But 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps, which actually exceeds Gen 1's 5 Gbps maximum. And for those you're reporting 700-800 MBps with a direct connection. If so, I'm wondering if the reduced speeds you see with the OWC Hub's TB ports are specific to it (i.e., would another TB hub perform better)? Have you contacted OWC about this?Īnd just for fun, I'm curious what speeds you get with the OWC Hub's USB 3.2 Gen 2 portīy 'direct plug into the Mac', I assume you're referring to the Mini's 5 Gbps USB-A Gen 1 ports (since those are the slow ports we were trying to workaround by plugging into a TB4 hub). OWC TB4 ports: 600-700 MBps = 4.8–5.6 Gbpsįor comparison, what speeds do you see when the T7 and Extreme Pro are plugged directly into the Mini's TB4 ports? Since you saw no speed reduction there, you should see the same ~1000 Gbps max everyone else reports when the Extreme Pro is plugged into a TB3/4 port. Mac Mini USB-A Gen 1 ports (direct): 700–800 MBps = 5.6–6.4 Gbps So I'm wondering if there is a measurement error in the app you're using that makes it unreliable for these tests (or maybe it's unrealiable absolutely, but still reliable comparatively).

If anyone would like to let me know otherwise, please do so.Ĭlick to expand.By 'direct plug into the Mac', I assume you're referring to the Mini's 5 Gbps USB-A Gen 1 ports (since those are the slow ports we were trying to workaround by plugging into a TB4 hub). You can see that, even with a 10 Gbps (=1250 MBps) ceiling, you are still able to take full advantage of the Gen 2x2 drive's added capability for this operation.Īt least it seems that way in theory, based on this and other benchmarks. Here's just one example from Anandtech's DAS (storage) suite, comparing a Gen 2x2 (top) with a Gen 1 (bottom). That's because, while you won't get the 20 GBps sequential read/write speeds for larger files, there are many operations that don't come close to 10 Gbps, but which are much faster on the Gen 2x2 drives than on Gen 2 and Gen 1. Now you might think there's no reason to spend a few extra dollars for Gen 2x2, b/c on the Mac you're only going to get 10 Gbps max anyways.īut: While the latter (10 GBps max) is true, the former (no reason to get 2x2) may not be.

If so, a workaround for that would be to get something like an OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub, and attach the drive to one of the 3 downstream TB4 ports it provides (Pluggable and CalDigit also makes these, but they're more expensive).Ģ) Some of the new 20 Gbps USB Gen 2x2 drives are almost the same price as the 10 Gbps Gen 2 drives. Gave an excellent summary of the various standards.ġ) Digitalguy pointed out the USB ports on the Mac aren't full speed.

Best mac mini external storage