Will ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs support Thunderbolt?

Yes. With the initial release of the Mac mini DTK developer box, which lacks Thunderbolt ports, there was some concern from site sponsor OWC and others that Apple would not support Thunderbolt on Apple Silicon Macs.

Thankfully, on July 10, 2020, Apple clarified that the company remains "committed to the future of Thunderbolt and will support it in Macs with Apple silicon."

In basic terms, the Mac mini DTK initially released for developers is a Wi-Fi only iPad Pro (2020) in a Mac mini box, and it likely does not support Thunderbolt simply because Apple had yet to do the engineering work required to add Thunderbolt capability (recent iPad Pro models already support USB-C).

It was nice to have official confirmation that shipping consumer Apple Silicon Macs would support Thunderbolt. When Apple shipped its first publicly available Apple Silicon Macs -- a 13" MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, and Mac mini -- on November 10, 2020, these models did, in fact, support Thunderbolt/USB 4 as promised. Subsequent Apple Silicon Macs support Thunderbolt, as well.

Will ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs support external storage?

Yes. With both the Mac and iPad Pro offering support for USB-C storage and Apple's pledge to support Thunderbolt on the Apple Silicon Macs, as well, the new Macs are all but guaranteed to support external storage.

Photo Credit: SanDisk (Left); OWC (Right)

Sure enough, when Apple shipped its first publicly available Apple Silicon Macs on November 10, 2020, these models did support external storage.

Will ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs support dedicated graphics processors? eGPUs?

July 21, 2023 Update: EveryMac.com's initial speculation from July 24, 2020 follows, but it was overly optimistic. It now seems unlikely that Apple ever will support dedicated graphics processors. Clever third-parties always might be able to come up with some way for an eGPU to work with an Apple Silicon Mac, but without Apple's blessing, this also seems unlikely.

No, at least initially. In developer documentation, Apple reports that Apple Silicon Macs just support an "Apple GPU" and explicitly do not support "Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD GPUs:"

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Apple Developer Documentation)

At the moment, an Apple GPU only is available integrated with an Apple Silicon processor (SoC), but this does not preclude the possibility of dedicated Apple GPUs in the future -- with their own video memory and/or on their own video card -- or the possibility of eGPU boxes using Apple GPUs, either.

Much like support for some kind of PCIe slots (below), EveryMac.com is operating under the assumption that an expandable tower Mac will be the last to migrate from Intel to Apple Silicon. It would be expected for an expandable tower Mac to support some kind of dedicated graphics cards, at least video cards from Apple, if not third-parties, as well. If an Apple Silicon-based tower Mac supports a PCIe-based video card, it would not be much additional work for Apple to also support eGPUs across the Mac line, either. In basic terms, an eGPU effectively is just a box with PCIe slots and one or more video cards.

Apple presumably could discourage or block third-party graphics cards or eGPUs with its security chip or in software, but this would seem to be an odd decision so soon after releasing a truly expandable Mac tower -- the 2019 Mac Pro -- after many years without one. EveryMac.com is optimistic that dedicated video cards and eGPUs eventually will be viable on Apple Silicon Macs, but only time will tell.

July 21, 2023 Update: EveryMac.com was correct about the Mac Pro being the last Mac to migrate from Intel to Apple Silicon -- the Mac Pro transitioned to Apple Silicon on June 5, 2023 and was the final Mac to do so -- but unfortunately, this Mac Pro explictly "doesn't support additional graphics processors such as PCIe graphics cards or MPX modules."

Will ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs support PCIe slots? Storage bays?

July 21, 2023 Update: EveryMac.com's initial speculation from July 24, 2020 follows. This speculation largely was correct; the Apple Silicon Mac Pro does support PCIe slots, albeit with limited functionality, and it has internal storage that can be removed as well as internal ports that can be used for additional internal storage, too.

Although no official information is available in Apple's developer documentation or elsewhere, EveryMac.com is operating under the assumption that an expandable tower Mac will be the last to migrate from Intel to Apple Silicon and it will include some flavor of PCIe expansion slots as well as some type of storage bays.

There always is the possibility that Apple is yet again closing Mac hardware, but at least on the desktop side, it is clear that power users do not like a box that is not significantly expandable. Apple re-learned this the hard way with the relative failure of the 2013 Mac Pro and finally resolved it quite admirably with the glorious 2019 Mac Pro; it would be peculiar to forget this lesson so quickly.

However, Apple has struggled internally with whether the Mac is a sealed box or an expandable box for decades -- all the way back to the days of the "Open Mac" Macintosh II in 1987 -- and it would not be surprising to see this struggle to continue for however much longer the Mac exists in name.

July 21, 2023 Update: EveryMac.com was correct about the Mac Pro being the last Mac to migrate from Intel to Apple Silicon -- the Mac Pro transitioned to Apple Silicon on June 5, 2023 and was the final Mac to do so -- and it does have PCIe slots, although they are limited to "fibre channel cards, fiber networking cards, video and audio I/O cards, storage cards, and ethernet cards." The Mac Pro (2023) also does essentially have the space for drive bays and supports internal storage upgrades to some extent. Given the limited demand for this Mac Pro (US$6999 and up) compared to the much cheaper Mac Studio (US$1999 and up), which provides essentially the same performance but no real internal expansion, it will be interesting to see whether or not this is the last Mac Pro. The struggle between open and closed continues.

Will ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs gain cellular connectivity?

August 19, 2022 Update: EveryMac.com's original answer from July 22, 2020 follows. Unfortunately, so far, Apple Silicon Macs have yet to gain cellular connectivity.

Let's hope so! Although no official information is available, it has been bizarre for years that an inexpensive iPad mini could offer cellular connectivity but a full-fledged MacBook costing two or three times as much, or more, did not.

With the switch to hardware with its roots in the iPad Pro and an operating system that runs iOS software natively, it certainly would seem to be technically straightforward to add cellular capability to Apple Silicon-based Macs.

Will existing peripherals be compatible with ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

Although no official information is available, recent Mac peripherals that have modern connectors like USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 and that have native operating system support have good odds of working. Recent USB-C equipped or wireless peripherals that work with both the Mac and the iPad Pro almost certainly will work.

Peripherals that interact directly with the hardware or that require third-party drivers, particularly older ones, probably will be left behind.

Will it be possible to upgrade an Intel-based Mac to an Apple Silicon processor?

No. The switch between Intel-based Macs and Apple Silicon-based Macs is a massive technological change; it is not possible to upgrade an Intel-based Mac to use Apple Silicon.

Permalink | Report an Error/Typo | Sign Up for Site Update Notices