Thunderbolt 3 native gigabit adapter?

[zorinlynx]

I tried several USB-C gigabit adapters, from Anker and CableMatters and none of them can get wire speed full gigabit transfers on my M1 Macbook Pro. They top out at around 700Mbps, and CPU usage goes up during the transfer.

Meanwhile, Apple's old Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, when used with a TB2 to TB3 adapter, gets full speed and works great.

It seems native Thunderbolt makes a difference when it comes to performance.

Does anyone know of any native Thunderbolt gigabit adapters? I'd rather not keep using this clunky chain of dongles.

 

[PowerPCFan]

A quick search on Amazon revealed this which should work, but it might be Thunderbolt 2, which wouldn't work. You can also try this, it's a USB hub with Ethernet port on the end, I'm pretty sure TP-LINK makes one too.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I tried several USB-C gigabit adapters, from Anker and CableMatters and none of them can get wire speed full gigabit transfers on my M1 Macbook Pro. They top out at around 700Mbps, and CPU usage goes up during the transfer.

Meanwhile, Apple's old Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, when used with a TB2 to TB3 adapter, gets full speed and works great.

It seems native Thunderbolt makes a difference when it comes to performance.

Does anyone know of any native Thunderbolt gigabit adapters? I'd rather not keep using this clunky chain of dongles.

You don't need a Thunderbolt adapter to get the full 1Gb on M1 Macs, you just need an adapter with the Realtek 8156B chipset. I have the D-Link DUB-E250 and confirm it gets the full 1Gb or 2.5Gb on all M1 models:

$17 and done: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NK8SF5F/

 

[joevt]

A quick search on Amazon revealed this which should work, but it might be Thunderbolt 2, which wouldn't work.

That is the adapter that @zorinlynx mentioned. It's Thunderbolt 1 and can be connected to Thunderbolt 2 hosts or to Thunderbolt 3/4 hosts with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.

You can also try this, it's a USB hub with Ethernet port on the end, I'm pretty sure TP-LINK makes one too.

That is a USB Ethernet adapter, not a native Ethernet controller (native meaning a PCIe controller connected with Thunderbolt).

PCIe controllers have DMA to reduce work required by the CPU.

I'm not sure how USB affects performance of Ethernet. I believe USB controllers are PCIe controllers that also support DMA. But maybe USB uses more CPU anyway?

Does anyone know of any native Thunderbolt gigabit adapters? I'd rather not keep using this clunky chain of dongles.

Old Thunderbolt 3 docks that have Alpine Ridge (CalDigit TS3+, OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock) have PCIe Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controllers. These docks are limited to DisplayPort 1.2 (HBR2 link rate) but that doesn't affect Thunderbolt displays because they have their own Thunderbolt controllers.

Thunderbolt 3 docks that have Titan Ridge or Thunderbolt 4 docks (Goshen Ridge) usually have USB Ethernet controllers because Titan Ridge and Goshen Ridge allow connecting to non-Thunderbolt hosts.
The CalDigit TS4 is a Thunderbolt 4 dock with a PCIe 2.5 GbE controller.
These docks support DisplayPort 1.4 (HBR3 link rate).

If you already have the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter and the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter then I would stick with that unless you think the other ports of a dock will be useful.

 

[zorinlynx]

If you already have the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter and the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter then I would stick with that unless you think the other ports of a dock will be useful.

Thanks for the information. It's sad that there aren't more native Thunderbolt gigabit ethernet solutions out there, but I guess it makes sense that USB will work with the most configurations so manufacturers stick with that.

I think I'm going to do this, it's just that it's clunky, and ties up the $50 Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter. I guess I could temporarily switch to WiFi if I need the adapter for something else, which isn't that often. I originally bought it for creating really fast connections between different-generation Macs for my job; Migration Assistant is way faster that way. Thankfully there's fewer and fewer of these as time goes on.

Why oh why did Apple not release an updated TB3 version of that amazing gigabit adapter? It truly was an underrated product.

 

[zorinlynx]

You don't need a Thunderbolt adapter to get the full 1Gb on M1 Macs, you just need an adapter with the Realtek 8156B chipset. I have the D-Link DUB-E250 and confirm it gets the full 1Gb or 2.5Gb on all M1 models:

$17 and done: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NK8SF5F/

Huh, it might be worth gambling $17 to see if this does the job. After all, they couldn't sell it as a 2.5G adapter if it can't even do 1G!

The one that can't seem to hit 1G is the RTL8153.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Basic75]

After all, they couldn't sell it as a 2.5G adapter if it can't even do 1G!

Like some cheap USB 3 sticks are outperformed by good USB 2 sticks? Unfortunately there is no limit to the crap that is sold these days. Good luck, and please report back how it performs!

 

[Basic75]

I'm not sure how USB affects performance of Ethernet.

Not sure whether it's still true, but apart from USB being highly inefficient in general, which is why hard drives connected via 400Mbps Firewire outperformed those connected via 480Mbps USB 2.0, USB to Ethernet adapters were terrible because they communicated indirectly, like the Ethernet chip would put received data into some shared memory from which the USB chip then had to collect it in a second step. USB was built to be cheap and it shows/showed.

 

[PowerPCFan]

That is the adapter that @zorinlynx mentioned. It's Thunderbolt 1 and can be connected to Thunderbolt 2 hosts or to Thunderbolt 3/4 hosts with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.

That's what I thought. @zorinlynx I would:

• Keep existing setup
• Get a Thunderbolt 3 dock
• Use Wi-Fi, why not? (It is sometimes slower)