I have two Razer Thunderbolt 4 Chroma docks (RC21-0169) both used by Macbook Pro M1’s. One dock has firmware version 30.1 and the other (much newer) has firmware version 38.1.
I recently purchased a Sandisk USB4 4TB external SSD (SDSSDE82-4T00-G25) and when I connect to the downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports on the docks I have two very different experiences:
- The dock with firmware version 30.1 recognizes the drive as USB 3.1. Very slow tranfser speed of about 700MB/s.
- The dock with firmware version 38.1 recognizes the drive as Thunderbolt 4. Much faster transfer speed of 3000MB/s.
I obtained the link speed from System Information in MacOS. When the drive is directly connected to either Macbook Pros it is recognized as Thunderbolt/USB4 and gets the maximum 3000MB/s without any issues.
Obviously there is a huge performance difference between USB3.1 and USB4, how can I update my earlier Razer TB4 dock to work like the newer one?