Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3/4 adapter

[Ty34er]

Hello everyone, it's been a while. I bought a Thunderbolt dock to use for my work from home setup. Well, I have a connection issue that will HOPEFULLY be solved by updating the firmware. My wife has a MacBook with thunderbolt, but it's thunderbolt 2 (mini displayport) and my dock is thunderbolt 3/4 (USB-C). 

Does anyone know of a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3/4 adapter? It's not like I need it as a permanent solution, just a temporary fix on my docking station. I did do one last bit of Googling and I don't think one exists so I'm SOL, but I figured y'all might know something.

[dalekphalm]

9 minutes ago, Ty34er said:

Hello everyone, it's been a while. I bought a Thunderbolt dock to use for my work from home setup. Well, I have a connection issue that will HOPEFULLY be solved by updating the firmware. My wife has a MacBook with thunderbolt, but it's thunderbolt 2 (mini displayport) and my dock is thunderbolt 3/4 (USB-C). 

Does anyone know of a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3/4 adapter? It's not like I need it as a permanent solution, just a temporary fix on my docking station. I did do one last bit of Googling and I don't think one exists so I'm SOL, but I figured y'all might know something.

I don't think one of those exists. There's an opposite adapter, with Thunderbolt 3 being converted to Thunderbolt 2 (backwards compatibility), but the laptop would need TB3 and connect to a TB2 peripheral.

https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

 

I'm pretty sure your wife's laptop is SOL here.

[Ty34er]

16 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

I don't think one of those exists. There's an opposite adapter, with Thunderbolt 3 being converted to Thunderbolt 2 (backwards compatibility), but the laptop would need TB3 and connect to a TB2 peripheral.

https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

 

I'm pretty sure your wife's laptop is SOL here.

Welp, that's kind of what I saw when searching online. I guess I'll need to look into a PCIe card or asking IT at work to let me run the program (probably option 1).

Thanks for the extra confirmation.

[dalekphalm]

5 minutes ago, Ty34er said:

Welp, that's kind of what I saw when searching online. I guess I'll need to look into a PCIe card or asking IT at work to let me run the program (probably option 1).

Thanks for the extra confirmation.

No problem. When looking at PCIe add-in cards for TB3, you will want to be extra careful in your research, as they don't necessarily work on every system. Generally you need a compatible motherboard and CPU that support TB3 or 4.

[BondiBlue]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

I don't think one of those exists. There's an opposite adapter, with Thunderbolt 3 being converted to Thunderbolt 2 (backwards compatibility), but the laptop would need TB3 and connect to a TB2 peripheral.

https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

 

I'm pretty sure your wife's laptop is SOL here.

The Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter can be used to connect TB3 peripherals to TB2 hosts. I don't know how well it'll support all the functionality of a docking station (power definitely won't work, multiple displays might be iffy, everything else should work AFAIK), but it should at least partially work. I've used that Apple adapter to connect a Razer Core X Chroma Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure to some older Macs, even some Thunderbolt 1 Macs. With that enclosure I was using a GTX 680 with a 2011 27" iMac (Thunderbolt 1) and a 2012 15" MacBook Pro (also TB1). 

[dalekphalm]

22 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

The Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter can be used to connect TB3 peripherals to TB2 hosts.

Can you elaborate on this? TB2 hosts would not be compatible with TB3 devices - does the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter provide an active conversion from TB3 devices to TB2 for the host?

Also, the connections are reversed - you'd need to get a TB2 male to male adapter, as the TB3 to TB2 adapter has a TB2 Female jack.

22 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

I don't know how well it'll support all the functionality of a docking station (power definitely won't work, multiple displays might be iffy, everything else should work AFAIK), but it should at least partially work. I've used that Apple adapter to connect a Razer Core X Chroma Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure to some older Macs, even some Thunderbolt 1 Macs. With that enclosure I was using a GTX 680 with a 2011 27" iMac (Thunderbolt 1) and a 2012 15" MacBook Pro (also TB1). 

How exactly did you get this setup to work? Which cables and adapters were required?

[BondiBlue]

51 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Can you elaborate on this? TB2 hosts would not be compatible with TB3 devices - does the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter provide an active conversion from TB3 devices to TB2 for the host?

Also, the connections are reversed - you'd need to get a TB2 male to male adapter, as the TB3 to TB2 adapter has a TB2 Female jack.

How exactly did you get this setup to work? Which cables and adapters were required?

All that's needed to connect a TB3 device to a TB2 host is this Apple adapter you linked and a regular Thunderbolt 2 cable. Connect the TB3 to TB2 adapter directly to the external device (the eGPU enclosure in my case) and connect a TB2 cable between the adapter and the computer. I've used that exact setup on multiple Macs, including Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 models. I even used a PCIe SSD with those Macs by installing it into the eGPU enclosure. The eGPU enlcosure I was using has a built-in USB 3.1 hub, and that worked as well, which was an easy way to add proper USB 3 ports to my 2011 27" iMac. 

