Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Thunderbolt 5 may help bring back external GPUs, Intel says

Intel has just revealed Thunderbolt 5, which brings a stonking bandwidth increase to the speedy connector. Not only does that mean you’ll be able to charge connected laptops much faster than you can with Thunderbolt 4, but Intel also believes it could breathe new life into a forgotten product for gamers and creatives: the external GPU.

Thunderbolt 5 is a substantial improvement over Thunderbolt 4. The new standard offers 80 gigabits of bidirectional bandwidth — double that of its predecessor — and 120Gbps of bandwidth for external displays.

The Razer Core X Chroma external graphics card on a desk next a laptop and a monitor.
Razer

That’s a threefold increase over Thunderbolt 4 and means you can now power multiple 8K displays or one with a refresh rate up to 540Hz. If you’re after one of the best gaming monitors around, chances are Thunderbolt 5 will be able to handle it.

Recommended Videos

All that extra speed is great news for data transfers and charging speeds. For one thing, Thunderbolt 5 devices can provide up to 240W of power, meaning many laptops might simply opt for a Thunderbolt 5 slot rather than a separate power port. That should leave more room for other ports on the chassis.

An external GPU ‘resurgence’

A CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 next to an Apple MacBook laptop.
CalDigit

That extra bandwidth has another implication. In an interview with PC Gamer, Jason Ziller, head of Intel’s Client Connectivity Division, said that it could mean a wholehearted revival of external graphics cards.

A few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for people to buy a large, separate enclosure that housed one of the best graphics cards and a power supply in order to boost the graphical output of their PC or laptop. That was useful if your laptop wasn’t up to the task, but the expense and bulk meant they never really took off.

Now, though, Ziller thinks Thunderbolt 5 could bring them back into the mainstream. “We also have seen over the years external graphics connected over Thunderbolt,” Ziller told PC Gamer, “and I think that with the new version doubling bandwidth we will see a resurgence of that category.”

That’s not all. Ziller added: “And then I think also going forward over the next few years, we’ll maybe start to see some kind of external AI accelerator products because of the push for AI in the client space.”

However, before we get too excited, we’re unlikely to see any Thunderbolt 5-equipped devices hit the shelves until 2024. When they do, though, we could be set for a sizeable speed bump. And perhaps a resurgence of external GPUs, too.

Alex Blake
Alex Blake has been working with Digital Trends since 2019, where he spends most of his time writing about Mac computers…
Nvidia may launch three new Super GPUs to fight back AMD
Three RTX 4080 cards sitting on a pink background.

Nvidia may be readying three new GPUs -- the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and the RTX 4070 Super. We haven't seen Super cards since Nvidia's RTX 20-series, but if this leak turns out to be true, they're coming back. Will they be worthwhile enough to rank high among the best graphics cards? It's hard to say, but they could help it compete against AMD's recent GPUs.

The information comes from hongxing2020, a frequent leaker in the GPU space. Nvidia already has a decent spread of GPUs between the RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, and the RTX 4070. However, if a refresh to the Ada lineup is reportedly on the way, we might see some notable changes, but only if Nvidia decides to shake things up and use a different chip for at least two out of those three GPUs.

Read more
Intel’s new integrated graphics could rival discrete GPUs
The Intel Meteor Lake chip.

Intel has just announced an interesting update to its upcoming Meteor Lake chips: The integrated graphics are about to receive an unprecedented boost, allowing them to rival low-end, discrete GPUs. Now equipped with hardware-supported ray tracing, these chips have a good chance of becoming the best processors if you're not buying a discrete graphics card. Performance gains are huge, and it's not just the gamers who stand to benefit.

The information comes from a Graphics Deep Dive presentation hosted by Intel fellow Tom Petersen, well-known to the GPU market for working on Intel Arc graphics cards. This time, instead of discrete graphics, Petersen focused on the integrated GPU (iGPU) inside the upcoming Meteor Lake chip. Petersen explained the improvements at an architectural level, introducing the new graphics as Intel Xe-LPG.

Read more
What is Thunderbolt 5?
Thunderbolt 5 cable plugged into an Aorus laptop.

Thunderbolt 4 is one of the fastest and most capable connection standards you can utilize today, but Intel has announced its successor: Thunderbolt 5, and it's very impressive. With promises of up to triple the bandwidth in some scenarios, support for ultra high resolutions and refresh rates, and even the potential for a resurgence in external graphics cards, there's a lot to be excited about with Thunderbolt 5.

Intrigued? Here's everything we know about Thunderbolt 5.

Read more