Discussion
Interesting Apple changed the ethernet chip from Aquantia, which they’ve been using forever, to the new Realtek 8127 on the M5 Max studio. Its a cheaper chip, but also runs a lot less hot…
Anyone know what the new M6 Mini uses? I was assuming Intel but could be another Realtek.
@paul since day one with my M2 Studio it’s randomly dropped to sub 10Mbit/s speeds a few times a week. I got it replaced under warranty and it happened on the replacement. I now run a cron job that resets the network connection each night at 3am and it hasn’t been an issue since.
@paul I wish they'd put something more serious like an Intel NIC in it. Realtek has never been great. I want server grade equipment - or at least like an entry level i210
@paul FWIW, the one on my m1 ultra was also flaky AF. I basically had to replace it with a thunderbolt one.
@octothorpe never had issues with that, strangely enough my M4 Max had some issues with connecting at 10G, would often only hit 5G. No idea why.
@paul I would also venture to guess the Mini is using Realtek for both the stock 2.5g box and the 10g nic
@paul Been wondering if they would start showing up in thunderbolt cards too. They are actually incredibly performant, low power, don’t emit a ton of heat compared to other 10G-BaseT chipsets and are are cheap. You can get PCI-E 4.0 x1 cards for 40-50 range on Amazon for use in PC’s
@paul M6 Mac Mini has Realtek 8125 (for 2.5GbE)
@paul Realtek 8125 on the 2.5GBit model
The Realtek 10GbE chip on the M5 Studios is acting up for me, I think started in 27.2. Randomly seems to get in a state where I need to change link speed to get it to work properly again.