Performance of SSD disks on Mac Mini M1 per USB 3.2 gen 2

All M1 Macs will not support full USB Gen 2 speeds vs an Intel Mac. This has been documented many times. There is no issue with TB drives supporting TB speeds. I have several different Macs and several different SSD's and all show the same issue. Not sure if it is the issue you state but OWC has tested and provided some theories. I use several NVME drives both in TB enclosures and USB gen 2 enclosures and the Gen 2 drives run about 25-30% slower on M1 vs Intel machines. Also drives my run slower going through a hub vs direct connection to mac. This is what OWC blog has to say:

https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/74780-faster-external-drive-speed-m1-mac/

Forced_to_use_a_username wrote:

Not sure what you are trying to tell me ;-)

This topic is about USB 3.1 or 3.2 not anything called "USB4" whatever that may be.

…

However, the USB-C connectors on any M1 based Mac are USB4, not «USB 3.1 or 3.2».

…

I wrote about existing devices from lots of vendors that perform perfectly well on Windows or non-M1 Macs!

I get 900MB/s from the Samsung T7 Touch on my old Windows PC and it performs the same on non-M1 Macs.

…

Those «Windows or non-M1 Macs» are not using USB4, but earlier USB standards.

…

Your "dual monitor" may exactly be what is missing from Apple to make those devices to perform better (as before).

I don't know the technical details.

…

Such have no bearing upon drives, since the «”dual monitor"» support pertains to protocols that have no bearing upon non-display technologies.

…

My points simple was, that Apple did NOT communicate their change in the supported devices and techniques, as Apple often does.

…

Apple made it quite clear that the USB-C ports are USB4.

It’s up to the consumer to be aware of what that means.

…

But the main point is and was, if this lack of support (be it a bug, an oversight or on purpose) is something that can be fixed in macOS or if this is a hardware problem.

That's all ;-)

The move to USB4 is a hardware move, and is unlikely to be reversible via software.

Any speed issues must be related to the M1 design and not Big Sur as Intel machines with Big Sur run fine. I have a Kensington TB dock that supports both TB connections and USB Gen 2 connections. On Intel Mac all ports run to industry specs but with the M1 Mac the USB Gen 2 speeds are slower. If Apple fixes this in the future its anyone's guess. I have converted most of my external drives to TB so the speed issue is gone for me. I have reported this issue to Apple as others have as well several months ago.

You might find this interesting by someone else:

https://macandegg.com/2021/03/m1-mac-usb-only-5-gbit-s-instead-of-10-gbit-s/

Forced_to_use_a_username wrote:

Apple states that USB 3.x is supporterd "up to 10 Gb/s" which may to true, but it is - as a fact - not true for both of the variants that allow to reach 10 Gb/s ....

Only ONE of them is supported in M1, [while] BOTH of them are supported for older Apple hardware.

Even the «USB 3.x … supporterd "up to 10 Gb/s"», on the USB4 ports, may not be supported via anything direct, but via the “tunneling” I mentioned. (To do otherwise would seem to be an extension of the USB4 specification. Certainly not impossible, however.)

Additionally, while «BOTH» «USB 3.x … supporterd "up to 10 Gb/s"» «are supported for older Apple hardware», that’s only because the USB-C ports on such «older Apple hardware» are using the older USB3 standard. Not the newer USB4 standard.

Given time, more third party products will move to the new USB4 standard.

No this is Apple’s user to user forum and they will not respond here.

You will need to contact Apple Support and work your way up from there.

Try "Product and Service Support" at > https://www.apple.com/contact/

This happens with all drives not just Samsung. I tested Samsung, WD, Crucial and Sandisk and all act the same.

Not Apple’s problem as they’ve already made clear because unsupported 3rd party products are involved. Insisting it is won’t help, even with posts of me-too support/internet-you tube links etc.

Based on your description, a fix for this “problem” is unlikely in the foreseeable future, unfortunately. Contact Samsung or the dock manufacturer, and if they can’t help, return their products. Good luck!

The two are not the same, the M1 is USB4. So unfortunately, your conclusions based on your isolated past experience (that you no longer use) with unique configuration/accessories/cables are not enough to point at an M1-wide design problem. Good luck anyways!