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Reliable Thunderbolt dock?

Many of the popular Thunderbolt docks offer power delivery at 60-85W. This is great for many notebooks, but if you're looking for a full-time dock to power a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the options are limited.

Do any power users here, have experience using a Thunderbolt dock full-time to power a 16" Intel MacBook Pro? If so, which models?

The Plugable 14-in-1 USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 Dock looks interesting, but their website includes this gem:
100W MAX POWER—up to 100W (96W certified), while also safely charging laptops needing 85W or less.
Click to expand...

So does that rule this dock out for the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, assuming you want to take full advantage of all the features of the MacBook without compromising performance?
 
Hi @robinp, I'm curious how things are going after a few months. Would you mind providing more details about your setup? How many and which monitors are you using? What else is plugged into the dock? What kind of work do you typically do (e.g., video editing, software development, etc.).

Are you running the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 (Intel)? If so, I'm very curious if a Thunderbolt dock with less than 96W of power delivery, such as the OWC, has any impact on performance for MacBook which can draw up to 96W of power under heavy load.

Cheers!
 
The G2 120W dock from HP is also good. I use it myself on a 16" with one external display and lots of other peripherals connected.
It can supply up to 100W power over TB3 (or 90W if your peripherals on the dock take too much power for themselves. It has a total power budget of 120W).

Only downsides: The integrated Ethernet is "just" Realtek and the firmware updater is Windows only.
 
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I'm starting to feel like there's no ideal Thunderbolt dock for the 16" MacBook Pro that can truly be a dock in the sense that a single Thunderbolt cable to the MacBook will provide all of the power and data to drive multiple displays and other devices without a compromise (e.g., the MacBook, when under heavy load, wants more power than the dock is capable of delivering.)

As far as I can tell, this does not exist. The best you can do is use two ports: one for the dock, and the other for power using Apple's 96W power adapter. Please, I hope someone can prove me wrong. :(
 
Why do you think those don't exist? What are you missing?
For Example: You can use the G2 Dock or the Dell WD19TB with an additional adapter to it's downstream thunderbolt port for more monitors.

Then you only need one cable to the MacBook and everything is connected. Yeah, you will need some additional adapter on the dock itself for multiple monitors.

That most docks don't work out of the box is mostly Apple's fault for still not supporting MST on macOS.
 
michaelafcadio said:
Hi @robinp, I'm curious how things are going after a few months. Would you mind providing more details about your setup? How many and which monitors are you using? What else is plugged into the dock? What kind of work do you typically do (e.g., video editing, software development, etc.).

Are you running the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 (Intel)? If so, I'm very curious if a Thunderbolt dock with less than 96W of power delivery, such as the OWC, has any impact on performance for MacBook which can draw up to 96W of power under heavy load.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Hi, sorry, I haven't been on MR for a few days.

I've continued to find the OWC thunderbolt 4 dock to be excellent. I have the following attached to it:
  • 4TB portable hard disk (USB A)
  • iPad Pro USB C cable (and sometimes the iPad)
  • USB C lightning cable (iPhone sometimes)
  • Gigabit ethernet with gigabit FTTH internet which runs at full speed
  • Dell 2560 x 1440 monitor
I can't really fault it. The charging speed thing is a total non issue. I am quite often pushing my Mac quite hard. I do the following:
  • CAD in windows via Parallels
  • 3D modelling and rendering in Rhino for mac
  • App development in Xcode
  • Various graphic design tasks in the affinity suite
Sometimes I am doing 2 or 3 of those at the same time. The fans in the MacBook Pro are quite often running. I have NEVER even approached a point where the charger couldn't keep up with the energy being used.

On this matter of charger power vs computer power draw. I used to have a 13" MacBook Pro. I think the charger it came with was something like 55 or 60W. I would quite often use it with a 27 or 30W USB C charger because it was so much lighter and more compact. It would only be if I was doing absolutely the most intensive work where it would use more power than the charger could provide and the battery would deplete.

Basically, don't worry about a few watts here and there. It might mean it is very slightly slower to charge fully from empty, but if you've got a dock you're planning to be working at your desk a fair amount so I really don't think it is an issue at all.
 
IceStormNG said:
Why do you think those don't exist? What are you missing?
Click to expand...

Slight exaggeration on my part. What I mean is that I've seen very few Thunderbolt docks that are capable of providing 96 Watts of power delivery that the 16" MacBook Pro (Intel) can consume under heavy load. Yes, some do exist.

My dismay on this topic comes from seeing the many reviews of Thunderbolt docks that only deliver between 60W and 85W of power. The reviewers are recommending these docks for use with the 16" MacBook Pro and apparently just ignore the power requirements or are unaware.

Sure, in some cases the 85W dock will power the MacBook and may even keep the battery charged, but it very much depends on the workload. And even if the 85W dock keeps the battery charged under smaller loads, I'd be concerned the CPU may not run at its maximum clock speed and performance will be compromised. Don't even get me started on the 60W docks, which in my experience will not even keep the battery charged.
 
michaelafcadio said:
Slight exaggeration on my part. What I mean is that I've seen very few Thunderbolt docks that are capable of providing 96 Watts of power delivery that the 16" MacBook Pro (Intel) can consume under heavy load. Yes, some do exist.

My dismay on this topic comes from seeing the many reviews of Thunderbolt docks that only deliver between 60W and 85W of power. The reviewers are recommending these docks for use with the 16" MacBook Pro and apparently just ignore the power requirements or are unaware.

Sure, in some cases the 85W dock will power the MacBook and may even keep the battery charged, but it very much depends on the workload. And even if the 85W dock keeps the battery charged under smaller loads, I'd be concerned the CPU may not run at its maximum clock speed and performance will be compromised. Don't even get me started on the 60W docks, which in my experience will not even keep the battery charged.
Click to expand...
I’ve explained above about how your concerns are unfounded.

The MacBook Pro almost certainly can’t consume 96W under heavy load. From my experience, Apple substantially over provides with their bundled chargers.

I’d be absolutely gobsmacked if you had an 85W charger and it failed to charge the MacBook Pro (albeit slower) whilst under heavy load.

The limiting factor on performance with the 16” MacBook Pro’s is thermals. It’s that they can burn through more energy than the case can dissipate. Whether your charger is a few Watts lower than the Apple supplied one is irrelevant with regards to performance.

The ONLY difference will be that if your battery is flat, that the machine will take a little bit longer to charge. Anything else is just you trying to find something to get worried about. Do your self a favour and let go of this non-issue.
 
The 16" can easily burn 150W... for 20 seconds.
The main limitation is the VRMs that are absolutely uncooled and get cooked in the hot chassis. They will then throttle the CPU and GPU heavily down to about 45-50W total wattage because that's what they're actually designed for.

If you have a thermal pad modification (like on mine), you can burn 95-110W for hours.
Even with the 100W G2 it causes the battery to slowly discharge during Final Cut renders.
 
Hello

I need you help for a Reliable dock but my Thunderbolt doesn't work only USB for a MBP 2011 in Amazon OR ebay?

Thanks
Camelia
 
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