Thunderbolt 5 provides up to three times the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4, meeting the high bandwidth needs of content creators and gamers.

Intel announced on the 13th that it has announced Thunderbolt 5, the next-generation Thunderbolt technology, and demonstrated a notebook and dock prototype. Thunderbolt 5 provides users with significantly improved connection speed and bandwidth.


Thunderbolt 5 supports 80 Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth and, with Bandwidth Boost, delivers up to 120 Gbps for the ultimate display experience.

Thunderbolt 5 builds on these improvements to deliver up to three times more bandwidth than the highest performing solution available today, enabling superior display and data connectivity.

Thunderbolt 5 is set to meet the high bandwidth demands of content creators and gamers. Built on industry standards including USB4 2.0, Thunderbolt 5 is backwards compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.

Content creators, gamers, and professionals are experiencing dramatic increases in bandwidth requirements. For those who want high-resolution displays and low-latency visuals while working with large video and data files, Thunderbolt 5 dramatically improves connection speeds and bandwidth, ensuring modern PC users can enjoy the highest-quality visuals and immersive experiences for years to come.

Thunderbolt 5 doubles the bidirectional bandwidth compared to Thunderbolt 4, providing up to three times the throughput (up to 120 Gbps) for video applications.

It also doubles PCI Express data throughput for faster storage and external graphics, and is built on industry standards including USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1, and PCI Express Gen 4, ensuring backward compatibility with previous generations.

Additionally, Thunderbolt networking bandwidth has been doubled for high-speed PC-to-PC connections, and a new signaling technology, PAM-3, delivers dramatically improved performance with today’s printed circuit boards, connectors, and passive cables up to 1 meter long.

Computers and accessories based on the Intel Thunderbolt 5 controller codenamed Barlow Ridge are expected to be announced in 2024.