M1 MacBook and OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock - More Analysis

This is a followup to my first look at the OWC Thunderbolt Dock (Thunderbolt 4). I was curious about performance with multiple drives connected and operating, so I did a little more testing.

[@Ddraig62SPD]

Thanks for the analysis :) Interesting results when using the Extreme Pro SSD with the dock. FYI - I finally received my 6-port OWC hub today I'm also seeing approx 25-30% reduction on speeds when using this dock with a similarly specified SSD ... Crucial X8 1TB SSD (max 1050 MB/s). Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows 556/579 MB/s R/W speed via the hub (TB4 port) compared to 746/807 MB/s when connected direct to the Mac Mini M1 TB3 port. Real world difference for file transfers were also ~20-25% slower. Pretty disappointing to be honest, given the hype that this hub went some way to 'fixing' the slower M1 TB3 speed issues compared to the Intel Macs. I'll now be forced to plug this SSD directly into the M1 for usable 4K video editing so I'm in 2 minds about whether it's worth the £149 just for the extra 2x TB ports and 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. Even the OWC Dock Ejector fails to work?! Maybe the new Anker TB4 hub performs better?

[@Omnii22]

important info. very thanks

[@hackintoshslovakia368]

very important info, thanks !

[@wikkidselekta]

Another channel tested actual file transferring, and the drive connected thru the OWC dock clocked faster than when the drive was connected directly to the M1.

[@coachsteveTV]

Yes, that was my finding as well. About 10-15% faster but still slower than Intel Macs.

[@christiansteinkogler9696]

for all I heard, you're supposed to use the TB4 cable which is in the scope of delivery to get higher speeds.

[@coachsteveTV]

Well, you just cost me another $30. I ordered CalDigit’s TB 4 cable to see if my speeds increase, especially with the SanDisk Pro. I don’t expect faster speeds over the TB 3 cable I recently tested. There was no speed increase over the supplied cable from SanDisk. But I’ll at least have a nice cable. 😉

[@christiansteinkogler9696]

@@coachsteveTV Sorry Coach! 😅 I hope it will be worth it.

[@coachsteveTV]

Got it today. No difference in performance over the stock cable. Multiple drives slow the Pro version down quite a bit. So, if you are using multiple drives connected to this dock and you will be using both at the same time, the Pro gets you very little speed advantage over the "standard" extreme or T5. I have no idea whether it's hardware or software. A little disappointing but I'm happy to have the additional ports.

[@christiansteinkogler9696]

@@coachsteveTV oh that‘s a pitty. Thanks anyways, it‘s good to know. Hope you‘ll find good use for the TB4 cable.

[@azamat19]

Pretty sure that if you connect the drives to the usb port of the dock, you will get better speeds.

[@coachsteveTV]

I’ll give that a try. Each of these drives are USB-C which is how I connected them. I can try a USB-A to C cable or adapter to try the USB-A port on the dock. One other suggestion was to make sure to have a 10gb-rated usb cable or Thunderbolt cable. I tried both. No change. Thanks for the comment.

[@coachsteveTV]

Tried it. No joy. But worth a shot.

[@matthiaskampf4057]

I highly appreciate your findings and your efforts on this issue! Did you got any comment or feedback from OWC on this ? I do not know whether to go for the new Thunderbolt 4 or the old Thunderbolt 3 dock from OWC for my new Macbook Air M1 knowing the obvious speed problems ? What would be your recommendation ?

[@coachsteveTV]

@Matthias Kampf Thanks for your kind words. I'm a bit of a hack at some of this. My main interest was for the ability to multiply the Thunderbolt ports. It appears there have been technical or IP barriers to this in the past. Perhaps the Thunderbolt 4 standard helped move this forward. So this and its smaller sibling from OWC offered the ability to add ports, it made sense for me. It appears that the Thunderbolt ports on the M1 are slower than Intel ports. I have no idea why. It's encouraging that this dock improves the speed a bit, but not to Intel levels. The slowing of the SanDisk Extreme Pro is a little odd, but I can live with it. I have not tested the Thunderbolt 3 dock's ports, so they may be faster or slower. You'll need to check that out, I guess. If the old dock gives you the ports you need, it might be a better fit. I think it has an HDMI port, for example. For me, the availability of the additional Thunderbolt ports make this my choice. YMMV of course.

[@matthiaskampf4057]

@@coachsteveTV Thank you for your quick response and the detailed explanation. I think my best option would be to order both and check for myself the speed of the thunderbolt ports. I will keep you updated on this if you are interested. Thank you again! 😊

[@coachsteveTV]

@@matthiaskampf4057 Please do. I'd be very interested. I also wonder whether there will be any software improvements on the Mac side of the equation. Hopefully the port speeds are software rather than hardware limited. I look forward to hearing what you find. Cheers!

[@carlo-laitano]

@@matthiaskampf4057 Please hit me up as well if you test them. I just ordered an M1 Mini and am not sure which dock to get. My current dock is only a USB-C dock so I need to upgrade :)

[@matthiaskampf4057]

@@carlo-laitano sure I will, even though it will take some time. ETA Delivery of my MacBook Air M1 is 29th of January. So please be Patient. I will report as soon as possible.

[@joe.castaneda]

Hello Steve!. Can you connect this dock to the Macbook Pro 15? just to see if this works as it should... if you have Big sur, the ports will be thunderbolt if you are in catalina/mojave the ports will be usb-c 10Gbps 3.2 gen 2. Thanks

[@coachsteveTV]

Give me a bit of time and I’ll give it a try.

[@coachsteveTV]

Here you go. I hope it helps answer your question. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWGkhJWAh9draNU

[@coachsteveTV]

@@stevenp3176 Good to know. Tell us more about what is not true and why. Max Tech did a nice job of testing this docks little brother. He noted that cables seem to be a cause of some of the speed effects. I’ve ordered both a Thunderbolt 3 cable and a 10g usb 3.1 gen2 cable to check it out. Hoping for more speed.

[@ryanreyes5440]

it sucks that USB drives run slower on the m1 than intel chips

[@coachsteveTV]

While it's unfortunate, it's still quite usable. I'm interested to see if it is hardware or software limited. If it's hardware, Apple will need to sort it out before their M1X or M2 variants are introduced. Pros won't want slower USB or Thunderbolt in my case.

[@whoami6821]

Can you use it to connect more than 1 monitor for m1 mac?

[@coachsteveTV]

It doesn’t appear so in my limited trials. You may want to explore further.