I did some additional testing with the iperf tool, which consistently showed "goodput" (actual usable data transferred) north of 900Mbps. (Mind the MBps versus Mbps: MBps is mega bytes per second, Mbps is mega bits per second, so with eight bits to a byte 1MBps requires 8Mbps.)
Most applications don't need that kind of speed, but there is one that does: copying files over the local network. But at 1000Mbps, Gigabit Ethernet is 10 times faster than Fast Ethernet and at least 3 times faster than 802.11n WiFi. That's still faster than the 11MBps that the USB Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) adapter supports. For instance, I've seen my MacBook Air do 23MBps over its 300Mbps WiFi connection, but most days I get 16MBps. On a really good day, real-world performance is two-thirds of that advertised link speed, but half is more common. WiFi speeds top out anywhere between 54 and 450Mbps. Ethernet on the other hand, pretty much always works, and when it doesn't, debugging is straightforward. Wireless networking problems are notoriously hard to debug, even for specialists. Most of the time, WiFi works very well, but sometimes it doesn't, and often there isn't much that you can do about that. Unfortunately, WiFi lacks two things: reliability and speed. Apple later released version 1.2.1 of the update, which turns the TBGE adapter from the world's smallest paperweight into a powerful network interface.īut why do we even need wired Ethernet in 2012? Most of the time, a WiFi network is more than adequate.
The Thunderbolt 1.2 software that contains a driver for the new adapter created kernel panics and boot problems for many users and was pulled within hours. The new adapter is also compatible with last year's MacBook Air (which was relegated to the USB Fast Ethernet adapter until now) as well as other Macs with Thunderbolt ports. At WWDC last week, Apple released the $29 Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet (TBGE) adapter to go with the new ultra-slim MacBook Pro.
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