Intel officially released the Thunderbolt5 interface specification today, which has a speed of up to 120Gbps and theoretically supports 540Hz game monitors, 240W charging power, etc. While Thunderbolt 5 specifications are now official, accessories and PCs won't start supporting it until 2024.
Thunderbolt5 is built on USB4v2 and is compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB. Thunderbolt 4 supports speeds of 40Gbps, while Thunderbolt 5 can transfer data at 80Gbps or up to 120Gbps in bandwidth boost mode. This mode only works with high-bandwidth displays, otherwise Thunderbolt 5 only supports 80Gbps bidirectional speeds.
Thunderbolt 5 seems ideal for docking a laptop with multiple monitors, especially since it supports multiple 8K monitors, three 4K monitors at 144Hz (instead of the two 4K monitors limited to 60Hz in Thunderbolt 4), and charging power as low as 140 watts or as high as 240 watts.
For gamers, panels with frequencies up to 540Hz will also be possible, and even external GPUs will finally take off thanks to the bandwidth boost brought by PCI Gen4. Supporting 240W of power means gaming laptop manufacturers can choose not to equip future devices with a separate power port. Not only that, but Thunderbolt 5 will also support DisplayPort 2.1.
Jason Ziller, general manager of the Client Connectivity Group at Intel Corporation, said: "Thunderbolt 5 will provide industry-leading performance and capabilities for connecting computers to monitors, docks, storage devices and more. Thunderbolt is now the mainstream port for mobile PC connectivity, and the next generation performance provided by Thunderbolt 5 will provide even more powerful capabilities for the most demanding users."
Microsoft has worked closely with Intel to support USB4 in Windows, and Thunderbolt5 is also fully compliant with the USB80Gbps standard. Intel is able to increase bandwidth thanks to the new signaling technology PAM-3 supported by USB4v2.
We're now waiting to see which accessories will support Thunderbolt 5, but it sounds like docks, monitors, and storage drives will be the first to support Thunderbolt 5 connectivity in 2024.
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