Also note that if you have a laptop that supports Thunderbolt, you need a docking station that supports Thunderbolt. If you have a laptop that supports Alternate Video Mode, you need a docking station that supports Alternate Video Mode. AFAIK no laptop supports both modes, and very, very few docking station supports both.
As far as I understand, Thunderbolt 3 needs to support 4x PCI Express 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 [1] (slides 8, 10-15). And Intel advertises that their Thunderbolt 3 controllers can switch to DisplayPort-only alt-mode [1].
All the Thunderbolt 3/4 Macs that I have had (Intel and M1) definitely supported DP alt-mode (I hooked up a 4k@60Hz that way for years) and also USB-C docks that allocate lanes for DP alt-mode and USB 3.1. Obviously, Thunderbolt docks also work.
As far as I understand, Thunderbolt 3 needs to support 4x PCI Express 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 [1] (slides 8, 10-15). And Intel advertises that their Thunderbolt 3 controllers can switch to DisplayPort-only alt-mode [1].
All the Thunderbolt 3/4 Macs that I have had (Intel and M1) definitely supported DP alt-mode (I hooked up a 4k@60Hz that way for years) and also USB-C docks that allocate lanes for DP alt-mode and USB 3.1. Obviously, Thunderbolt docks also work.
[1] https://www.thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/ID... [2] https://www.thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/Th....