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Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

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Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#31

Post by jajko »

buccal wrote: post #4
aitchnyu wrote: post #2

Will this be common with AMD laptops? I had very few choices in India 2 years back for driving a 5k screen, and they were all Intel and TB4. That Asus doesnt charge and send video at the same time, although my Mac does.

Currently I am looking at a Asus Zenbook Intel notebook that is connected by single USB-C cable. It charges and displays on 2 external monitors at the same time. One is QHD, other FHD. Also, gigabit network is provided through the same cable. I am not joking: try fully updating all notebook firmware AND display/docking station firmware.

This is pretty normal setup these days, we have the same with HP boxes, previously connected to HP laptops, now Dell. Coming to work and just connecting single usb-c cable.

Also when I connect my Samsung S22 ultra to this usb-c cable, via Samsung Dex I get immediately full screen portable Android desktop, pretty usable for basic stuff as much as Android can be, but controlled with keyboard & mouse.

Sort of fully utilized USB-C cable.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#32

Post by ThinkBeat »

Those cables always seem to be insanely expensive and the hardware I have bought up to v3 (I dont have anything with v4 or v5) does not deliver on the promised / potential speed. (the promised speed now is far arger)

This is primarly external storage. and I paid huge premium for the ThunderBolt 3 external drives to use wy Imac (or Macbook).

A USB C drive I use under windows (that at least does not declare itself as Thunderbolt 3, and using a standard (to what extent that exsists) USB C cable is far faster. (and swapping in the true Thunberbolt cable does not not make it any faster)

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#33

Post by perfmode »

mplewis9z wrote: post #18
seanalltogether wrote: post #10

If I could buy a 5k (retina) 120hz 27" monitor that would be endgame for me, I believe this finally has the bandwidth for that.

You’ve been able to do that with Thunderbolt 4 for a while (with Display Stream Compression) - I currently drive an 8k ultrawide (7680x2160, or two 4K side-by-side) at 120 Hz off a single Thunderbolt 4 port.

What model?

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#34

Post by threeseed »

stephenr wrote: post #22
seanalltogether wrote: post #10

If I could buy a 5k (retina) 120hz 27" monitor that would be endgame for me, I believe this finally has the bandwidth for that.

TB4 supports DP2.0, which (in UHBR13.5 or UHBR20 mode) has enough bandwidth for 5K @ 120Hz (or 144/180 Hz with UHBR20). The issue is more likely to be availability, and marketability. In general the demand for high refresh rates on desktop displays is driven by gamers, far more so than resolution - it's pointless having a 5K or 6K display if your GPU can only render the game in a playable fashion at 1440P or whatever…

Apple already ships ProMotion i.e. 120Hz on iPhone Pro and MacBook Pro displays.

And so it's odd you think they wouldn't bring it to the external displays. Especially when going back to 60Hz is definitely noticeable whilst doing desktop work i.e. lots of web page/document scrolling.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#35

Post by KptMarchewa »

thecopy wrote: post #17
InsomniacL wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB4 20 Gbps: Also known as USB4 Gen 2x2 USB4 40 Gbps: Referred to as USB4 Gen 3x2 USB4 80 Gbps: Known as USB4 Gen 4 USB4 Version 2.0 120Gbps I guess if you're required to support 120Gbps on even cheap small electronics then USB 4 support doesn't make sense

Is this confusing naming scheme intentional?

It's still better than deliberately incompatible schemes, meaning you can't charge your small device from laptop charger.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#36

Post by InsomniacL »

Lio wrote: post #24
InsomniacL wrote: post #11

People were upset about Apple being forced to switch to USB-C, but just look at how the market moved on without them. Apple Lightening: 480 Mbit/s Thunderbolt 5: 120,000 Mbit/s

Apple was selling laptops with Thunderbolt before it used a USB-C connector and were among the first to sell them with Thunderbolt over USB-C. They were, as far as I know, the first company to sell 27" monitors over Thunderbolt back in 2011. So Apple has been all in on Thunderbolt for years, they just persisted with the Lightning connector on iPhones. Phones mostly don't really make use of Thunderbolt bandwidth like…

Apple never used Lightening for laptops. The market i'm talking about is phones.

> saying the market has moved on without them is silly

Given they've produced nearly 2 billion phones with Lightening and are still producing/selling £1000 phones with Lightening, i don't think it's silly to say the market moved on without them.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#37

Post by Lio »

jiehong wrote: post #30
Lio wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple was selling laptops with Thunderbolt before it used a USB-C connector and were among the first to sell them with Thunderbolt over USB-C. They were, as far as I know, the first company to sell 27" monitors over Thunderbolt back in 2011. So Apple has been all in on Thunderbolt for years, they just persisted with the Lightning connector on iPhones. Phones mostly don't really make use of Thunderbolt bandwidth like…

Phones now record 8k at 120Hz, so that thunderbolt bandwidth is important, else you will wait ages to transfer that to your computer.

Oh I'm with you on that. I think it was a great improvement to get Thunderbolt over USB-C on iPhone Pros.

I just think it's a mistake to talk about the very latest Thunderbolt 5's bandwidth vs legacy Lightning as if Apple were still promoting it.

It's like comparing Thunderbolt 5 to Firewire.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#38

Post by withinboredom »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #35
thecopy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this confusing naming scheme intentional?

It's still better than deliberately incompatible schemes, meaning you can't charge your small device from laptop charger.

I think they mean "USB4 Version2" when it clearly isn't "version 2" but "version 5" or whatever.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#39

Post by Dalewyn »

thecopy wrote: post #17
InsomniacL wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB4 20 Gbps: Also known as USB4 Gen 2x2 USB4 40 Gbps: Referred to as USB4 Gen 3x2 USB4 80 Gbps: Known as USB4 Gen 4 USB4 Version 2.0 120Gbps I guess if you're required to support 120Gbps on even cheap small electronics then USB 4 support doesn't make sense

Is this confusing naming scheme intentional?

Yes.

Re: Thunderbolt 5 vs. Thunderbolt 4: Everything you need to know

#40

Post by riobard »

prmoustache wrote: post #26

I sometimes wonder why we have to be so gradual? I mean thunderbolt 1 spec was released in 2013. Thunderbolt 5 is the 5th revision in 11 years. Thunderbolt 4 spec was published in 2020, you cannot possibly think about all future needs/usages but couldn't we have anticipated in 2020 that 5k and 8k screen would be a thing and that people would want more bandwidth than 40gbps? All these standard changes every 2.5 years…

> limiting factors that prevented thunderbolt 5 capable equipment to be built in 2022 already

Lots of factors e.g cost, chip availability, heat dissipation, etc. Sure I would prefer upgrading laptop ports from 10Gbps directly to 100Gbps, but not if it costs 10x more and burns up battery.

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