MBP 16" Compatible Docks with 96W/100W Power

[nethead]

Aside from what rex450se asked, can you also verify the power of AC adapter in the system information report while the power supply is connected via the dock?

After checking system information for the detected wattage, it's important to verify that it *actually* delivers the wattage by running Cinebench or something that causes the MBP to use ~100W and then checking the "DC In" sensor in iStats Menu. For example, the Razer Core X shows "100 W" in system information, but only delivers 88W, even under the most extreme load.

 

[beton]

Regarding the dual-display setup using HP G2 Dock - I've found this thread https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...nderbolt-Dock-G2-to-Mac-book-pro/td-p/6802423

tl;dr; Due to Mac OS not supporting DisplayPort MST, DP ports mirror signal. To achieve multi-display setup, one monitor has to be connected to DP, other has to be connected to hub's USB-C port (thunderbolt-one I think) using the USB-C to DP adapter.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Regarding the dual-display setup using HP G2 Dock - I've found this thread https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteb...nderbolt-Dock-G2-to-Mac-book-pro/td-p/6802423

tl;dr; Due to Mac OS not supporting DisplayPort MST, DP ports mirror signal. To achieve multi-display setup, one monitor has to be connected to DP, other has to be connected to hub's USB-C port (thunderbolt-one I think) using the USB-C to DP adapter.

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed! I have an HP G2 at work, and tested it with two displays, so bought one for home to go with my new 16" MBP, but it wasn't working right. I hadn't even realized I was using the Thunderbolt/USB-C port at work until reading this! Ordered a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable, let's see if that fixes it at home.

Also, relevant to the topic of this thread, HP does make a 120W version of the dock, which is what I'm using.

 

[Frederick Xu]

After checking system information for the detected wattage, it's important to verify that it *actually* delivers the wattage by running Cinebench or something that causes the MBP to use ~100W and then checking the "DC In" sensor in iStats Menu. For example, the Razer Core X shows "100 W" in system information, but only delivers 88W, even under the most extreme load.

I suspect that it is because the dock does not supply power continuously. I use Anker Atom PD4 which supports 100w maximum. But if 100w is too much for the device, it will charge at a lower 88w, instead of somewhere in between 88 and 100.

 

[danwells]

The little OWC USB 3.1 travel dock (latest version) reports 92W when powered from a 100W Zendure SuperPort (so putting the dock in line doesn't reduce power available to the Mac much). I was using it today while editing and printing photographs, including some extremely power-intensive operations, and it didn't drain the battery at all.

The one thing I didn't test is whether and how well it works with power-hungry USB devices connected. I was using it with a dongle to license a software package (which should draw almost literally no power) and as a SD card reader (not nothing, but very little). What would have happened if I'd connected , say, a bus-powered dual drive? I'm not sure...

 

[tmorgan4]

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed! I have an HP G2 at work, and tested it with two displays, so bought one for home to go with my new 16" MBP, but it wasn't working right. I hadn't even realized I was using the Thunderbolt/USB-C port at work until reading this! Ordered a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable, let's see if that fixes it at home.

Also, relevant to the topic of this thread, HP does make a 120W version of the dock, which is what I'm using.

I'm using the same HP G2 dock in the setup mentioned above (one monitor connected to displayport, second monitor connected to thunderbolt/usb-c) and it works great on a 2019 16" MBP (2.4GHz i9, 5500M 8GB). It also includes its own high wattage power supply so it frees up the original power adapter. I'm using two LG 4K displays and performance is great but the laptop runs very hot especially if I run with the laptop closed using a separate keyboard and mouse. I wish there was a way to disable the built-in display but leave it open for cooling purposes.

 

[jinnyman]

Dang. I only purchased my Caldigit Pro like 2 months ago. Targus seems pretty nice, but I will wait some until more options are available.

 

[Idec50]

Has anyone tried the Dell U3818DW? It claims to have up to 100W power delivery. I'm also wondering if people are having the power issues when using USB-C when using that monitor as reported here and here.

 

[tokanizar]

Backtracking a bit on the CalDigit TS3+ dock. They still have not had the updated firmware for a little bit more power output, right? I'm looking at this page. http://downloads.caldigit.com/

Also, how important the macOS driver is? I'm not using an Apple keyboard, or have intention to charge my phone using the dock.

 

[bsbeamer]

Backtracking a bit on the CalDigit TS3+ dock. They still have not had the updated firmware for a little bit more power output, right?

I have NOT seen an updated driver, yet. I reached out to their support last week, but fairly sure it was lost in the holiday mess. May try again later today.

