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Thunderbolt dock recommandation for M1 Pro ?

Antares23

Antares23

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 15, 2014
277
458
Chartres, France
Hello everyone,

I’m sorry if the question has already been answered, but I’ve been researching this for hours at this point without finding something that will work, so I ask for your help
I’ll replace my 2018 Mac mini with a 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro next week, and I’m looking for a Thunderbolt dock
I’d like to have everything connect with one cable if possible. Here’s what I’m looking for:

  • A dock that supports dual EXTENDED monitor (without using the internal screen, the Mac will be in clamshell mode), both monitors are 1440p 120Hz, one has DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1, while the other has DP 1.2 and HDMI 2.0
  • Charging the Mac at 67W at least
  • Have Ethernet
  • Have an audio jack (ideally, if it doesn’t, it’s okay, I can plug my speakers into one of my monitors even tho it requires a proxy audio device to be able to control the volume with the keyboard)
  • Have at least two USB-C 10 Gbps
Basically, here’s what I want to connect to it:

  • Two 2K 120Hz monitors in extended mode (one has DP 1.4 & HDMI 2.1, one has DP 1.2 & HDMI 2.0)
  • The 10Gbits USB-C hub of my monitor (that has itself 2 10G Type A on the back, and 1 Type A & 1 Type C on the bottom)
  • USB-A Keyboard and mouse (that could be plugged into a USB hub on one of the USB ports of the monitor)
  • USB-A 5Gbps External HDD
  • USB-C 10Gbps External NVMe
  • Speaker via jack (but that could be plugged into one of the monitors)
  • Ethernet
  • My iPhone via USB-C

So yeah, it needs to have at least these ports, I think I could manage the rest with my monitor's hub

  • 3 USB-C (two have to be 10GBits)
  • two DP/HDMI (or additional Type-C that would support DP, I have two DP to USB-C cables that I already use to connect my monitor to my Mac mini.
  • Ethernet

Preferably under 200€, but I could stretch my budget a bit

For the time being, I saw these two that I think do work (I asked ChatGPT tbh), but there's a BIG price difference lol:

57€ i-tec Thunderbolt 3
344€ Satechi 11 in 1 TB4 Dock

The i-tec is a used one, plus there's only one left

So I'd gladly take your advice if one of you happens to use one that matches the minimum requirement that I have

Thanks to anyone who will take the time to help me!
 
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A TB3 dock can only do two 4K/60 monitors, which corresponds to two 1080p/120Hz displays (although the HDMi 2.1 will supports DSC, which reduces the bandwidth)...
So Bigwaff's two dock solution is probably the only way if two 1440p monitors have to be connected externally.

That way you will also get the USB 3.x bandwidth to connect all the other stuff you mention.
 
Last edited:
carestudio said:
Caldigit TS5
Click to expand...
M1 Pro only support T3/T4 so TS3/TS4 suffice. Why pay premium for feature you can’t use?
Click to expand...

The TS5 is now only $20 more than the TS4 so I would only go with the TS4 over the TS5 if I needed more than 2 USB-A 10Gbit ports (and didn't want to USB-C to USB-A adapters).

The TS3 Plus is quite a bit cheaper but a) not clear it has the ports needed and b) I would rather match the MacBook Pro's USB4 ports with a TB4 dock than a TB3 dock. On a) the TS3 Plus only appears to have 1xUSB3Gen2 (10Gbps) port and 1xTB3 port available in addition to the DP (1.2) port. Assuming its TB3 port was used for the 2nd monitor, it wouldn't meet the OP's 2x10Gbps USB-C requirement.

Note that unclear whether 2x2K @ 120Hz can be supported through 1 dock with that laptop and/or with one of the monitors only supporting DP 1.2. See:

How many displays can be connected to MacBook Pro - Apple Support

The number of external displays that you can use at the same time depends on your Mac model and the resolution and refresh rate of each display.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Additionally note from the TS4 footnotes:
**Some refresh rates require DP 1.4 HBR3 and DSC 1.2 support from host GPU and monitor.
Some Thunderbolt 3 hosts that only support DP 1.2 will be capped at a lower resolutions & refresh rates.
The bit/color depth may vary in order to support higher refresh rates.
The support of higher refresh rates may vary due to OS updates.​
​
*** Current Mac computers, including Apple Silicons M1 / M2 / M3, can only support up to HDMI 2.0b over its Thunderbolt ports. As such, resolution will be limited to 4K 60Hz when using an HDMI adapter. If higher refresh rate is required, please use USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to DisplayPort or DisplayPort to DisplayPort connection.​


I am not saying the combination can't work or can't work with OP's DP 1.2 monitor, just no guarantees if it doesn't support DSC, etc.

Or as PaulD-UK suggests OP may be better off with 2 lower-end docks (e.g. 2xTS3 Plus) over 1 higher-end dock (e.g. TS5). He seems to know this area better than most on this board.

In summary, 1xTS5 best fit to the requirements other than it might not support 1 of the monitors at that refresh. Otherwise 2xTS3 Plus would work except 2 cables to connect rather than 1. Either way ~ $400.
 
PaulD-UK said:
A TB3 dock can only do two 4K/60 monitors, which corresponds to two 1080p/120Hz displays (although the HDMi 2.1 will supports DSC, which reduces the bandwidth)...
So Bigwaff's two dock solution is probably the only way if two 1440p monitors have to be connected externally.

That way you will also get the USB 3.x bandwidth to connect all the other stuff you mention.
Click to expand...
DSC will not reduce the bandwidth because you have a grand total of 40 Gbps from the Mac to the TV hub, and there is not compressed video coming out of the Mac.

