I run two Apple Silicon machines on the same desk: a Mac mini that lives there full-time and a MacBook Pro that floats between meetings, the couch, and travel. They share one display, one keyboard, one mouse, one audio interface, and a single ethernet drop.

For years that meant living with an aging KVM that was starting to feel sluggish — slow handoffs, dropped peripherals, and a hard ceiling on display bandwidth that capped my refresh rate well below where I wanted it. I went looking for something with more headroom and ended up with a two-box combination that has been the most reliable dock-and-switch setup I’ve tried.

The two pieces

Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station — the hub everything plugs into. 14 downstream ports, up to 120 Gbps over Thunderbolt 5, and 140 W of power delivery to the host, which is enough to keep the MacBook Pro charging under load. Everything I’d otherwise plug into either Mac — display, audio interface, ethernet, webcam, keyboard/mouse hub — lives on the dock instead.

Cable Matters 20Gbps USB-C Switch for 2 Computers — the front door. It sits between the two Macs and the dock. It ships with a wired remote with two buttons (one per computer) that you can stash anywhere on the desk. Hit the button, the upstream USB-C link swaps to the other machine, and every peripheral on the dock follows.

There isn’t a true Thunderbolt 5 KVM/switch on the market yet that I’d trust, so the upstream link to the dock drops from TB5 down to USB 20 Gbps when it goes through the switch. In practice that’s been more than enough for a single display at full refresh plus everything else on the dock.

The wiring

The Cable Matters switch ships with the cabling already figured out: two captive-style USB-C cables for plugging into each computer, plus a third integrated cable that runs into the dock.

[ Mac mini ] ──USB-C──┐
                       ├── [ Cable Matters Switch ] ──USB-C── [ Anker Prime TB5 Dock ] ─┬── display (240 Hz)
[ MacBook Pro ] ──USB-C┘                                                                ├── audio
                                                                                        ├── ethernet
                                                                                        ├── webcam
                                                                                        └── keyboard/mouse

That’s the entire desk-side wiring. No daisy-chained hubs, no separate display switch, no USB hub hanging off the back of one of the Macs.

What “works” actually means

After running this daily:

  • Display handoff is 5–10 seconds end to end. Tap the remote, brief blank screen, the other Mac comes up with everything attached.
  • 240 Hz refresh on a single display works through the switch. This was the headline upgrade over the old KVM — the bandwidth budget on USB 20 Gbps is enough to drive a high-refresh display without DSC headaches once macOS has negotiated the link.
  • Power delivery survives the switch. The MacBook Pro charges through the dock as if it were directly attached.
  • Peripherals behave. Audio interface, ethernet, keyboard/mouse all reconnect cleanly to whichever Mac is active.

The one quirk worth knowing

The first time each Mac sees the dock through the switch, macOS prompts to allow the Thunderbolt connection. If either machine hasn’t been “Allowed” yet, the handoff to it will look broken — display will come up but USB peripherals won’t, or things will half-attach. Once both Macs have explicitly accepted the connection in System Settings → Privacy & Security → “Allow accessories to connect” (or via the prompt the first time the link comes up), it just works from then on.

That single setup step was the difference between “this is unstable” and “this is the most reliable KVM I’ve owned.”

Limitations to be aware of

  • TB5 → USB 20 Gbps step-down through the switch. Devices behind the switch don’t get full Thunderbolt speeds — only USB 20 Gbps. For a single display plus normal peripherals, that’s fine. If you’re attaching a TB-only external GPU or chaining additional Thunderbolt storage, you’d want to wait for a real TB5 KVM.
  • Single display sweet spot. The Cable Matters switch is rated for up to 4K@60 on macOS by the manufacturer; running a single high-refresh display worked well, but I haven’t pushed it to dual displays.
  • Mac-side display modes. Standard refresh modes survive the switch cleanly. I haven’t tested HDR or ProMotion behavior across handoff.

Parts list

If you’re on Apple Silicon and tired of either swapping cables or fighting an old KVM that can’t keep up with modern displays, this combination has been worth it.