The IT Nerd

Apple has recently released a bunch of new computers. And some of them come with Thunderbolt 5 which Apple promised “up to 120 Gbps” of speed among other things. But I’m here to say that it’s not that simple. Let me explain why by going back to what Thunderbolt 4 does.

Thunderbolt 4 ports and cables are capable of transmitting power, data and video signals. In terms of video, it will handle a single 8K, 6K or 5K external display. Alternatively it can support dual external 4K displays at up to 60Hz. In terms of speed, it will do up to 40 Gbps. And in terms of power, it will do anywhere between 100W and 140W depending on the implementation. Here’s what Thunderbolt brings to the table according to Intel:

• Thunderbolt 5 is promising speeds of up to 120 Gbps.
• Thunderbolt 5 can support up to three 4K displays running at up to 144Hz, or you can do two 6K or 8K displays. It can also handle a single external display as fast as 540Hz.
• Thunderbolt 5 can support from 140W to 240W of power

But let’s get to the elephant in the room. Which is the 120 Gbps speeds that Apple promised. If you dig into the details, Thunderbolt 5 has double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4. So that’s 80 Gbps not 120 Gbps. So how does Apple advertise speeds of 120 Gbps? Well, Thunderbolt 5 has the ability to sacrifice receive speeds to get to 120 Gbps on the transmit side of the fence. So the only scenario where that would make sense is on the graphics side of the fence. Specifically for high resolution and high refresh rate monitors. You won’t see that shuffling files from an external hard disk for example.

As an aside, if you also have concluded that Apple will likely come out with a new version of their Pro Display XDR or Studio Display that supports their Pro Motion variable refresh rate tech because Thunderbolt 5 exists, you get a gold star. Because with Thunderbolt 4, it wasn’t technically possible for Apple to have a 5K or 6K display with anything more than 60 Hz. But with Thunderbolt 5, it is technically possible.

One other thing to consider is that you need to have Thunderbolt 5 compatible devices to get these speeds. Right now there’s not a whole lot of them out there. But I am sure that they will start to appear over the next year. That makes having Thunderbolt 5 a “sometime later” thing for most people. But when it does become a practical for most people, it will be a game changer.

This entry was posted on November 10, 2024 at 8:39 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Intel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.