What is Thunderbolt technology and how is it different from USB-C?

You’ve probably heard of Thunderbolt technology and seen it in the form of ports and cables. But what is it really and how is it different from USB-C? Here’s a detailed explanation.

What is Thunderbolt technology?
Thunderbolt is a communications interface developed by Intel with technical assistance from Apple. It works bidirectionally, that is, it sends and receives data at the same time. without loss of speed in both directions.
Since the technology was introduced in 2011, there have been several different versions of it. But nowadays, if you're buying a device that uses it, you are probably looking at Thunderbolt 3 or 4.
These ports look exactly the same as USB-C ports, and in fact, their connectors are physically identical. For the most part, they can do everything a USB-C port can do, but more quickly. In fact, Thunderbolt is a "superset" of USB-C - you can plug a USB-C device into a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 port on a PC and it will work perfectly.

Thunderbolt 3: Introduced in 2015, this features a USB-C connector, a maximum transfer speed of 40GB/s and up to 15W of power for running accessories. It can also support a 4K display and is compatible with the USB4 specification.
Thunderbolt 4: Launched in 2020, this is the latest version of its technology currently available. It continues to have the same maximum transfer speed as Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s), but imposes this as a minimum, while for 3 it is not imposed. Like Thunderbolt 3, 4 also has a USB-C connector and offers up to 15 W of power for accessories. But that's where the similarities between the two practically end. Unlike Thunderbolt 3, 4 can support two 4K displays and is classified as "compliant" with the USB4 specification. Thunderbolt 4 also has twice the PCIe SSD bandwidth speed (32 Gb/s) of Thunderbolt 3 (16 Gb/s).


Is it the same as USB-C?
No. Although Thunderbolt has recently incorporated the use of USB-C connectors, continue to be different technologies. So just because Thunderbolt 3 and 4 ports are designed for use with USB-C connectors, not all USB-C ports are designed to support Thunderbolt.
There are two main ways to tell if you have a Thunderbolt port:

You can see if there is a Thunderbolt icon next to the USB-C port on your device;
Or you can check your device's technical specifications online to see if it mentions Thunderbolt ports in the product description.

Although Intel has officially presented Thunderbolt 5 in September 2023, this technology is expected to become mainstream and visible in all devices from 2025.

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