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Is Thunderbolt "1" essentially useless?

C

cognus

macrumors member
Original poster
May 1, 2012
75
2
Texas
for my aged but lovely MBP late 2011, is the Thunderbolt 1 port effectively useless due to the cost and clumsiness of adapters to anything useful [possible exception HDMI adapter?] ??

the only reason this is even a question is that one of the only 2 usb ports is dead... like really dead like a ground short or something. Not sure it matters to me but when I eventually sell it maybe matters. I was hoping for a simple usb hub for the thunderbolt port but the absence of power in the Thunderbolt 1 spec makes that clumsy, right?
 
cognus said:
for my aged but lovely MBP late 2011, is the Thunderbolt 1 port effectively useless due to the cost and clumsiness of adapters to anything useful [possible exception HDMI adapter?] ??

the only reason this is even a question is that one of the only 2 usb ports is dead... like really dead like a ground short or something. Not sure it matters to me but when I eventually sell it maybe matters. I was hoping for a simple usb hub for the thunderbolt port but the absence of power in the Thunderbolt 1 spec makes that clumsy, right?
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt one has power. It should work fine with a thunderbolt 1 or 2 hub it’s also your display port for external screens. Not quite useless.
 
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Thunderbolt 1 is essentially the same as Thunderbolt 2, the only difference is that TB2 can access all lanes in one direction, while TB1 split the bandwith to 10 Gbit/s in each direction (at the same time, mind you). It's also fully compatible with all Thunderbolt 2 and (with an adapter) Thunderbolt 3 devices, with limits to it's bandwith obviously. In addition, it can be used with a huge number of display connection adapters, docking solutions, hubs, storage solutions and so on.
 
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Thunderbolt 1 is still great and crazy fast (no CPU overhead involved, unlike USB) for sustained transfer speeds.
 
cognus said:
Fabulous. you guys are great. So, when i search for a thunderbolt [1] compatible, I see plenty of display adapters but I'm not seeing USB [3.0 for instance] adaptation. am I missing something obvious?
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=thunderbolt+adapter&rh=i:aps,k:thunderbolt+adapter
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Check my post above, I linked to the cheapest one I could find for $80.

All the thunderbolt docking stations have usb 3 support, I use one to give my 2011 iMac an usb 3 upgrade vs the internal usb 2 ports.
 
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I use a Caldigit TS2 which is Thunderbolt 2 but backwards compatible with the Thunderbolt 1 port in my 2012 Mini. Gives you 3 USB3 ports (1 powered so it can charge an iPhone for example), 2 eSATA - I use an eSATA SSD to boot, plus it has HDMI and sound in/out and an Ethernet port. It's more expensive but definitely useful as a docking station. The late 2011 MBP would benefit massively from USB3
 
sublunar said:
I use a Caldigit TS2 which is Thunderbolt 2 but backwards compatible with the Thunderbolt 1 port in my 2012 Mini. Gives you 3 USB3 ports (1 powered so it can charge an iPhone for example), 2 eSATA - I use an eSATA SSD to boot, plus it has HDMI and sound in/out and an Ethernet port. It's more expensive but definitely useful as a docking station. The late 2011 MBP would benefit massively from USB3
Click to expand...

i understand both of the linked ones with eSATA. what I went looking for was a simple USB3 hub, ~4 ports. can get there in 2 steps but was looking for something compact like https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Premium-Aluminum-MacBook-HB-MAC3/dp/B00N38TQJC/
 
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
For an external GPU, I've benchmarked TB1 (early 2013 15" rMBP, i7 quadcore) vs TB3 (mid-2017 15" rMBP, i7 quadcore) with my RX480 in a Node II. Apart from texture loading times (which is obviously far higher over TB1), there isn't much difference in fps in gaming - I've measured about 10-15% difference, which was FAR less than I had expected. Speed (fps) is mostly dependent on the graphics card itself (the eGPU).

That is, TB1 models aren't THAT bad if you plan to play games with eGPU's.
 
Menneisyys2 said:
For an external GPU, I've benchmarked TB1 (early 2013 15" rMBP, i7 quadcore) vs TB3 (mid-2017 15" rMBP, i7 quadcore) with my RX480 in a Node II. Apart from texture loading times (which is obviously far higher over TB1), there isn't much difference in fps in gaming - I've measured about 10-15% difference, which was FAR less than I had expected. Speed (fps) is mostly dependent on the graphics card itself (the eGPU).

That is, TB1 models aren't THAT bad if you plan to play games with eGPU's.
Click to expand...

Isn't using eGPU with TB1 or even 2 a bit of an unsupported hack though?
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Jack Neill said:
Any decent TB1 drive enclosures out there?
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From my recollection the cost is the biggest issue for TB1/2 enclosures. Might be better to get up to date host hardware with USB-C/3.1 Gen 2/TB3.
 
sublunar said:
Isn't using eGPU with TB1 or even 2 a bit of an unsupported hack though?
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From my recollection the cost is the biggest issue for TB1/2 enclosures. Might be better to get up to date host hardware with USB-C/3.1 Gen 2/TB3.
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1, It is, but works w/o problems even under Catalina.

2, TB3 enclosures do support TB1/2 via the TB adapter. I've also been using the Node (which is TB3 only) with Apple's TB adapter on TB1/2 MacBooks.
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Jack Neill said:
Any decent TB1 drive enclosures out there?
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See above - just get a TB3 enclosure and Apple's TB adapter.
 
I have a late 2013 MBP and want to add a fast external drive (NVME/PCIe) using my TB 1 ports. I have read that the Apple TB2 to TB3 adaptor will not supply power to the external drive enclosures. (And even if it does, do you attach a TB 1 male to male cable to the Apple 2 to TB 3 cable?) Does anyone have a working solution that doesn't require spending $200+ before the NVME SSD?
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And trying to use PCIe, not SATA
 
MacNchedder said:
I have a late 2013 MBP and want to add a fast external drive (NVME/PCIe) using my TB 1 ports. I have read that the Apple TB2 to TB3 adaptor will not supply power to the external drive enclosures. (And even if it does, do you attach a TB 1 male to male cable to the Apple 2 to TB 3 cable?) Does anyone have a working solution that doesn't require spending $200+ before the NVME SSD?
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And trying to use PCIe, not SATA
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Indeed, Apple's Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter does not pass power through, so you can only use powered devices, or connect the cable powered device to a Thunderbolt hub, if you have one. You do also need a regular Thunderbolt cable to connect the Thunderbolt 1/2 device to the adapter.
 
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