{"id":2768,"date":"2021-05-12T19:31:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T19:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:16:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T20:16:23","slug":"thunderbolt-4-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderbolt 4 Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2772\" src=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/img\/blog\/thunderbolt-blogbanner.jpg\" alt=\"Thunderbolt banner\" width=\"640\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a new version of Thunderbolt in town. Dubbed Thunderbolt 4, the ubiquitous but often misunderstood interface brings some key benefits to the table with this latest iteration. But how does it compare to previous gen Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3.1\/3.2?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What\u2019s new &#8211; Thunderbolt 3 vs 4<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While Thunderbolt 4 still has all of the features of the previous generation such as flexibility in connecting displays, storage, peripherals, and charged devices, it offers some key improvements over previous gen.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Speed <\/strong>\u2013 Though total bandwidth is still the same at 40Gbps, PCIe data requirements specifically have doubled from 16Gbps to 32Gbps. This means external PCIe devices like storage and eGPUs will perform much better with Gen 4.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Security<\/strong> \u2013 DMA protection helps mitigate security threats from sketchy external devices<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wake from Sleep<\/strong> \u2013 Some peripherals can now wake your PC from sleep when connected via Thunderbolt<\/li>\n<li><strong>Docking capability <\/strong>\u2013 Though this is also a feature of Thunderbolt 3, it\u2019s worth discussing Thunderbolt\u2019s docking and expansion capability. Because of the high throughput, you can connect multiple devices with an external dock through one single Thunderbolt port. Thunderbolt\u2019s bi-directional capability means this single port can handle video out and data in concurrently without slowing down performance, making Thunderbolt an extremely versatile and dynamic solution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/thunderbolttechnology.net\/sites\/default\/files\/more%20speed.jpg\" alt=\"Thunderbolt 4 Speed\" width=\"1024\" height=\"857\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Thunderbolt 4 vs USB C<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019ve touched base on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/usb-3-1-vs-thunderbolt-3\/\">the differences between Type C and Thunderbolt<\/a> in previous posts. For the most part, the story is the same with Gen 4, but the highlights are worth repeating. Basically, Type C is the form factor of the port connection and supports interface speeds anywhere from USB 2.0 all the way to Thunderbolt 3 or 4. The speeds your specific Type C will support depends on the build itself, but if it\u2019s not specifically marked as Thunderbolt, it\u2019s likely a USB standard of some type. This means speeds of no more than 20GBps (top bandwidth of USB 3.2 2&#215;2).<\/p>\n<h2>Supported devices<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the increased bandwidth, it\u2019s Thunderbolt\u2019s versatility that really sets it apart from other interfaces like USB. Just a few of the devices you can connect via Thunderbolt 4 include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Monitors<\/li>\n<li>External storage<\/li>\n<li>External graphics<\/li>\n<li>Video capture devices<\/li>\n<li>Peripherals<\/li>\n<li>Networking<\/li>\n<li>Charging devices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Look for Thunderbolt 4 ports becoming available on most laptops like our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/raptor-t15-laptop.php\">Raptor T15 soon<\/a>. Desktop motherboard adoption will take more time, and because Thunderbolt was developed by Intel, will generally not be available on AMD devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a new version of Thunderbolt in town. Dubbed Thunderbolt 4, the ubiquitous but often misunderstood interface brings some key&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Thunderbolt 4 Explained - Speeds and Specs | Velocity Micro PC Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about how Thunderbolt 4 speeds compare to previous gen Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3.1\/3.2 and supported devices.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thunderbolt 4 Explained - Speeds and Specs | Velocity Micro PC Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about how Thunderbolt 4 speeds compare to previous gen Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3.1\/3.2 and supported devices.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Custom Gaming &amp; Workstation PC Blog | Velocity Micro\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VelocityMicro\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-12T19:31:25+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-12T20:16:23+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/img\/blog\/thunderbolt-blogbanner.jpg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Covington\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Josh Covington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Josh Covington\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d3ac563e7ca9fa3b457633628d81aed9\"},\"headline\":\"Thunderbolt 4 Explained\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-12T19:31:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-12T20:16:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\"},\"wordCount\":395,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Hardware\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\",\"name\":\"Thunderbolt 4 Explained - Speeds and Specs | Velocity Micro PC Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-12T19:31:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-12T20:16:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn about how Thunderbolt 4 speeds compare to previous gen Thunderbolt 3 or even USB 3.1\/3.2 and supported devices.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/thunderbolt-4-explained\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thunderbolt 4 Explained\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Custom Gaming &amp; 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