Thunderbolt 5 For Mac Explained: Don't Waste Your Money!

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 14 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 96

  • @KyleErickson
    @KyleErickson  Місяць тому +2

    Click this link sponsr.is/bootdev_KyleErickson and use my code KYLEERICKSON to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev.

  • @petesmith6434
    @petesmith6434 Місяць тому +21

    Thunderbolt 5 coupled with an OWC Envoy Ultra SSD External Drive is the fasted external storage available for the M4 Pro Mac Mini. I am seeing sustained Write speeds of 5,500 MB/s and Read speeds of 5,000 MB/s, which is is the same ballpark as the internal SSD drive.

    • @Kayserjp
      @Kayserjp 27 днів тому

      IOPS is the only number which matters

    • @petesmith6434
      @petesmith6434 27 днів тому +3

      @Kayserjp Actually, IOPS values published by drive manufacturers are not reliably accurate. What really matters is what sustained real-world performance a user actually observes when using a drive. I am seeing sustained data transfers, both to my internal SSD and from the OWC drive and in the reverse direction, of over 5 GB/s both read and write. That is the fastest external drive performance I have ever seen.

  • @rorywalters1614
    @rorywalters1614 Місяць тому +40

    Alway plug your main monitor directly to your Mac. Sometimes docks’ display connection couldn’t be recognised right away upon start up, or right after you wake up your Mac.

    • @cmscss
      @cmscss Місяць тому +3

      Agreed - wake from sleep is a constant frustration when using a dock.

    • @gringochueco3886
      @gringochueco3886 Місяць тому +7

      I use a M4 MacBook Pro and a CalDigit TS3 Plus and route the video through the dock. Haven’t seen any problem with display being recognized. Not that much of a power user.

    • @jacquesgilbert2774
      @jacquesgilbert2774 Місяць тому +3

      I have 2 Studios displays attached to a CalDigit 4 - never had the slightest problem. I think the author meant you should not plug your monitor through a slow dock.

    • @cmscss
      @cmscss 29 днів тому +1

      We’ve had endless issues with wake from sleep using Dell and Samsung (5k) monitors connected to various CalDigit, OWC and Belkin docks to Intel and Apple Silicon MacBook Airs / MacBook Pros going back many years. Where as connecting directly always wakes. YMMV.

    • @gringochueco3886
      @gringochueco3886 29 днів тому

      @@cmscssmy specific setup that hasn’t given me a problem is: MacBook Pro M4, CalDigit TS3 Plus and Apple Studio Display.

  • @nf6sv
    @nf6sv Місяць тому +1

    I got a Kensington SD2600T Thunderbolt 4 Hub for $58 on Amazon this November.
    I use now just a cable to connect at my MacBook Pro M4Pro that goes to 2 - 4K LG Ultrafine monitors and one 4TB SSD.
    Everything goes smoothly.
    The best value that I found for my needs.
    I'm set for the next 2-3 years until Thunderbolt 5 hubs and accessories will go down in prices.

  • @KatysCampKitchen
    @KatysCampKitchen Місяць тому

    Congratulations on 100K!!!! I really appreciate all the effort and great information you guys provide!

  • @mookiiieeee
    @mookiiieeee Місяць тому +9

    It’s about headroom for chaining multiple (thunderbolt 3 or 4 or usb c ss20) devices

  • @PLANETWATERMELON
    @PLANETWATERMELON Місяць тому +3

    Two things that this new thunderbolt 5 brings is 1 us music production can actual work off the external ssd and 2 this hopefully lowers the prices on thunderbolt 4 devices.

  • @shreddykrueger9171
    @shreddykrueger9171 Місяць тому +3

    Dude please do more FCP editing/color grading tutorials. Your stuff is so clean

  • @DANNYDIVINESHOW
    @DANNYDIVINESHOW Місяць тому +1

    Your transition is crazy. Wow 👌

  • @kjltube
    @kjltube Місяць тому +6

    Two main takeaways. There’s lots of Thunderbolt 5 devices coming which is great, but don’t jump too early.
    A caldigit ts4 is still a great expansion option that may be found cheaper now.
    I’m a little surprised at the lack of speed in that Acasis doc. I guess some of the bandwidth has been set aside for the other ports?

