{"id":1126,"date":"2016-05-02T18:17:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T18:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/?p=1126"},"modified":"2021-05-12T17:17:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T17:17:52","slug":"usb-3-1-vs-thunderbolt-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/usb-3-1-vs-thunderbolt-3\/","title":{"rendered":"USB 3.1 vs Thunderbolt 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"USB<\/a><\/p>\n

These days, it seems like there\u2019s always a new I\/O port on the horizon. Not surprising considering the high bandwidth lives we all lead. Two of the connections announced in the past year or so are now starting to show up on newer motherboards \u2013 USB 3.1<\/a> and Thunderbolt 3. They seem pretty similar, right? Let\u2019s go over USB 3.1 vs. Thunderbolt 3.<\/p>\n

So what it USB 3.1?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve covered the confusion that is the current USB landscape here on this blog before, but essentially, USB 3.1 is the successor to USB 3.0. Its benefits include data transfer rates of up to 10 Gbps and 100W of power output – enough to charge a full sized laptop \u2013 and 15W to all bus-powered devices (e.g. anything fully powered by USB like hubs, optical drives, and external hard drives). USB 3.1 can come in both Type A and Type C forms, but the Type C connection is the most versatile.<\/p>\n

What is Thunderbolt 3?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Developed by Intel and announced in June 2015, Thunderbolt 3 has all of the advantages of 3.1 with a few additions. For one, it features an even higher bandwidth capability than USB 3.1 with data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps \u2013 4x over what we already thought was the breakneck speed of USB 3.1. In real world terms, that\u2019s your average 4K movie file size transferred in less than 30 seconds. Crazy fast. Other features\/advantages of Thunderbolt 3 include:<\/p>\n