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Speed Of Thunderbolt 5 On Mac Mini Pro

Hello and HNY to all.

I've recently added an OWC thunderbolt 5 dock, however it looks like I might have to purchase another one to accommodate my setup.

I have a MM M4 Pro with 3 thunderbolt 5 ports on the back, if I connect another T5 dock or 2 , will I still get the same full T5 performance out of each port/dock?

Thank you.

Posted on Jan 2, 2025 2:03 PM

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Jan 2, 2025 9:56 PM in response to den.thed

No, Thunderbolt specs are for shared buses, not ports. Additionally, Thunderbolt 5 products are new and untested in the real world and contain several gotchas which discovered only post purchase. Keep expectations down and wait it out for a year or more if possible - better to learn free from others (so called “early adopters”) than pay for it with one’s own avoidable misadventures. Good luck!

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Jan 3, 2025 5:50 AM in response to Emotionmusic

All drives will be slower going through a dock vs connected directly to your Mac. I use a Trebleet TB5 enclosure with a Samsung 990 Pro drive. This drive is faster than the OWC and costs less. That being said I have not tested that drive through a TB5 dock but I would expect very fast speeds although somewhat less then the direct connection I have noted. I have had issues with docks and Mac computers as they at times disconnect drives or are slower at times and require dock to be powered off then back on to achieve the stated speeds. Very inconsistent results.

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Jan 3, 2025 6:12 AM in response to Emotionmusic

There is little known about the internal design architecture of the Thunderbolt ports on the new M4 MacMinis so there really is no clue as to whether the Thunderbolt bandwidth is distributed between the ports as demand sees fit or if each port is a fully independent full bandwidth channel.


I agree with at @hcsitas in that I would personally not mess with a brand new Thunderbolt5 technology install most all the firmware and software bugs have been resolved of which there have been a few. I would especially do this if this is a mission critical computer system, i.e. it is used in a business or otherwise aids in making money, and not just a home computer general use.

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Speed Of Thunderbolt 5 On Mac Mini Pro

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