    • @KyleErickson
      @KyleErickson  Місяць тому +2

      The speed on the enclosure is fine, but the ports on both no matter which drive I try are so much slower than any of my thunderbolt 4 docks. I'm kind of wondering if that's why we've seen so many delays with some of these other TB5 hubs/docks that were announced at CES 2024 that haven't materialized yet - wondering if this is something they're trying to find a solution for, because as it stands right now, it really doesn't provide any benefit just strictly looking at port speed.

    • @ruek66
      @ruek66 Місяць тому +1

      @@KyleEricksonwhat file system have you formatted the NVME’s to?

    • @PaulGreeve
      @PaulGreeve Місяць тому

      Acasis are also currently selling a TB5 enclosure without a doc.

    • @alexiskobalt7450
      @alexiskobalt7450 Місяць тому +1

      @@KyleErickson #1, are you plugging in quality TB3 enclosures like the ones from Sonnettech? #2, did you try the speed test WITHOUT a display plugged into the hub? In my experience, it's always the display that hogs bandwidth and slows down the SSDs to 1/3 speed.

    • @piotrd.4850
      @piotrd.4850 29 днів тому

      Except TB enclosures are more expensive than drives they hold.....

  • @1clap
    @1clap 18 днів тому

    Same, I have cabletime dock that outputs on a 49'' Led Display + 32'' 4K + 2 external HD + 1 external SSD (Thunderbolt) from 16'' MBP M1 , and the dock gets hot if I put NVMe inside it, so I took it out, but the interesting figure you didn't go through is that All of these docks only give 2.5 Gb/s ethernet output while the thunderbolt goes 10Gb/s output network. That means that on my 10Gb/s network, I still need a to find docking station that handles a 10Gb/s Ethernet port , and not 2.5 Gb/s

  • @bryans8656
    @bryans8656 Місяць тому

    Thanks for another honest and informative review, they help me make better decisions about my tech purchases.

  • @garrykanter5773
    @garrykanter5773 Місяць тому

    Nice job!
    Buy (or not) the one that brings you joy. I like having some nice things.
    Happy Holidays!

  • @JohnnoWaldmann
    @JohnnoWaldmann 29 днів тому +2

    Regarding speed. I suspect your issue with random slow speeds is a behaviour like Thunderbolt four behaves.
    Because Thunderbolt four is designed at best to fully support usb4, as well as Thunderbolt4 protocols. Sometimes on connection the connected thunderbolt4 device defaults to behaving like a usb4 device. But then you can encounter the Mac issue of usb randomly defaulting to lower bandwidth versions of usb. Thus Thunderbolt 5 devices during the initial handshake phase may be defaulting to USB3.x, or even usb1.2 rather than Thunderbolt.
    So when I connect my Hyperdrive nvme thunderbolt4/usb4 caddy I always either check in About this System in the Apple menu, or run blackmagic’s disk speed test. Then eject/ reconnect the drive until it behaves correctly as a Thunderbolt4 device. After all it is extremely frustrating editing 6k BRaw video off of a media device that randomly behaves like a USBx device. 867MB/s video does not play well with usb2.0 or even usb3.1. Worse yet it seems to work on solid 10GB usb connections for general editing, but will randomly fail when you begin to grade.

    • @KyleErickson
      @KyleErickson  29 днів тому

      I'm not sure if that's the case here, but that's incredibly valuable info!

