Does it finally support
TCP offload engine now otherwise throughput will take a hit like Mac Studio M1 Max when CPU is busy doing other things slowing down software TCP checksum calculation.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...sor-load.2344566/?post=31095544#post-31095544
Generically Apple has a massive amount of network functionality in their NoC implemented as "smart DMA". This can (at least according to a sequence of multiple patents, all of which are many years old) do all the sort of network offload you'd want, from removing heads and tails to checksum to compression and encryption. Because this is in the NoC it is available to any network client, from Bluetooth/Thread to WiFi to ethernet.
Now I am unaware of any explicit *proof* that this has been implemented, and I'm not sure how you could "prove" it. But as I say, the patent record is strong and makes sense (obvious improvements one year after the next, building on the previous implementation); and the idea makes sense (reduce energy by doing as much as possible, more every year, to cut the energy costs of on-going network chatter for iPhone and Apple Watch).
I'd say (for the particular issue in that thread) most likely the problem was a bug in the OS that has probably been fixed (if it was reported...) My experience in a different context (USB ethernet adaptors) has been that Apple has sometimes shipped a driver in the state of "works but not optimized" (presumably to hit some deadline) but a subsequent OS update gets everything right and you see performance jump by 2x or CPU usage halve or something similar.
Obviously, for example, if the OS and ethernet driver on some machine don't (somewhere between the two of them) make use of the smart DMA modifiers that perform this offload, then you will not see the benefits...
This is especially an issue for Macs that don't have a built-in ethernet port (eg MacBooks Air's+Pro's).
So who is providing the ethernet driver for this machine? If it's something that's well supported by Apple [obviously the Apple ethernet adaptor, but probably also some 3rd party brands like those sold at the Apple store], you should be in luck. If it's some random no-name brand, then you're at the mercy of their ethernet driver...
Here's an example of the issue:
I have a 2021 16" MacBook Pro and my wife has a 2019 15" MacBook Pro, both running macOS 12.3.1. I have a UniFi gigabit network with a Dream Machine Pro and Switch Lite 16, also running the
apple.stackexchange.com
