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It is a great time for USB-C. Not only is the iPhone finally getting it,

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but there's a fast new version of Thunderbolt, namely Thunderbolt 5, that uses the USB-C connector.

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It gives faster maximum data transfer than Thunderbolt 4,

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but it turns out Thunderbolt 4 isn't even the current top dog

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that Thunderbolt 5 is trying to beat. Instead, that title belongs to USB-4 V2.

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And confusingly, Thunderbolt might not look all that different

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in USB-4 V2, which it's based on at first glance.

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In fact, it has the same maximum data rate, 80 gigabits per second in each direction,

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or an asymmetric mode that gives you 120 gigabits one way

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and 40 the other. So what exactly is the point of Thunderbolt 5 then?

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Well, one is to provide a higher performance floor than what USB-4 V2 offers.

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Although both Thunderbolt 5 and USB-4 V2 can optionally handle 240 watts of charging,

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there's no guarantee your ports can actually deliver anything close to that.

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Your ports just ain't ready. Thunderbolt 5 though,

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requires at least one computer port that could charge a PC

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needing up to 140 watts of power and 15 watts of power for accessories,

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as opposed to the standard USB-4 minimum of just seven and a half watts.

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This means that Thunderbolt 5 can provide extra power

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to higher end laptops, especially compared to Thunderbolt 4,

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which only mandated a minimum of 100 watts.

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And the same is true in terms of data transfer rates. Thunderbolt 5 has to provide a max data rate

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of at least 80 gigabits per second one way up from the 20 gig minimum of USB-4.

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But what does this mean in more practical terms? For example, if you're connecting monitors,

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storage, or an external GPU. Now, if we're talking transferring data

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over the PCI Express 4.0 bus that Thunderbolt 5 supports,

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you'll have 64 gigabits per second of speed, which is roughly equivalent to four PCI Express 4.0 lanes.

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Although external GPU enclosures haven't been in vogue for a while,

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Intel is touting Thunderbolt 5 as a way to get better performance

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if you are using an eGPU, as it doubles Thunderbolt 4's PCI Express bandwidth.

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While the performance still won't be the same as plugging a card into a full length internal slot,

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it should still be a noticeable improvement over existing solutions.

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And although the equivalent of four lanes is a bit of a bottleneck for a GPU,

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it should offer great performance for external SSDs,

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useful for video editors who need to work with large amounts of footage.

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So what about those 80 and 120 gigabit numbers we previously discussed?

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In addition to matching general USB 4V2 data transfer speeds,

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these higher data rates are useful for monitors.

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The upgraded speeds over Thunderbolt 4 enable a pair of daisy-changed 6K monitors.

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And that might sound like a fairly weird resolution, but it's relatively common in professional-grade displays.

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For a more standard or gaming-type setup, you can drive three 4K displays at 144 hertz as well.

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Thunderbolt 5 will switch into 120 gigabit mode automatically

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when a display needs the extra bandwidth, but Intel is still sorting out exactly

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what display modes will trigger that switch at the time we wrote this video.

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To achieve these higher data rates, Thunderbolt 5 uses what's called PAM3 signaling.

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We went over PAM3 in more detail in this video,

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but basically by sending signals at three different voltage levels instead of two,

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Thunderbolt 5 can effectively transmit one and a half bits per cycle instead of just one.

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Pretty cool. But when should we expect products supporting Thunderbolt 5

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to hit the shelves? And is it a must-have piece of tech?

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Well, the first devices should be coming out in 2024, but Thunderbolt 5 will likely remain the province of enthusiasts

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who need the higher bandwidth, at least for now, especially since you don't have to have Thunderbolt 5

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to take advantage of the latest version of USB power delivery

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if you're just trying to do something like charge your laptop. Sadly, we don't yet live in a world

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where we're all using 8K displays on the regular.

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But one day, hooey, that was a whole video just now.

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Thanks for watching. Like it if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it.

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and don't you forget to subscribe and follow. I wanna see you back here again.

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