  • @david1610
    @david1610 29 днів тому +1

    With respect, you could have added "in 2024" to a lot of this content. I have just bought a maxed out (apart from storage) Mac Pro Mini... and I am hoping to get many, many years of use out of it. During that envisaged lifetime, I suspect TB5 will be useful. I certainly feel that TB5 makes the case for not having to spend a lot of money on storage for M4 machines but using external storage. As you know, sometimes we buy models and configurations with "future proofing" in mind! ;)

  • @FollowTheJohn
    @FollowTheJohn Місяць тому +3

    I’ve always followed your recommendations and I have never gone wrong.

  • @AlexanderGrahamBell2
    @AlexanderGrahamBell2 Місяць тому +6

    People usually use MacBooks for more than 5 years
    Go back 5 years ago and compare USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt 4 nowadays!
    And in 5 years from now you will come back to this video and laugh at this conclusion!
    Thunderbolt 5 is necessary for next years

    • @DB90440
      @DB90440 28 днів тому +1

      This. Not much supporting T5 so overstated spec? Except in the not so distant future this will be the standard. Don’t really get it.
      *also fyi Apple actually first introduced thunderbolt in 2013 with T2.

  • @j340_official
    @j340_official Місяць тому +1

    The m4 max 16" uses 120+W in gaming loads... so a 140W USB-c USB-PD power is definitely necessary if you plan on pushing the M4 Max!

  • @vagrantpistol
    @vagrantpistol Місяць тому +5

    It’s because you have the monitors connected and are sharing the bandwidth. Which means, those docks are not good. I had the same issue with an older dock. But, When I connected my external drive directly to the Mac mini I got great speeds (The ssd I just bought is the Samsung 990 EVO Plus).

    • @KyleErickson
      @KyleErickson  Місяць тому +1

      that's without any monitors connected

  • @UrbanBDKNY
    @UrbanBDKNY Місяць тому

    The remake of the very popular video you made before. 🙌🏽
    I ll be back to watch this later

  • @daraghmacgabhann1005
    @daraghmacgabhann1005 20 днів тому

    Currently it makes a reasonable difference with a Thunderbolt 5 drive in the medium to longer term it make a massive difference, your review is a look back rather than a look forward!

  • @MrMitchfromtoronto
    @MrMitchfromtoronto Місяць тому +14

    Quite ironic that you have "Don't waste your money in the title yet your sponsor is charging $62Cdn A MONTH ?!?!?! That is just INSANE !!! There are about a million BETTER sites for less than one tenth of this !! Utterly ridiculous pricing structure honestly

    • @KyleErickson
      @KyleErickson  29 днів тому +4

      I honestly found their platform quite fun. You're free to not buy it if you feel that way, it's not that serious - there are bigger problems in the world my man

    • @joaquimley
      @joaquimley 16 днів тому +2

      @@KyleEricksonnice, not only you are not addressing the very valid comment from a member of YOUR audience, you are condescending. Big L.

    • @ThanksForTheLaugh
      @ThanksForTheLaugh 8 днів тому

      @@joaquimley Pretty common on YT

  • @JAFOpty
    @JAFOpty Місяць тому +1

    I wonder if a DIY NAS with a thunderbolt Network Bridge could be a good solution. I could combine nvnes with mechanical inside the NAS

  • @Unbathed
    @Unbathed Місяць тому +2

    I am interested in comparisons of Thunderbolt 4 vs 5 performance of a Parallels virtual Windows 11 machine running from an external drive.

    • @tellus.aflame
      @tellus.aflame Місяць тому

      There is no difference :/ You barely would tell the difference between SATA and NVMe drive just using it causally. The difference is in marketing materials.

  • @hunterjuarez883
    @hunterjuarez883 Місяць тому +5

    What is the main reason for thunderbolt? I’ve been using an usb c cord to connect my studio to a display. Would getting a thunderbolt change things drastically?

    • @ray89520
      @ray89520 Місяць тому +4

      USB is a standard with many could be supported, Thunderbolt requires that all capabilities are supported. You just know, a Thunderbolt cable supports high speed transfer, charging and DP-Alt mode for display connection. A random USB 4 cable could support that as well, but you have no easy way to see what is supported until you try it out.

