With the above 5 drivers, currently Apple only uses 2 of them in their products:
Drivers can be found under /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/.
Besides the Intel8254X driver, all other drivers in macOS natively support both Intel and Apple Silicon machines: PCIe Driver SupportĬurrently in macOS Big Sur/Monterey, there are 3 PCIe Ethernet Vendors natively supported. Removing devices from this chain can greatly alliviate contrains, allowing your NIC to run without comprimise as well as allowing other USB devices to run faster. USB 3.0 for example has a shared bandwidth of 5Gbps, and when you have a dock with multiple devices plugged in, that takes up precious resources: DeviceĪs you can see, devices will be strained for bandwidth as we’re exceeding the 5Gbps bandwidth allowed under USB 3.0. Note 2: Apple may sometimes have additional support for certain USB Ethernet controllers via add-on drivers such as AppleUSBRealtek8153Patcher.kextįinally the most noticable issue with USB NICs is that they share bandwidth with the rest of your USB devices on the same controller.Note 1: Not all USB Ethernet devices are supported in macOS (namely AX88179) however the vast majority are thanks to this generic driver struture.Compare this to USB, much of the compute task is still on the CPU side. As of Monterey, the following are supported:Īdditionally PCIe NICs generally offload much of the compute task from the CPU onto the on-board controller, giving your system some headroom during bandwidth intensive tasks. Whereas with USB, Apple writes semi-generic drivers based off USB CDC (Controller Device Class). With macOS, Apple generally prioritizes PCIe devices over USB for better driver support as drivers are written explicitly for them (see next section). This list is currently limited to docks natively supported in macOS, as the list was compiled with a 14" MacBook Pro in mind.
This written to document the Ethernet controllers built into many Thunderbolt docks, with the goal of easily finding docks that use PCIe Ethernet. Unfortunately most OEMs have opted for Realtek USB NICs which I am not too keen on due to issues in the past with Realtek (both PCIe and USB). I've been looking on the market for docks with better reliability and noticed most OEMs don't list the Ethernet Vendor and connection type. Currently I'm in the market for Thunderbolt docks to pair with my 14" MacBook Pro.
0 kommentar(er)
