Intel announces Thunderbolt 4, isn't much better than Thunderbolt 3

Intel has just announced the new generation of Thunderbolt, with the new Thunderbolt 4 standard being virtually identical to Thunderbolt 3 -- but Intel being Intel, we have Thunderbolt 4. Check it out:

What does Thunderbolt 4 do exactly? What is Intel's aim with Thunderbolt 4 is to boost up the minimum performance requirements, provide a couple of improvements, and USB4 specifications. The new Thunderbolt 4 standard supports dual 4K displays (versus just one 4K display on TB3) but now you can also connect a single 8K display over a single Thunderbolt 4 connection. Impressive.

Jason Ziller, Intel general manager of the Client Connectivity Division explains: "Thunderbolt provides consumers with a leading connectivity standard across a range of devices, helping to advance computing experiences and delivering on the promise of USB-C with simplicity, performance, and reliability. The arrival of Thunderbolt 4 underscores how Intel is advancing the PC ecosystem toward truly universal connectivity solutions".

Thunderbolt 4 can also enjoy cables that are up to 2 meters long, as well as Thunderbolt docks that will offer a bunch of different connections, cables, monitors, and more. There's no increased bandwidth specs here, with Thunderbolt 4 having 40Gbps of bandwidth, the same 40Gbps that Thunderbolt 3 has.

Here's a handy chart of the differences between Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and USB3/DP.

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