    • @ZeerakImran
      @ZeerakImran Місяць тому

      what's the spec of your display? The thunderbolt cable also looks the same as a usbc cable. It just has a lightening (storm, lightening strike) symbol on it. The thunderbolt cable has a much greater bandwidth but it will only make a difference if the hardware you're using requires that bandwidth.

    • @hunterjuarez883
      @hunterjuarez883 Місяць тому +1

      @ I’m using the LG 4k Ultra Fine 27 inch model number is 27UN850-W

  • @jimcabezola3051
    @jimcabezola3051 Місяць тому +2

    An excellent video! I truly appreciate this report! The FOMO was strong when the M4 came out, but my M1 and Thunderbolt 3 setup is STILL more than fast enough for everything I can throw at it.
    Wanting...but not NEEDING...to upgrade one of my M1 Mac Minis to that delicious M4 Mac Mini (or M4 Pro Mini), I needed to know what you think of that Thunderbolt 5 port.
    Having moved my home folder, apps, and data to an external NVME drive in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure on one of my M1 Macs...and not really perceiving much of a speed reduction...I'd say I don't even need a Thunderbolt 4, much less a Thunderbolt 5 device.
    Thank you for keeping me from buying unnecessary gear!

  • @jessefallas7094
    @jessefallas7094 28 днів тому +1

    What's that ram/cpu/ssd app in the menu bar? Any good?

  • @Gearsandco
    @Gearsandco Місяць тому

    I'm happy with my thunderbolt 4 on my m3 MacBook Air. I think no drive can reach that speed anyway it will probably take for ever to reach even 40gb per section transfer speed.

  • @jester11235
    @jester11235 Місяць тому +2

    Has someone already tested if MBP would support 3 external monitors like Mac Mini when lid closed?

    • @josephfarrugia2350
      @josephfarrugia2350 Місяць тому

      Good question

    • @jacquesgilbert2774
      @jacquesgilbert2774 Місяць тому

      Not sure which MBP you are asking about, but I have two Studios displays attached to my MBP M2Pro through a CalDigit TS4, and it works fine open or closed.

  • @MR-DURO
    @MR-DURO 23 дні тому

    How did you get Acasis TBU501 model? This is what I'm looking for, enclosure + extra USB-C only in front.

  • @FoxxFire
    @FoxxFire Місяць тому +1

    Kyle, I have an M4 Pro MBP hooked up to a 5k studio display. I am about to decide on a TB4 dock, and Hyper has a great sale right now, and so I am about to get that one. My only concern is, after researching, the TB speed is shared throughout all devices hooked up to the dock. As an example, the HyperDrive dock has one upstream TB port (for the connection to the display) and two downstream TB ports. Does my upstream port affect the bandwidth of the downstream ports? Also, if not, I plan to hook up a SSD via TB4 and then two older SSDs via two 10gb/s ports. Will my speed be limited due to connecting all these devices? (Edit: BTW, I have the same Hyper TB4 enclosure in my cart; it is also on a great sale! That is what I'm going to use for my work projects since I bought the base model MacBook w/512gb of storage.)

    • @ruek66
      @ruek66 Місяць тому +1

      Sorry for jumping in, but TB4 has an overall bandwidth of 40Gb/s meaning 20 per channel. The dock should be designed in a way that the TB’s work on their own and the other ports 10Gb/s are split over several segments, 2 or 3 depending on how many ports you have on the hub. You will never max out a properly designed hub. Look at CalDigit TS4, wonderful interior design. Connected SSD’s is not the same as how much data is being read/written at the same time.

  • @nickpmusic
    @nickpmusic Місяць тому +5

    Really! I thought this was the future......

    • @xray2785
      @xray2785 Місяць тому +5

      It is

    • @hasansahin7965
      @hasansahin7965 Місяць тому

      @@xray2785 So I'll continue to use my TB4 enclosures and included SSDs until the end of their life. After that I'll look for TB5 peripherals.

