The Belkin cable cannot send a USB 3.0 signal when connected to an ordinary USB-C port. The Apple cable does. It can also send DisplayPort over USB-C.
1) Except Apple’s profits aren’t all that high, are they? Apple for many years has made exactly what they’re still making—about 20% net profit.
If all you need is TB3, then that cable is fine. This one is also capable of sending USB 3.0 and DisplayPort signals outside of the Thunderbolt 3 protocol.
Intel announced Thunderbolt 3 would be a royalty-free standard over three years ago.
Now THAT's a Bargain!
Apple has quietly started selling its 2-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable priced at $129, offering a braided design and active cable technology that supports full Thunderbolt 3 data transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s. This marks the first time the cable has been available as a standalone purchase, as it is otherwise only available included with the Pro Display XDR.
Passive Thunderbolt 3 cables like Apple's standard version are limited to shorter lengths of less than a meter, as they are unable to maintain maximum speeds over longer lengths. Active electronics in the cable connectors are required for longer-length cables, which adds significantly to the cost. Even so, Apple's Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable carries a price premium over many other active cables, including an $80 Belkin one also carried by Apple.
Lengths beyond two or three meters require optical cables that are even more expensive, and optical Thunderbolt 3 cables are only just now starting to come to market with prices starting at several hundred dollars.
Article Link: Apple Begins Selling Standalone 2-Meter Thunderbolt 3 Pro Cable for $129
0.8 meter Thunderbolt 3 cables are fairly cheap. But copper isn’t good at delivering signal at 40 GB/s for longer lengths, which is why the 2 meter cables are more expensive.
Yes, even the 0.8m Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable would have been better with the new model.
My understanding is that since 2019 there is a one-time certification fee, which you can choose to ignore if you feel you can sell your hardware without certification.
The thing with active cables is that they have chips that work with only certain frequencies which is way most previous active Thunderbolt cables only did Thunderbolt. The fact that this one can do USB-C (USB and DisplayPort) is new and interesting and needs testing to be sure, since Apple did not explicitly mention all rates.
True. I can't see a way to get 20 Gbps Thunderbolt 2 speeds on this cable unless a Thunderbolt 3 device forces it (but I can't recall a Thunderbolt 3 device that forces Thunderbolt 2 speeds unless there's a cable problem).
Right. You probably need a 1920x1080 60Hz display to get RBR, a 2560x1440 60Hz display to get HBR, a 3840x2160 60Hz display to get HBR2, and a 3840x2160 95Hz or 5120x2880Hz display to get HBR3. I have a 4K display (Acer XV273K) that supports all those timings (actual timings, not scaled timings, verified with SwitchResX and AGDCDiagnose - really interesting that a 4K display can accept a 5K timing and scale it...) but all the timings use a HBR3 signal.
PCIe link width or link rate of Thunderbolt controller doesn't affect Thunderbolt link width or link rate of Thunderbolt port. They can still be transmitting at 40 Gbps while only being able to do 20 Gbps of actual data. I mean, I can put a Thunderbolt controller in my Mac Pro 2008 in a PCIe 1.0 slot (1000 MB/s max ≈750 MB/s of data), a PCIe 2.0 slot (2000 MB/s max, 1500 MB/s of data) or I can add a PCIe 3.0 slot (4000 MB/s max, ~2700 MB/s of data) and they all use 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 mode. 20 Gbps Thunderbolt mode can happen in Thunderbolt 3 if using the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter or if you're using a long USB-C cable (10 Gbps per lane, 2 Thunderbolt lanes) or if there's a problem with one of the lanes (20 Gbps on a single Thunderbolt lane). Anyway, while PCIe data is limited on Thunderbolt (and similarly, Thunderbolt network data), the rest of the 40 Gbps can be filled up with DisplayPort data (which takes precedence over PCIe data). I don't think I've seen Thunderbolt software on the PC showing controller PCIe link width before (it's been awhile since I looked at Thunderbolt on Windows) - I would like to see a screenshot of that.
Hi,
