Apple rolls out new Thunderbolt 5 cable alongside M4 Pro Mac mini

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion

Apple has finally released its own Thunderbolt 5 cable, promising creative professionals serious performance gains over Thunderbolt -- with the right peripherals.

Black braided USB-C cable coiled into a circle with a Thunderbolt symbol on both connectors.
Image Credit: Apple



On Tuesday, Apple announced the release of the new M4 Mac mini, the second of three announcements it planned on making during the week. And, just as it did on Monday with the new iMac, the company quietly released a new accessory to go along with it.

Apple now is offering its own Thunderbolt 5 cable, available from Apple's online store for $69.00. The 1-meter long, black braided cable can be used for up to 240 watts of power delivery, as well as significant data transfer speeds over its predecessors.

The M4 Pro Mac mini is the first Mac that can take advantage of the new standard, as it features three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the rear.

Thunderbolt 5 was officially launched in September 2023 and promised to be a massive improvement for creative professionals and people with sizable bandwidth requirements. Thunderbolt 5 on the M4 Pro Mac mini offers up to 80 gigabits per second of bi-directional bandwidth by adopting PCI-E 4 addressing versus PCI-E 3 on Thunderbolt 4. By comparison, Thunderbolt 4 manages 40Gbps.

It also doubles the PCI Express data throughput, enabling both faster storage connectivity and improving the bandwidth available for external graphics systems.

Thunderbolt 4 is capable of running two 4K monitors at 60Hz. In comparison, Thunderbolt 5 can manage multiple 8K displays, or up to 540Hz displays, or three 4K displays running at 144Hz.

Thunderbolt 5 is backward compatible with both Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, though speeds will be reduced to 40Gb/s.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    black.pyramidblack.pyramid Posts: 2member
    Apple doesn't offer a display (or anything else on their store) that utilises Thunderbolt 5 yet; both the Studio Display and the current Pro Display XDR use Thunderbolt 3.

    Does this mean that they'll be announcing a new display? Perhaps a new Pro Display XDR — which could explain the removal of the '8K120' note from the new iMacs.
    https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/10/29/apple-has-killed-the-8k120-support-note-for-the-m4-imac
  • Reply 2 of 4
    darinbdarinb Posts: 9member
    As the owner of several expensive Thunderbolt cables, I love how the different versions are so clearly labeled. 
  • Reply 3 of 4
    maggot777maggot777 Posts: 36member
    darinb said:
    As the owner of several expensive Thunderbolt cables, I love how the different versions are so clearly labeled. 
    Why is this such a difficult endeavor for cable makers? 
  • Reply 4 of 4
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,349member
    Apple doesn't offer a display (or anything else on their store) that utilises Thunderbolt 5 yet; both the Studio Display and the current Pro Display XDR use Thunderbolt 3.

    Does this mean that they'll be announcing a new display? Perhaps a new Pro Display XDR — which could explain the removal of the '8K120' note from the new iMacs.
    https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/10/29/apple-has-killed-the-8k120-support-note-for-the-m4-imac
    In time yes it does mean that Apple can now go to a 120 Hz monitor with thunderbolt five (one connection not two), but there is a catch with all the people out there on all the web forums and youtube complaining about a 5K 27 inch Apple studio monitor cost that Apple currently offers, to drive a new 5K 120 Hz monitor requires double the information down the cable, a 120 Hz 27” monitor means everything will cost more above 4K you get nothing for free. which is one of the reasons why most of the PC world is basically stuck at 4K 120 Hz. With thunderbolt five Apple can now move ahead with their curated monitors but it won’t be cheap. 

    Those that have experience with the old 30” Apple Cinema Display are more familiar with the special two connection/video card setup that Apple had at that time. (Before 2014?). It was about as good as you were gonna get at that time and many are still working if you can find them.
    edited 7:02PM williamlondon
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