MBP 16" Compatible Docks with 96W/100W Power

[mertyz]

First of all, this thread is the best resource on the topic, kudos to everyone who contributed!

My MBP 16" 2019's AC Charger usage constantly stays at 94W with dual 4K60 monitors. After reading the whole thread, my understanding is that Targus DV4K or QV4K is the way to go for my power (94W) and video out (dual 4K60) needs. Can anyone confirm?

@CalDigit TS3 Plus users: Does simply plugging the default MBP charger to the MBP automatically disable the power delivery from the dock?

 

[bsbeamer]

CalDigit TS3 Plus users: Does simply plugging the default MBP charger to the MBP automatically disable the power delivery from the dock?

On previous OS versions, yes. The Apple USB-C charger that shipped with the computer is the "first" priority at all times, regardless of which others are available. I cannot 100% confirm the same stays true with 10.15.7 (19H15), however.

 

[bigcat]

This one below is being released tomorrow, $300 tho

Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Dock with 96W Charging, Dual Monitor USB C Dock - Compatible with MacBook and Windows, 2X DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0, 1x 10Gbps USB-C, 6X USB, Ethernet, Audio, Micro SD/SD

Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Dock with 96W Charging, Dual Monitor USB C Dock - Compatible with MacBook and Windows, 2X DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0, 1x 10Gbps USB-C, 6X USB, Ethernet, Audio, Micro SD/SD

tinyurl.com

 

[reddshack]

I just got the signup email from Plugable for the TBT3-UDZ and it mentioned a $50 Amazon coupon. I went to Amazon and pre-ordered, applying the coupon which brought the price down to $250. I don't know how long the coupon will be around but if you have been waiting for this dock, like me, that was a good enough incentive to go for it.

The Plugable product page says it supports 96W (certified) and 100W (peak) power delivery. I will report back what the real world usage is when I get it.

Plugable Thunderbolt™ and USB-C Dual Monitor Docking Station, 96W Lapt

Plugable’s TBT3-UDZ Thunderbolt™ 3 and USB-C Dock supports dual DisplayPort or HDMI displays with 96W Power Delivery charging.

plugable.com

 

[ght56]

Nice!

 

[panzer06]

This one below is being released tomorrow, $300 tho

Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Dock with 96W Charging, Dual Monitor USB C Dock - Compatible with MacBook and Windows, 2X DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0, 1x 10Gbps USB-C, 6X USB, Ethernet, Audio, Micro SD/SD

Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Dock with 96W Charging, Dual Monitor USB C Dock - Compatible with MacBook and Windows, 2X DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0, 1x 10Gbps USB-C, 6X USB, Ethernet, Audio, Micro SD/SD

tinyurl.com

Looks interesting but at that price I'll stick with the eGPU enclosure @ $299

Mantiz MZ-03 Saturn Pro EGPU ( V2 )

Mantiz MZ-03 Saturn Pro II EGPU -Thunderbolt 3 MacOS/Windows/Intel Thunderbolt Certified External GPU with SATA3 2.5” SSD/HDD bay *1 ,SD Card reader * 1,USB 3.0*5 Gigabit Lan*1 Dual Thunderbolt chip manage GFX & extra IO Compatible with Windows 10 /Win 11 2016~Now Thunderbolt Laptop. MacOS...

mymantiz.com

or the Razer Core X

Razer Core X - Thunderbolt™ 3 eGPU | Razer United States

Now compatible with Mac and Windows laptops, featuring 3-slot PCI-Express desktop graphic cards, 650W power supply, and charges via USB-C.

www.razer.com

The pluggable looks great though and is travel friendly. It will be interesting to see the reviews here.

 

[glyph.]

A full year after I purchased my 16" I finally have a dock that can charge it at full speed: the Kensington SD5600T https://amzn.to/3kdlO8p

After plugging it in the first time, I got a kernel panic; par for the course for breaking in a thunderbolt peripheral, it seems; but once my machine had rebooted:

I bought this one because it started shipping a few days before the TBT3-UDZ - https://amzn.to/38u1XzO - whose port configuration is so *precisely* similar that I really wonder if it's a straight-up re-badging of the same internal hardware. Neither has a thunderbolt passthru port, both have dual-display paired HDMI/displayport outputs. The only difference that I could find is that the TBT3-UDZ claims DisplayPort 1.4 whereas the SD5600T only claims 1.2; however, given that neither one claims to be able to do better than 4k on each display, it's not clear if the higher displayport version makes any practical difference.

I have been using an 85W dock until now and I definitely had some workloads where the battery would reliably slowly drain (in particular, if I'm running an intense Steam game as well as Windows Update in a Windows VM, as well as a Python unit test suite on the host macOS simultaneously). That no longer happens. Hooray!!!

This dock absolutely does everything *I* was looking for, but it's not quite "no compromise":

- only supports up to 4k resolution; (although one of my displays is branded as "HDR 4K" and System Information reports it as "5120 x 2880 (5K/UHD+ - Ultra High Definition Plus)" and it works fine, so I guess at least some "5k" support?
- no thunderbolt passthrough (I am guessing it's used up all its bus bandwidth on the multiple displays and 7 USB ports? I'm not a thunderbolt expert though). I found myself not caring about this because the only thunderbolt peripheral I've realistically used was an adpater for my second display, and the USB ports here are plenty fast
- there are some clicks & pops when audio starts & stops on the included microphone/headphone jack; quality when playing a continuous stream of audio is fine but it's annoying enough that I've switched back to the built-in microphone jack for when I want headphones.
- only 1GbE of networking; on a brand new device I was idly hoping for 10GbE (or at least 2.5 / 5 GbE). but, again, I don't actually have other devices to use that with at this point.

