USB Sub-Par Speed On Mac Mini M1 - Not The Advertised 10Gbps

 The confusion continues regarding the USB speed of devices connected to Thunderbolt3 ports on the Mac Mini M1.

In my experience USB devices rated for 10Gbps connected to the Thunderbolt3 ports are only recognized as 5Gbps.

The only exception so far is the OWC Dual Drive Dock, which is correctly recognized as 10Gbps, although it is far from reaching the theoretical speed.

OWC Drive Dock correctly shows up as 10Gbps device on the Mini M1 System Report (macOS Monterey 12.1)

Phantom Drives DUO enclosure, rated 10Gbps, showing up as 5Gbps on Mac mini M1 (macOS Monterey 12.1)

There are now many entries related to this problem on various Apple forums:

Usb4 (TB3 latest) on M1 computers - Apple Community

USB 3.1 Gen 2 drops to 5Gbps on M1 Mac mi ... - Apple

Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Technical specifications - Apple

https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/74780-faster-external-drive-speed-m1-mac/

Is it a chip issue? Is it a M1 issue? Is it an issue with Monterey? There is no answer from Apple or from the manufacturers of 10Gbps USB devices.

Apple has to address this issue and explain why we cannot get the advertised speed of 10Gbps. Manufacturers have to be clear on the speed of USB 10Gbps devices when connected to M1 Macs.

There are too many very useful and perfectly adequate USB 10Gbps devices on the market to ignore this unfortunate situation.

Cable Matters is the only manufacturer recognizing there is a problem with their 10Gbps Dual Bay HD Enclosure when connected to M1 Macs.

• Mac M1 computers, laptops, and other devices with the M1 chip only support 5Gbps data transfer. Intel Macs are not affected by this limitation

Although that leaves us clueless as to why this is. I left a feedback with Apple, I encourage you to do the same.