"Why good external SSDs are faster with Apple silicon"
This article talks about TB4 vs USB4 but that's a red herring. This has nothing to do with USB4 and Intel USB4 compliant controllers have the same problem.
The real reason Apple Silicon is faster is simple: Intel Thunderbolt controllers are *external* and bottlenecked on a PCIe 3.0 x4 link to the host, while Apple Silicon *embeds* the controllers right into the SoC, so there is no physical PCIe link anywhere. They connect directly to the much faster SoC fabric, so have no such bottleneck.
https://eclecticlight.co/2024/04/14/last-week-on-my-mac-why-good-external-ssds-are-faster-with-apple-silicon/
Hector Martin /
npub1qk…9azpx
2024-04-15 13:29:23
Author Public Key
npub1qk9x6yrvten3jqyvundn7exggm90fxf9yfarj5eaz25yd7aty8hqe9azpxSeen on
wss://relay.noswhere.comPublished at
2024-04-15 13:29:23Event JSON
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"content": "\"Why good external SSDs are faster with Apple silicon\"\n\nThis article talks about TB4 vs USB4 but that's a red herring. This has nothing to do with USB4 and Intel USB4 compliant controllers have the same problem. \n\nThe real reason Apple Silicon is faster is simple: Intel Thunderbolt controllers are *external* and bottlenecked on a PCIe 3.0 x4 link to the host, while Apple Silicon *embeds* the controllers right into the SoC, so there is no physical PCIe link anywhere. They connect directly to the much faster SoC fabric, so have no such bottleneck.\n\nhttps://eclecticlight.co/2024/04/14/last-week-on-my-mac-why-good-external-ssds-are-faster-with-apple-silicon/",
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