Intel has introduced Thunderbolt 5 with speeds of up to 120Gbps. The new tech is promising theoretical support for 540Hz gaming monitors, 240 watts of charging power and more. Though the chipmaker has officially announced the Thunderbolt 5, accessories and PCs won’t debut until 2024. Thunderbolt 5 is compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.
Thunderbolt 5 officially introduced
- Thunderbolt 5 is built on USB4 v2 and has speeds of up to 120Gbps.
- Thunderbolt 5 can transmit data at 80Gbps or up to 120Gbps in a Bandwidth Boost mode. In comparison, Thunderbolt 4 supported up to 40Gbps speeds.
- The Boost mode requires a high-bandwidth display. Otherwise, Thunderbolt 5 supports 80Gbps bidirectional speeds.
- Thunderbolt 5 supports multiple 8K monitors, three 4K monitors at 144Hz, and a minimum of 140 watts charging or up to 240 watts.
- The support for up to 240W means that gaming laptop manufacturers could opt to not include a separate power port on future devices.
- Thunderbolt 5 also supports DisplayPort 2.1.
- Intel has managed to achieve the boosts to bandwidth all thanks to a new signalling technology PAM-3, that’s supported in USB4 V2.
“Thunderbolt 5 will provide industry-leading performance and capability for connecting computers to monitors, docks, storage and more. Thunderbolt is now the mainstream port for connectivity on mobile PCs, and delivering the next generation of performance with Thunderbolt 5 will provide even more capability for the most demanding users,” said Jason Ziller, general manager of the client connectivity division at Intel.
Microsoft has worked closely with Intel to support USB 4 in Windows, with Thunderbolt 5 now fully USB 80Gbps standard compliant. We should know more details about accessories, probably including docks, monitors, and storage drives, very soon. As said, accessories will debut in 2024.
