If your device supports charging at over 100W, you’ll need a PD 3.1 cable that supports 240W. USB-C PD 3.1 now allows for charging at up to 240W. Either way, a TB4 cable is capable of the maximum 100W. Some Windows PC manufacturers limit charging on their ports. You can attach a powerful wall charger up to 100W, but note that Thunderbolt and USB-C charging functionality is dependent on your host computer’s charging capabilities.

Thunderbolt 4 cables support 100W (USB-C PD 3.0) charging as standard. 2m Passive USB4 cable: 20Gbps data transfer rate.1m Passive USB4 cable: 40Gbps data transfer rate.1m or 2m Passive Thunderbolt 4 cable: 40Gbps data transfer rate.1m or 2m Active Thunderbolt 3 cable: 40Gbps data transfer rate.1m or 2m Passive Thunderbolt 3 cable: 20Gbps data transfer rate.0.8m Passive Thunderbolt 3 cable: 40Gbps data transfer rate.Anything over 2m and you need an Active TB4 cable to maintain the high data rate.

Thunderbolt 4 cables can be up to 2m in length and still reach 40Gbps without the need for expensive Active boosters. Anything over 1m and the bandwidth could be reduced to 20Gbps unless the cables were “Active” including special signal boosters at each end, but this significantly increased the cost. “Passive” Thunderbolt 3 cables reduced in data-transfer rate as they got longer. Thunderbolt 4 cables include a small number 4 underneath the lightning bolt logo. Like Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4 ports and cables show the small lightning bolt logo, which helps to differentiate TB4 from USB4 and older USB-C 3.2 ports.

Intel VT-d direct memory access (DMA) protection to prevent physical DMA attacks.

Wake the computer from sleep by touching the keyboard or mouse when connected to a Thunderbolt dock.

100W PD charging on at least one computer port (up to 240W when certified PD 3.1).

Support for docks with up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports.

PCIe at 32Gbps for data-storage speeds up to 3,000MBps.

Support for two 4K displays or one 8K display.

Previously, 2m cables could not be used with USB-C monitors-a limitation rectified by Thunderbolt 4. It can also be used with many devices other than displays, unlike video cables. Buying a USB-C display means you can use a Thunderbolt 4 cable that’s much thinner than a DisplayPort or HDMI cable. TB4 can also support high-resolution displays up to 8K (7,680-x-4,320) or any USB-C monitor.

That’s why we recommend Thunderbolt 4 cables even if you don’t yet own a TB4 computer.

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