Also, HDMI 2.1 does not require using DSC so you may not have it from
Hub to monitor anyway.
 
bzgnyc2 said:
The TS5 is now only $20 more than the TS4 so I would only go with the TS4 over the TS5 if I needed more than 2 USB-A 10Gbit ports (and didn't want to USB-C to USB-A adapters).

The TS3 Plus is quite a bit cheaper but a) not clear it has the ports needed and b) I would rather match the MacBook Pro's USB4 ports with a TB4 dock than a TB3 dock. On a) the TS3 Plus only appears to have 1xUSB3Gen2 (10Gbps) port and 1xTB3 port available in addition to the DP (1.2) port. Assuming its TB3 port was used for the 2nd monitor, it wouldn't meet the OP's 2x10Gbps USB-C requirement.

Note that unclear whether 2x2K @ 120Hz can be supported through 1 dock with that laptop and/or with one of the monitors only supporting DP 1.2. See:

How many displays can be connected to MacBook Pro - Apple Support

The number of external displays that you can use at the same time depends on your Mac model and the resolution and refresh rate of each display.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Additionally note from the TS4 footnotes:
**Some refresh rates require DP 1.4 HBR3 and DSC 1.2 support from host GPU and monitor.​
Some Thunderbolt 3 hosts that only support DP 1.2 will be capped at a lower resolutions & refresh rates.​
The bit/color depth may vary in order to support higher refresh rates.​
The support of higher refresh rates may vary due to OS updates.​
​
*** Current Mac computers, including Apple Silicons M1 / M2 / M3, can only support up to HDMI 2.0b over its Thunderbolt ports. As such, resolution will be limited to 4K 60Hz when using an HDMI adapter. If higher refresh rate is required, please use USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to DisplayPort or DisplayPort to DisplayPort connection.​


I am not saying the combination can't work or can't work with OP's DP 1.2 monitor, just no guarantees if it doesn't support DSC, etc.

Or as PaulD-UK suggests OP may be better off with 2 lower-end docks (e.g. 2xTS3 Plus) over 1 higher-end dock (e.g. TS5). He seems to know this area better than most on this board.

In summary, 1xTS5 best fit to the requirements other than it might not support 1 of the monitors at that refresh. Otherwise 2xTS3 Plus would work except 2 cables to connect rather than 1. Either way ~ $400.
Click to expand...
Also, 4K60 HDMI 2.0 is not ideal for Mac desktop display, because you don’t just want 4K60, you want 4K60 4:4:4 RGB 10-bit color.

I know that’s a mouthful for a lot of people, but HDMI 2.0 will top out at only 4K60 8-bit color, unless chroma subsampling is used. And subsampling is perfectly fine for video content but terrible for a computer desktop.
This is objective fact.

There are other considerations: Thunderbolt hubs come in two flavors, TB 3 and TB 4. Both are 40 Gbps max but they allocate the downstream bandwidth differently in ways which might slow down external storage.

I hope my tone does not come off as argumentative; what you said is correct and I’m just trying to add some details to help.
 
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Alameda said:
Also, 4K60 HDMI 2.0 is not ideal for Mac desktop display, because you don’t just want 4K60, you want 4K60 4:4:4 RGB 10-bit color.

I know that’s a mouthful for a lot of people, but HDMI 2.0 will top out at only 4K60 8-bit color, unless chroma subsampling is used. And subsampling is perfectly fine for video content but terrible for a computer desktop.
This is objective fact.

There are other considerations: Thunderbolt hubs come in two flavors, TB 3 and TB 4. Both are 40 Gbps max but they allocate the downstream bandwidth differently in ways which might slow down external storage.

I hope my tone does not come off as argumentative; what you said is correct and I’m just trying to add some details to help.
Click to expand...

4K60 4:4:4 RGB 10 would only be applicable if the display being used supports that output. The second part about 4K60 8-bit being "terrible for a computer desktop" is actually quite subjective in nature, especially for those users who use their machines for basic tasks rather than anything that requires top-tier color accuracy and fidelity.

I'm also confused as to why the statement was made that thunderbolt hubs only come in TB3 and TB4, when I can find TB5 docks from OWC, CalDigit, Anker, Kensington and Razer in just a quick Google search. This is relevant when respect to Bigwaff's question:

Bigwaff said:
M1 Pro only support T3/T4 so TS3/TS4 suffice. Why pay premium for feature you can’t use?
Click to expand...

If/when you upgrade from the M1 Pro you would already have a hub that can handle the additional bandwidth. That would be a far more economical choice over time when compared to buying low now and upgrading later. The additional bandwidth of the dock itself would also help alleviate slowdowns of external storage devices.
 
dmccloud said:
4K60 4:4:4 RGB 10 would only be applicable if the display being used supports that output. The second part about 4K60 8-bit being "terrible for a computer desktop" is actually quite subjective in nature, especially for those users who use their machines for basic tasks rather than anything that requires top-tier color accuracy and fidelity.

I'm also confused as to why the statement was made that thunderbolt hubs only come in TB3 and TB4, when I can find TB5 docks from OWC, CalDigit, Anker, Kensington and Razer in just a quick Google search. This is relevant when respect to Bigwaff's question:



If/when you upgrade from the M1 Pro you would already have a hub that can handle the additional bandwidth. That would be a far more economical choice over time when compared to buying low now and upgrading later. The additional bandwidth of the dock itself would also help alleviate slowdowns of external storage devices.
Click to expand...
What I said is that chroma subsampling is terrible for computer video. That is objectively true.
 
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