  • @mrdscott4545
    @mrdscott4545 20 днів тому

    what is the name/make of the grey/yellow t-shirt you got on ?

  • @juap
    @juap 13 днів тому

    Hi! I’m looking for recommendations on a Thunderbolt or USB hub. I need one that supports 4K at 120Hz, is bus-powered (not reliant on a charger), supports 140W pass-through, and has an enclosure option for an SSD to use directly with an iPhone for live ProRes video editing (high-speed SSD required). It should also have SD card slots. Portability is key. What are the best options currently available in the market? Thanks!

  • @badblistersandsores
    @badblistersandsores 14 днів тому

    Its like having a speed limit of 400 mph on a freeway. (there are no cars able to go that fast)

  • @Tigerex966
    @Tigerex966 28 днів тому

    A couple pcs and tb5 pcie cards have been around to.
    I hope they work in mac pros

  • @TheManXL
    @TheManXL Місяць тому +4

    well, unless someone release a 5k120hz display, no need for thunderbolt 5 imo

    • @dmitrygavrikov7178
      @dmitrygavrikov7178 Місяць тому +5

      I guess that’s what Apple is going to release soon. New Studio Display with 5k120hz is what I’d like to buy

    • @TheManXL
      @TheManXL Місяць тому +1

      @@dmitrygavrikov7178 yes, and I expect a Thunderbolt 5 port on the next base Mac mini, for now it's exclusive to the pro chip.

    • @1bhitte
      @1bhitte Місяць тому +2

      T5 is great if you want to shift things like applications and run them from there instead of on-board hell you can even run your mac directly off of it with little to no penalty as long as you always have your Mac connect to it.

    • @Tigerex966
      @Tigerex966 28 днів тому +2

      No 6k and 8k first

    • @AtlasRandGaming
      @AtlasRandGaming 19 днів тому

      @@dmitrygavrikov7178ah that’s not much. I run 4k display at 144 for the last 2 years. Maybe 8k at 144 would need TB5

  • @hackexpert0003
    @hackexpert0003 27 днів тому +1

    Any technology that can't be utilized consider useless or overkill

  • @rjtumble
    @rjtumble 20 днів тому

    What's a good device for Time Machine on my mac mini pro?

  • @BoomerCosmo
    @BoomerCosmo Місяць тому +1

    HDMI 2.2 is on its way too

  • @ps3301
    @ps3301 15 днів тому

    Pci 5 is already out. That means it has 160gb per second

  • @RolexChan
    @RolexChan Місяць тому +1

    I like your accent. 😊

  • @Kushari
    @Kushari 19 днів тому

    Did you try a pci 5 nvme deive? You tried a pci 4 drive. Of course it’s not going to get much faster.

  • @tek_soup
    @tek_soup Місяць тому +1

    the concern is over what? you have to buy the bigger better cpu/gpu combo, to get Thunderbolt 5, well it will be more useful, in the long run. i rather be future proof, and have a more powerful M4 wich does show night and day, improvement. Normies don't need thunderbolt at all, usb c drives gear, are just fine for them.

  • @WooDeWow
    @WooDeWow 23 дні тому

    from what I can tell only the higher end MacBook Pros have Thunderbolt 5 ports, so to even get those transfer speeds you would need one. But usking a Mac Studio or Mac Mini its only capible of thunderbolt 4 speeds as thats what the port is designed to do. Unless you have a macbook pro 2024 that says thunderbolt 5 then its not worth it fr, I understand the cable is backwards compatible but if your gonna get the thunderbolt 5 cable just to do thunderbolt 4 speeds then stick with thunderbolt 4.... Or am I wrong??? Also can someone explain to me why the Apple Thunderbolt 5 cable is like $80 for 1meter (3 feet or so) while from OWC or CalDigit its like $20-$30? This does not make sense, why $80 for 1 cable.....