 

You have to keep in mind that you're going to be limited by the speed of the slower Thunderbolt bus on the host computer, so using an external GPU like I was doing isn't very practical. I was mostly just doing it for fun since I ended up acquiring two of those Razer eGPU enclosures for free. It worked perfectly though, and I tested it by connecting multiple external monitors to the GTX 680 in the enclosure. 

 

Here are a few screenshots showing that this does in fact work (click for full resolution):

1) This screenshot shows the 2011 27" iMac with the GTX 680 connected via Thunderbolt. When I took this screenshot I had a 23" Dell 1080p monitor connected to the GTX 680. 

 

2) This screenshot shows a result from the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app on macOS. The target drive was a 256GB Samsung USB flash drive connected to the Razer eGPU enclosure. There is no possible way to get a speed test this fast using the internal USB ports on the iMac since it only supports USB 2.0. 

 

3) This screenshot is from a 2012 15" MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina. This MacBook only supports Thunderbolt 1, but you can see that the GTX 680 in the enclosure had a PCIe x4 link. It was also driving the same 23" Dell monitor. 

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

All that's needed to connect a TB3 device to a TB2 host is this Apple adapter you linked and a regular Thunderbolt 2 cable. Connect the TB3 to TB2 adapter directly to the external device (the eGPU enclosure in my case) and connect a TB2 cable between the adapter and the computer. I've used that exact setup on multiple Macs, including Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 models. I even used a PCIe SSD with those Macs by installing it into the eGPU enclosure. The eGPU enlcosure I was using has a built-in USB 3.1 hub, and that worked as well, which was an easy way to add proper USB 3 ports to my 2011 27" iMac. 

 

You have to keep in mind that you're going to be limited by the speed of the slower Thunderbolt bus on the host computer, so using an external GPU like I was doing isn't very practical. I was mostly just doing it for fun since I ended up acquiring two of those Razer eGPU enclosures for free. It worked perfectly though, and I tested it by connecting multiple external monitors to the GTX 680 in the enclosure. 

 

Here are a few screenshots showing that this does in fact work (click for full resolution):

1) This screenshot shows the 2011 27" iMac with the GTX 680 connected via Thunderbolt. When I took this screenshot I had a 23" Dell 1080p monitor connected to the GTX 680. 

 

2) This screenshot shows a result from the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app on macOS. The target drive was a 256GB Samsung USB flash drive connected to the Razer eGPU enclosure. There is no possible way to get a speed test this fast using the internal USB ports on the iMac since it only supports USB 2.0. 

 

3) This screenshot is from a 2012 15" MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina. This MacBook only supports Thunderbolt 1, but you can see that the GTX 680 in the enclosure had a PCIe x4 link. It was also driving the same 23" Dell monitor. 

Interesting - obviously TB-host side has backwards compatibility (You can always plug a TB3 device into a TB4 host computer, for example), but I was not aware that TB3 or 4 end devices would drop back to TB2 for backwards compatibility - that's interesting, and useful to know.

 

Well, looks like this is the correct answer for the OP. Though, granted, even with this adapter, I'm not going to assume every component on the dock will work correctly.

[BondiBlue]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Interesting - obviously TB-host side has backwards compatibility (You can always plug a TB3 device into a TB4 host computer, for example), but I was not aware that TB3 or 4 end devices would drop back to TB2 for backwards compatibility - that's interesting, and useful to know.

 

Well, looks like this is the correct answer for the OP. Though, granted, even with this adapter, I'm not going to assume every component on the dock will work correctly.

Before I tried it I wasn't sure if it would work right or not, but I ended up getting two of those Razer eGPU enclosures for free (ended up selling one for $260), so I didn't have to spend anything to try it. It's come in handy a couple times to connect PCIe devices to a few of my older Macs. It's not something I need to do very often, but I've used it with a PCIe SSD to transfer a large amount of data between the 2011 iMac and a newer MacBook, for example, and it saved a lot of time compared to using gigabit ethernet. 

[Ty34er]

On 1/23/2023 at 8:09 PM, BondiBlue said:

Connect the TB3 to TB2 adapter directly to the external device (the eGPU enclosure in my case) and connect a TB2 cable between the adapter and the computer.

So what you're saying is that I could get the Apple adapter, a USB-C female to female adapter, and a MDP to MDP cable and MAYBE get it to work. 

I think that's even more effort than I want to attempt for what is effectively very little reward, but thanks for the extra complete information.

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, Ty34er said:

So what you're saying is that I could get the Apple adapter, a USB-C female to female adapter, and a MDP to MDP cable and MAYBE get it to work. 

I think that's even more effort than I want to attempt for what is effectively very little reward, but thanks for the extra complete information.

That would entirely depend on the dock. If it has a USB-C Male cable already as the uplink, then yes, you'd need a Female to Female adapter. Then a straight mDP to mDP cable from the other end of the TB3 to TB2 adapter and the mDP cable goes into the Mac.

 

If you do try it out, let us know how it works.