Thunderbolt 3 vs USB 4 External SSD on the M1 Mac

By Kevin Ross | February 25, 2021 |

If you’ve wondered about the Thunderbolt 3 vs. the USB 4 external SSD on your M1 Mac, and whether there’s a difference, then this review may answer some of those questions to help you make that buying decision.

I recently did a video on editing on the fastest external SSD on the M1 Mac, and this is a follow up to that video where I compare the Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosure to the USB 4 NVMe enclosure.

There are some synthetic benchmarks, but I also provide you with some additional testing where I export a multi-camera 4K timeline on each of these drives. In addition, all cables are certified Thunderbolt cables, and I've even tried these enclosures with an active Thunderbolt cable. Be sure to note my “alert” on the USB 4 enclosure and my buying experience.

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