  • @chase7972
    @chase7972 26 днів тому +1

    Thunderbolt 5 means 120hz 5k+ displays are now possible and probably right around the corner.

    • @BigSharkFreak
      @BigSharkFreak 18 днів тому +1

      THIS. Apple isn’t doing this for external SSDs - this is all about 5K 120 Hz (ProMotion) for the new Studio and Pro displays.

  • @digitaldevigner4080
    @digitaldevigner4080 16 днів тому

    On paper it’s neat to see such high storage speeds. In real world usage it’s questionable if the speed advantage is really worth it.
    I feel like the industry has this obsession with faster drive speeds but realistically after a certain point that extra speed isn’t likely going to make a huge difference in our lives. It really comes down to time and most of us are not that crunched for time to really make a difference. If a file transfers in 30 seconds vs 60 seconds likely isn’t going to make or break or ability to get work done. Very few of us are on that level of a time crunch for any of this to really matter.
    At a certain point higher speed is really more about bragging rights than nothing else.
    As a video editor I will say there are use cases to have higher speed. My point is that it impacts n exceptionally tiny sliver of the population. Normal 4K and even compressed 8k video does not need speed past a certain point. Raw uncompressed speed and trying to work with four layers of those hefty formats will need more speed. The amount of people needing that is exceptionally small.
    What is really nice about TB5 is connecting multiple devices. TB4 only has so much bandwidth to use and hooking up two or more TB4 drives means each will share that bandwidth if used at the same time. In those situations we had to make sure we used each fast TB4 drive on its own TB4 bus. Now with TB5 there might be enough bandwidth there to use two or three TB4 drives and not lose any speed on each. As long as the hub they are connected to is using TB5.
    That’s a lot of expense but essentially it’s a massive pipe for future proofing. We are very unlikely to hook up a device that saturates the entire bandwidth of the port. With a hub you really can extend a single TB5 port/bus into the same bandwidth of three TB4 ports. So it’s kind of like having 9 TB4 ports with just 3 TB5 ports and a TB5 hub on each port. We are no longer limited by bandwidth constraints of TB4 getting saturated easily.
    For example I use a video I/O device hooked up to TB4. That’s is a full TB4 bandwidth device that saturates that entire TB4 bus. On TB5 it will now only potentially eat up 1/3 of the bandwidth. That means that single bus still has bandwidth left for other devices and I don’t reserve a single bus/port for just that one device. I can cram a lot more hubs and devices on a single bus than I could before which helps free up more physical ports for other devices.

  • @Hospes08
    @Hospes08 27 днів тому

    This is what confuses me, thunderbolt is Intel proprietary tech, so why is apple announcing it? So lost. Lol!

  • @geostel
    @geostel Місяць тому +1

    Thunderbolt 4 cannot be fast the same as internal storage.Do a basic math. 40gbps of a spec speed is 5GB/s, but actually for data transfers (like an external NVME)would be available 32.5,so it is 4 GB/s of a bandwidth. Real-world performance of TB4 enclosures would be at 3.5GB/s top, that is twice lower than internal MacBook Pro drive

  • @sidon1979
    @sidon1979 Місяць тому +1

    no-one researching and buying TB5 storage will NOT notice the difference in speed

    • @MikesTech-y5w
      @MikesTech-y5w Місяць тому +4

      No one who hasn’t seen this comment will not understand what u aren’t trying to not say…

  • @stuarthutchinson2477
    @stuarthutchinson2477 7 днів тому +1

    You've got your bits and bytes mixed up....

  • @darylcheshire1618
    @darylcheshire1618 Місяць тому +4

    Thunderbolt 4 is the submarine and Thunderbolt 5 is the space station.

  • @eiddi
    @eiddi 20 днів тому

    mac is always in the future. often to far ahead.

  • @dura2k
    @dura2k 28 днів тому

    Please disable the shitty auto translation. The title and description are bs and the voice is terrible.
    Yeah, I know I can change it, but if I let autoplay run, it's really annoying to change it on the TV.