W power"): 80W, battery drains. This was really disappointing, as it means I need to connect the 96W charger in addition to the eGPU.

I would recommend to not rely on whatever is reported in "System Information" in the "Power" area, but to measure how much power the MBP can actually pull from the charger under full load. So far, I haven't found a single charger that matches the Apple 96W.

Also, this means that "Don't worry, 87W is definitely enough" is just not true if you really run a lot of computations on your MBP.

That's interesting and surprising. So only taxing the CPU you're able to get the total system power draw to 130 watts? I'm definitely not able to do the same with anything I'm doing. Not yet seen the battery drain while doing any of my heavy tasks I would do on my old 15" (2015) Model.

 

[matram]

Very interesting. If correct this is well beyond the level of SUSTAINED power discussed before. Can you comment on how long the build times where? Or in other words had you reached a steady state with core temperature at 100C?

According to iStat Menus, the MBP can definitely sustain close around 100W of power usage under full load and I saw peaks up to 130W.

 

[bsbeamer]

Razer Core X Chroma eGPU (marketed as "100W power"): 80W, battery drains. This was really disappointing, as it means I need to connect the 96W charger in addition to the eGPU

What GPU are you using in the Razer Core X Chroma? Has a 700W PSU and if GPU in eGPU is pulling 500W+ that MIGHT explain a little bit, but still surprising.

Were you able to get the USB & Ethernet to properly work with MBP 16"?

FWIW, these are the GPUs Sonnet recommends as fully compatible with their models. Wish Razer would publish a similar list.
https://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/manuals/Compatibility_Graphics_Cards.pdf

The latest Sonnet GPU-650WOC-TB3 supports 100W laptop charging. Will put that to the test in a few weeks.