Thunderbolt4 v Thunderbolt3

[Roxy.music]

I am a bit confused about the difference between TH4 and TH3. It has the same transfer speed, will the only advantages be if you have a TH4 port? It is all confusing.

is it all to do with the intel thunderbolt chip for TH3? At least Arm chips will still support thunderbolt. So the only real advantage of TH4 is that you will get more thunderbolt connections on a dock have I got that right?

 

[Wando64]

All I can say is... what a fudging mess.
No way to tell what a cable is able to support... call that innovation?

 

[Roxy.music]

All I can say is... what a fudging mess.
No way to tell what a cable is able to support... call that innovation?

I am there with you on that Wando I am totally confused. by it all At least Thunderbolt is still supported on Arm.

 

[joevt]

Thunderbolt 4 requires maximums of Thunderbolt 3 and doesn't allow compromises.
This means all Thunderbolt 4 ports will always:
1) allow two displays (some PCs only supported one)
2) allow DisplayPort 1.4 (older Thunderbolt 3 ports or some computers with less capable GPUs only supported DisplayPort 1.2)
3) have PCIe 3.0 x4 connection for the Thunderbolt controller (allows 2750 MB/s PCIe bandwidth over a Thunderbolt port - some PCs/Macs had a Thunderbolt controller that allowed only about 1600 MB/s)
4) allow USB-C PC charging on at least one port if less than 100W required (some PC laptops do not use USB-C for charging even if they don't need 100W for charging)
5) allow PC wake from sleep (who cares? optional in Thunderbolt 3)
6) require DMA protection

Plus:
1) Thunderbolt 4 cables will always support Thunderbolt and USB and DisplayPort (Thunderbolt 3 active 2m cables only supported Thunderbolt)

New features:
1) docks with up to 3 downward facing Thunderbolt ports (instead of just one for Thunderbolt 3)
2) support USB4 tunnelling (combines with PCIe/DisplayPort tunnelling of Thunderbolt 3)
3) support USB 3.2 gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) (actually, this might not be a thing with Thunderbolt 4 so scratch it off the list - minimum for USB is still 10 Gbps gen 2x1)

 

[Roxy.music]

🙂esn't allow compromises.
This means all Thunderbolt 4 ports will always:
1) allow two displays (some PCs only supported one)
2) allow DisplayPort 1.4 (older Thunderbolt 3 ports or some computers with less capable GPUs only supported DisplayPort 1.2)
3) have PCIe 3.0 x4 connection for the Thunderbolt controller (allows 2750 MB/s PCIe bandwidth over a Thunderbolt port - some PCs/Macs had a Thunderbolt controller that allowed only about 1600 MB/s)
4) allow USB-C PC charging on at least one port if less than 100W required (some PC laptops do not use USB-C for charging even if they don't need 100W for charging)
5) allow PC wake from sleep (who cares? optional in Thunderbolt 3)
6) require DMA protection

Plus:
1) Thunderbolt 4 cables will always support Thunderbolt and USB and DisplayPort (Thunderbolt 3 active 2m cables only supported Thunderbolt)

New features:
1) docks with up to 3 downward facing Thunderbolt ports (instead of just one for Thunderbolt 3)
2) support USB4 tunnelling (combines with PCIe/DisplayPort tunnelling of Thunderbolt 3)
3) support USB 3.2 gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) (actually, this might not be a thing with Thunderbolt 4 so scratch it off the list - minimum for USB is still 10 Gbps gen 2x1)

Thanks for explaining all that joevt Very helpful.