I have not installed any drivers and dock works fine, except for power not being 94W/96W/100W. Believe the firmware will increase power to 87W.

 

[tokanizar]

I have not installed any drivers and dock works fine, except for power not being 94W/96W/100W. Believe the firmware will increase power to 87W.

Yeah same. I don't quite remember if I installed it (downloaded) but I think I didn't. Dock works only okay here, though. I have issue with it not waking the external monitors up sometimes, as also reported by some users on Reddit. Not sure if it's the dock, the mac, or the OS. Really really hope it's the OS because Catalina is still a freaking mess to me.

 

[chrfr]

Backtracking a bit on the CalDigit TS3+ dock. They still have not had the updated firmware for a little bit more power output, right? I'm looking at this page. http://downloads.caldigit.com/

Also, how important the macOS driver is? I'm not using an Apple keyboard, or have intention to charge my phone using the dock.

The driver just allows for the USB ports to provide extra power to charge iOS devices or run the USB Superdrive. It's not required if you're not doing either of those.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I'm using the same HP G2 dock in the setup mentioned above (one monitor connected to displayport, second monitor connected to thunderbolt/usb-c) and it works great on a 2019 16" MBP (2.4GHz i9, 5500M 8GB). It also includes its own high wattage power supply so it frees up the original power adapter. I'm using two LG 4K displays and performance is great but the laptop runs very hot especially if I run with the laptop closed using a separate keyboard and mouse. I wish there was a way to disable the built-in display but leave it open for cooling purposes.

Huh. Mine runs reasonable. I'm running three 4K displays (two to the dock and one plugged in to a TB3 port on the other side of the computer,) and it idles at ~40°C in lid-closed mode, and maybe 60°C when playing a 4K/60 video on YouTube. The fan starts to become audible when playing a 4K/60, but even a 4K/30 it stays quiet.


(Picture taken with lid open so the laptop is more obvious for the photo.)

 

[seangrimes590]

Something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere in this thread, which is unrelated to power delivery but very related to dock choice -- the thunderbolt controller in the TS3+, OWCs offerings, Elegatos dock, and Pluggable is the old Alpine Ridge controller which only supports DisplayPort 1.2 which means no HDR. The only dock I currently see available that uses the newer Titan Ridge controller is the Dell WD19TB dock which enables DisplayPort 1.4 and gives full 10-bit HDR support. I realize HDR is a relatively new thing as far as computer monitors go but I can't see myself buying something that's immediately out-dated when my next planned monitor upgrade will be HDR capable. My current monitor is 4K but old enough that it doesn't support 60hz over HDMI, only DisplayPort (an old Dell 2715q revision A). A few people posted about the Dell dock with good results, it's current $225 on Amazon so I just ordered. I'll update how it goes. For me 90w sustained should be fine as I rarely engage the GPU in any meaningful way, all my intensive work runs on a local cluster and the MBP is used for coding and testing on toy datasets.

 

[chrfr]

Something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere in this thread, which is unrelated to power delivery but very related to dock choice -- the thunderbolt controller in the TS3+, OWCs offerings, Elegatos dock, and Pluggable is the old Alpine Ridge controller which only supports DisplayPort 1.2 which means no HDR. The only dock I currently see available that uses the newer Titan Ridge controller is the Dell WD19TB dock which enables DisplayPort 1.4 and gives full 10-bit HDR support. I realize HDR is a relatively new thing as far as computer monitors go but I can't see myself buying something that's immediately out-dated when my next planned monitor upgrade will be HDR capable. My current monitor is 4K but old enough that it doesn't support 60hz over HDMI, only DisplayPort (an old Dell 2715q revision A). A few people posted about the Dell dock with good results, it's current $225 on Amazon so I just ordered. I'll update how it goes. For me 90w sustained should be fine as I rarely engage the GPU in any meaningful way, all my intensive work runs on a local cluster and the MBP is used for coding and testing on toy datasets.

Are you sure your display is old enough that HDMI 2.0 can’t be enabled as in this document: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...th-hdmi-2-0-that-support-4k-x-2k-60hz?lang=en
Also the Caldigit USB-C Pro dock is another Titan Ridge option.

 

[seangrimes590]

Are you sure your display is old enough that HDMI 2.0 can’t be enabled as in this document: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...th-hdmi-2-0-that-support-4k-x-2k-60hz?lang=en
Also the Caldigit USB-C Pro dock is another Titan Ridge option.

