The USB-C standard effectively played a nasty trick on us, especially where cables are concerned. That’s because it isn’t really a standard at all, but is instead merely a common plug and socket form-factor that can encompass a wide range of capabilities and standards.
Ensuring you buy the right USB-C cable for your needs has been a problem for many years now. That’s because you don’t want to buy a cable that doesn’t fully meet the standards, but at the same time there’s no point in paying for a higher-spec cable than you need for your particular application …
There have been attempts to simplify things over the years, one of which was the SuperSpeed (SS) logo. That wasn’t a great success, especially when it came to the SuperSpeed+ spec.
Thunderbolt has long been the safest bet if you need the speeds and standards it supports. That’s because Intel certifies all cables bearing the Thunderbolt name or logo to guarantee that they deliver the promised performance. And if you need the full Thunderbolt 5 capabilities – for example, because you want to support two 8K displays or three 4K displays – then for now at least you’ll need a certified cable.
But if you only need Thunderbolt 4, then you may have options. Here’s what the spec guarantees:
Data transfer of 40Gb/s for cables of up to 2m
Video support for 2x 4K displays
PCIe transfer of 32Gb/s
Power delivery of at least 15W
Fully compliant with all USB4 requirements
Buying a random USB4 cable instead doesn’t guarantee these standards. The spec only calls for 20Gb/s data transfer, support for a single display, no requirement for PCIe support, and power delivery of at least 7.5W.
However, as Engadget notes, sometimes the only difference between a USB4 cable and a Thunderbolt 4 one is Intel certification. In other words, the cable may in fact meet all of the Thunderbolt 4 requirements, or even significantly exceed some of them, but the company didn’t pay the certification fee.
Provided you stick to reputable brands and check the specs carefully, you may well be able to get all of the Thunderbolt 4 features at a significantly lower price, as this Ugreen example demonstrates – with 40Gb/s data speeds, 8K 60Hz video support, and 240W power delivery.
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