Thunder forecast
It was a bumper year for Thunderbolt 3 at CES, so what shiny new kit can you expect for your Mac?
Apple’s penchant for USB-C ports has created a bit of a dilemma
Apple doesn’t frequent the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but that doesn’t mean the show isn’t relevant to
Apple fans. This year, the event proved to be especially so thanks to the abundance of Thunderbolt 3 equipment, spurred into life no doubt by Apple’s adoption of the standard on its latest MacBook Pro models. So let’s take a look at the tech that was on show, and what should be coming to your Mac soon.
A bolt from the blue
Thunderbolt 3 is a big step up for Apple’s MacBook Pro range. For starters, it doubles the bandwidth of its predecessor to 40Gbps (that’s an impressive 5GB/sec) and also halves power consumption. This enables you to simultaneously run two 4K displays at 60Hz and charge a 2016 MacBook Pro over a single cable. That last bit is also important: where Thunderbolt 2 could send power from your Mac to peripherals, the new standard can deliver up to 100W of power to your Mac; the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro requires 87W, while the 13-inch version needs just 61W.
Of course, the arrival of Thunderbolt 3 ports on computers means there were plenty of third-party Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C cables and adaptors at CES. One of the most interesting is an updated model of Griffin’s BreakSafe, the company’s take on Apple’s MagSafe USB-C cable, which is conspicuously absent from the latest models of MacBook and MacBook Pro. Griffin unveiled a 60W version of this last year, and the new one can carry 100W of power, which is enough to charge the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Speaking of which, Apple’s penchant for USB-C-shaped ports on its MacBooks has created a bit of a dilemma – you may be tempted by the Touch Bar or improved specs on the 2016 MacBook Pro, but you’ll be unable to connect your older devices without buying adaptors. Several companies hope to simplify the need for them by connecting peripherals and power through a single cable from a wellequipped Thunderbolt 3 dock.
Among those companies is Elgato, which announced a dock with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, three USB-A (3.0) ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a DisplayPort (1.2) connector, a 3.5mm mic input and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Elgato says this will enable you to power your MacBook Pro via one of the Thunderbolt ports (for up to 85W of power), and connect two 4K displays at 60Hz, the first via the remaining Thunderbolt port and the second using the DisplayPort connection.
Henge Docks announced its variation on the theme in the form of a Horizontal Docking Station with 13 ports, a Vertical Docking Station, and a Tethered Docking Station on which you can rest your MacBook. All use Thunderbolt 3 (the ‘Tethered’ model comes in a USB-C version, too) and can power your laptop. So if you’re thinking of getting a new MacBook but are put off by its lack of port diversity, an appealing range of solutions are set to be available very soon.
Thunderbolt 3 isn’t just about charging and expanding your ports, though. Asus revealed two Thunderbolt 3-compatible displays, QNAP announced a NAS storage device with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, while LaCie showed off its d2 Thunderbolt 3 drive, which houses up to 10TB of storage and enables you to daisychain two 4K displays, a single 5K display, or even up to six d2 drives in total from a single port on your Mac.
Graphic images
Another interesting development at CES was a little more ambiguous when it comes to support from Apple. While there has been chatter for some time about Apple natively supporting external GPUs in its Macs in the future, this is still not officially possible at the present time. That didn’t stop companies like Zotac and MSI from rolling out their own external GPU enclosures at CES. Both contain an internal power supply to charge the enclosure and a computer (though some only provide 60W power), as well as several USB 3.0 and Quick Charge USB 3.0 ports. Graphics cards are sold separately. Naturally, these devices could provide a huge graphical boost to your MacBook, radically improving its gaming performance, among other things.
The main issue here is macOS support, the future of which is uncertain, though it is possible to make use of an external GPU with your MacBook when running Windows in Boot Camp. However, in macOS you have to hook up an external display, as the video feed from the external graphics card isn’t passed to your MacBook Pro’s internal display.
However, some people have reported success when using an external GPU on a Mac Pro running macOS Sierra. It is possible that Apple will officially roll out native support for external graphics cards in the future, but you’ll have to use workarounds for now. Right now Thunderbolt 3 may seem to be a pain thanks to the need for USB-C adaptors, but it look set to bring a major boost to MacBooks in the near future.
These devices could provide a huge graphical boost to your MacBook Pro