Long (2-3m) Thunderbolt 4/5 cable alternatives

[rafale77]

As I was in need for a 3m long connection between my mac studio and my 6K monitor, I got myself digging into the TB cable rabbit hole.

Apple offers a Thunderbolt Pro 4 cable in 2 and 3m length at an eye watering price but with the limited bandwidth of 40Gbps.
At that length they need to be "active cables" with processing and amplifying chips inside the connectors.

There are lots of off brand cables on Amazon and most of them are as bad as being passive cables.

I have found one which does connect connect at TB5 speed on the mac studio and I tested with an external SSD enclosure to actually hit the 80Gbps bandwidth. The one I received is actually different from the pictures in that it actually has a thunderbolt 5 marking. I was a pleasantly surprised and wanted to share this for those in search for something like it.

AIRSKY 80Gbps Compatible with Thunderbolt 5 Cable, Bandwidth up to 120Gbps,16K/Dual 8K Display and 240W Charging, 10FT USB C to USB C Cable Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/5

Upgrade your USB-C setup with the AIRSKY USB4 V2 USB-C to USB-C Cable, built for users who need faster data transfer, high-power charging, and high-resolution video output in one cable. With support for up to 80Gbps bi-directional data transfer, this cable is designed for high-speed workflows suc...

www.amazon.com

 

[benholt]

good find. went down the same rabbit hole running from my Mac Studio to a Studio Display XDR at ~2.5m — most of the Amazon "TB4 rated" cables in that length either negotiated down to USB-C 3.2 speeds under sustained load or ran noticeably warm at the connector housing. the tell is the plug shape: active cables have that slight bump near the connector for the retimer silicon, passive-looking sleek ones are the ones that fold under load. bookmarking the AIRSKY, thanks for testing the actual 80Gbps sustained.

 

[rafale77]

I continue to be impressed actually and got that one during prime day. See the connector (sorry for the crappy picture reflections) which differs from any of the ones in the amazon listing for the product.

 

[edanuff]

Look at USB4 active optical cables. OWC and Storhm make some. No signal degradation regardless of length.

 

[rafale77]

Look at USB4 active optical cables. OWC and Storhm make some. No signal degradation regardless of length.

I did and found nothing like this. The best OWC at 10ft is a 40Gbps TB4 cable. Storhm has absolutely nothing at TB5 80Gbps speeds.

The cable I posted is also an active cable.
The thing about active (optical cables) is that if it is rated at 40Gbps, it will just not do 80Gbps period. I have had active optical HDMI cables for years. You get no loss on length but its bandwidth will not extend to anything beyond its rating.