Thanks for pointing out the USB-C Pro dock, looks pretty similar ports wise to the Dell. If the Dell doesn't work out I think that'll be my next try.

Unfortunately I have the A00 revision so limited to HDMI 1.4 @30hz.

EDIT: Are you sure the USB-C Pro dock is Titan Ridge? It lists DisplayPort as version 1.2 which points to Alpine Ridge as Titan Ridge was required for DisplayPort 1.4. Either way, only supporting 1.2 defeats the purpose of the Titan Ridge controller.

 

[bsbeamer]

CalDigit is saying the TS3 Plus firmware update should be available sometime this week.

 

[chrfr]

EDIT: Are you sure the USB-C Pro dock is Titan Ridge? It lists DisplayPort as version 1.2 which points to Alpine Ridge as Titan Ridge was required for DisplayPort 1.4. Either way, only supporting 1.2 defeats the purpose of the Titan Ridge controller.

I'm not actually 100% sure, but since the dock is a USB-C/Thunderbolt device like all the other Titan Ridge docks are I made the assumption. I may be wrong.
Edit: I knew I'd read it somewhere, this blog claims it's a Titan Ridge device: https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2...derbolt-3-and-usb-c-with-titan-ridge-jhl7440/

 

[seangrimes590]

I'm not actually 100% sure, but since the dock is a USB-C/Thunderbolt device like all the other Titan Ridge docks are I made the assumption. I may be wrong.
Edit: I knew I'd read it somewhere, this blog claims it's a Titan Ridge device: https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2...derbolt-3-and-usb-c-with-titan-ridge-jhl7440/

Thanks for taking the time to find that article. Makes sense to use the new controller so it has full USB-C compatibility. I guess they didn't want to market dual standards for TB3 and USB-C as far as DisplayPort goes so they limited TB3 connections to DP1.2. Disappointing as this probably would be been my choice for dock if it supported DP1.4.

 

[kid2010]

The CalDigit TS3 Plus firmware for 87W charging is out now https://www.caldigit.com/updating-the-ts3-plus-firmware-via-macos-10-15/

 

[bsbeamer]

Can confirm the CalDigit firmware installs in 10.15.2 with MBP16,1 and now provides 87W power. No other drivers or software tools are needed for the firmware update. Requires two system restarts, FYI.

Will test without supplemental power next week. Initially seems it forces a delay in switching back to the Apple issued 96W charger or entirely prevents the auto-switching. Will also try to look into this further.

-----

Quick update - it's just a delayed switch over to the 96W charger, probably several minutes more/longer than previous without firmware update. Maybe just due to 87W vs 85W and the OS not "needing" to see the higher wattage more quickly?

-----

AC Charger Information:

Connected: Yes
ID: 0x0000
Wattage (W): 87
Charging: No


TS3 Plus:

Vendor Name: CalDigit, Inc.
Device Name: TS3 Plus
Vendor ID: 0x3D
Device ID: 0x11
Device Revision: 0x1
UID:
Route String: 1
Firmware Version: 44.1

 

[niroola]

Browsing this thread for guidance on a new dock when...

CES 2020: Plugable Launches 100W Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Docking Station

Plugable today announced the upcoming launch of the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, a Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C Docking Station that offers 100W power delivery,...

www.macrumors.com

Time will tell if it does in fact supply the requisite power. Btw, thanks everyone for posting your experience here and blazing the trail for the rest of us. I'm still undecided but I am between the HP G2 and Dell WD19TB.

 

[seangrimes590]

Some information about the Dell WD19TB dock. I plugged it in and it worked, no nonsense with drivers or anything else, so that was refreshing. The downstream TB3 port is reported to be 40gb/s instead of the half-speed that some docks give you (though I think all Titan Ridge docks should give full 40gb/s). Charging is reported to be 90 watts which iStat seems to confirm with DC in. It is amazing to see a laptop spike up to 140 watts when starting a Handbrake conversion. It held up over 105 watts of total system power for a full 5 minutes so even the Apple supplied 96w charger is going to have some trouble there.

 

[tokanizar]

So let's say you can maintain that high wattage usage for an extended time, how long until you can notice the battery being drained (to say 98%)? I'm not good at math, or physics.

 

[seangrimes590]

So let's say you can maintain that high wattage usage for an extended time, how long until you can notice the battery being drained (to say 98%)? I'm not good at math, or physics.

Running an hour long handbrake transcode that is using 85-93% of the CPU, while connected to an external 4k display (about 20w draw from Radeon card) now. I started at 100% battery using the Dell dock. I'll let you know the percent battery after the hour long transcode is done.