I hope this mini-review was useful to anyone considering buying one!

 

[Gumbolt]

FYI, the Plugable TBT3-UDZ is finally released and available for order on Amazon.

 

[glyph.]

Follow-up to my previous post:

Sadly that initial kernel panic wasn't a fluke. After testing for a while it became clear that — at least with a displayport display plugged in — there's about a 30% chance that my macbook will kernel panic when plugging in, unplugging, or waking from sleep. Also, the displays only light up about half the time. Based on the stack trace (it's a double-free inside the Radeon driver) this is Apple / AMD's fault and probably not Kensington's, but the device is unusable if it's this unreliable.

I haven't returned it yet because I'm waiting to hear if there's anything that Kensington can do, but I'll probably do so within the next couple of days; I don't have high hopes.

 

[AndreiD18]

Hey OP, might wanna finally undo the strike through text for the Plugable UDZ! Might wanna edit that so that other might not be mislead

 

[VArase]

The TBT3-UDZ is now available on Amazon - mine should arrive Wednesday.

One thing: I looked at the ports based on pictures on Amazon's site, and I didn't see a TB3 pass through port. You may want to check on this if that would be a concern to you.

 

[bsbeamer]

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FRIENDLY REMINDER: THE FIRST POST IS A WIKI.​

---

 

[jayhawk11]

I updated the first post to reflect the TBT3-UDZ availability, and added links for a few of the other models. Probably needs a bigger overhaul to reflect some of the functionality on each one, but I only had a few minutes.

 

[glyph.]

FRIENDLY REMINDER: THE FIRST POST IS A WIKI.​

I see that @AndreiD18 also has "macrumors newbie" under their avatar, which implies to me they can't edit it either. (I've asked before but I haven't seen an answer: how does one get the ability to edit wiki posts? Is there some points system somewhere to prove we're not spammers?)

 

[KoolSafak]

Dell released a support article: https://www.dell.com/support/article/sln320770

Nice overview. A table in the first post would be beneficial.

I'm really hesitant to buy a $300 dock from a not so known manufacturer.

 

[coach_ditka]

I see that @AndreiD18 also has "macrumors newbie" under their avatar, which implies to me they can't edit it either. (I've asked before but I haven't seen an answer: how does one get the ability to edit wiki posts? Is there some points system somewhere to prove we're not spammers?)

I was able to edit it, but I am a step above "newbie"

 

[glyph.]

Update on the SD5600T: I updated to Big Sur in the hope that a new kernel might have some thunderbolt fixes that addressed the problems with it, but sadly it still crashes constantly. I'm returning my unit but I would be really interested if other folks can post experiences with that dock or the TBT3-UDZ if they're ordering it.

I am starting to suspect that I will have switched to an Apple Silicon mac 2 years from now before a working doc that can fully charge this machine arrives 😞 .

 

[jayhawk11]

If anyone was unsure about the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, here's a snapshot of the power information. I just got it today, but I'm liking it so far!

 

[glyph.]

If anyone was unsure about the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, here's a snapshot of the power information. I just got it today, but I'm liking it so far!

View attachment 1665150

How's the stability? How many displays do you have connected?

 

[reddshack]

If anyone was unsure about the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, here's a snapshot of the power information. I just got it today, but I'm liking it so far!

View attachment 1665150

Mine arrived today as well! I just got it all connected and I'm seeing the same wattage. So far just one display connected but I'll have my second going soon. Verified working with MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019): 1 display via HDMI, 2 USB devices, *gigabit ethernet, USB-C PD @ 96W. This dock seems to be everything I was hoping it to be. The build quality is excellent with an aluminum body and weighted stand. It looks like it belongs on my desk with everything else.

*I had an ethernet dongle connected previously. I had to restart my machine before it would recognize the TBT3-UDZ ethernet. I ran a speed test and I'm getting my expected gigabit fiber speeds as well!

 

[KoolSafak]

What about the HP USB-C Dock G5?

It should have up to 100W PD and 2x 4K60Hz

HP USB-C Dock G5 Specifications | HP® Customer Support

Specifications document for the HP USB-C Dock G5

support.hp.com

And because there are no royalties to Intel, it's way cheaper

Specs: https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04168358.pdf

 

[jayhawk11]

How's the stability? How many displays do you have connected?

Working like a dream so far. I just have a single Dell 27" 4k display (U2720Q) connected via DisplayPort, but it hasn't had a single hiccup. I also have an Elgato CamLink 4k, a Logitech MX mouse receiver thing, a gigabit ethernet connection, and a couple SSD's connected to it and everything is working just fine at full speed.

Honestly I'm pretty impressed with it so far. I figured upgrading to Big Sur would have caused at least some issues but it doesn't seem to have missed a beat.

 

[bsbeamer]

What about the HP USB-C Dock G5?

USB-C docks are very different than TB3 docks, especially with the way displays work on Mac. Makes a big difference for some users.

 

[KoolSafak]

USB-C docks are very different than TB3 docks, especially with the way displays work on Mac. Makes a big difference for some users.

If you have a GPU which supports DPC over DisplayPort, then it is basically the same. (up to 2x 4K60Hz)

The 10th gen Intel CPUs with Iris Plus Graphics support it.

Same should go for the MBP16.

 

[chrfr]

If you have a GPU which supports DPC over DisplayPort, then it is basically the same. (up to 2x 4K60Hz)

The 10th gen Intel CPUs with Iris Plus Graphics support it.

Same should go for the MBP16.

I’m unaware of any purely USB-C dock which will support 2x4k at 60Hz when connected to any Mac.