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What's New With Thunderbolt 4? It Won't Be Faster, But Other Specs Scale Up

Thunderbolt 4 will start arriving later this year with Intel's upcoming 'Tiger Lake' processors for notebooks.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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(Credit: Intel)

Intel today unveiled Thunderbolt 4, but don’t expect a speed increase. 

Like Thunderbolt 3, the next-generation connection port will offer consumers the same 40Gbps data transfer rates—or four times the speed of USB 3.2 Gen 2. However, Intel did scale up the specs in other areas. 

To qualify as a Thunderbolt 4 PC, the machine must be able to drive enough bandwidth to support two 4K displays or a single 8K display. (In contrast, Thunderbolt 3 PCs only need to be able to support a single 4K monitor.) 

On the peripheral front, Thunderbolt 4 PCs must offer 32Gbps minimum storage speeds over PCIe lanes, or double what Thunderbolt 3 is required to do. The same machines will also need to feature PC charging over at least one Thunderbolt 4 port. 

Differences between Thunderbolt 3 and 4 (Credit: Intel)

The company says Thunderbolt 4 will start arriving later this year with Intel’s upcoming “Tiger Lake” processors for notebooks. The next-generation connection ports will also be fully compatible with Thunderbolt 3. To get PC makers on board, the company is releasing developer kits and making certification testing available now.

Aside from the fast data transfer speeds, Thunderbolt’s other perk is how it can support DisplayPort, PCIe, USB connections and power delivery over a single USB-C port, removing the need for a PC vendor to add a variety of different slots on the machine. It’s why Intel has dubbed the technology the “universal connector.”

How to tell if your computer supports Thunderbolt How to tell if your computer supports Thunderbolt (Credit: Intel)

Thunderbolt 3 was announced in 2015, and since then, Intel says it’s shipped “hundreds of millions” of PCs and peripherals with the technology built-in. Nevertheless, the technology hasn’t been adopted everywhere, especially in cheaper computers. But that may change, thanks to the upcoming USB 4 standard, which is based off the Thunderbolt 3 protocol. (In 2017, Intel made the protocol available under a royalty-free license.)

USB 4 is slated to support up to 40Gbps data transfer speeds, and have backward-compatibility with Thunderbolt 3. The first products to support USB 4 are expected to arrive possibly later this year or in 2021.

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About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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