Thunderbolt 5 is just around the corner.

This week, Intel detailed what we can expect from Thunderbolt 5 in a blog post announcing the new connectivity standard: Thunderbolt 5, the successor to Thunderbolt 4, promises increased connection speeds and bandwidth as people demand faster connections for work, streaming, gaming and more. Thunderbolt 5 promises increased connection speeds and bandwidth to meet the growing demand of people who need faster connections for work, streaming, gaming, etc.

We'll have to wait until 2024 to see what Thunderbolt 5 looks like, but from what we've heard, it looks promising.

According to Intel, computers and accessories with Thunderbolt 5 will start arriving in 2024. That would make it likely that Thunderbolt 5 (codenamed Barlow Ridge) will not become ubiquitous until 2025 or 2026.

As for what computers and accessories will use Thunderbolt 5, we can reasonably expect it to be the connectivity standard for the best laptops, the best computers, the best portable chargers, etc.

According to Intel, Thunderbolt 5 delivers 80 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bandwidth in both directions; with Bandwidth Boost, it provides up to 120 Gbps.

The company claims that these improvements provide up to three times more bandwidth than existing connectivity options. This is a big deal if you prefer to use accessories like external GPU enclosures. Because more bandwidth means more data is transferred back and forth faster, which means better performance.

Also, since Thunderbolt 5 is based on USB4 v2, it is broadly compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.

Thunderbolt 5 can also support multiple 8K monitors or three 4K monitors at 144 Hz. For gamers, Thunderbolt 5 supports panels with refresh rates up to 540Hz, which seems ideal for those who own ridiculously fast displays like the Alienware 500Hz gaming monitors. According to Intel, the new PAM-3 signaling technology makes such performance gains possible.

While these features will benefit everyone, video editors, streamers, and gamers will undoubtedly take the most advantage of what Thunderbolt 5 has to offer.

While we will have to wait until 2024 for the first Thunderbolt 5 devices, we are already excited to see which monitors, laptops, storage drives, and chargers will take advantage of the upcoming connectivity standard. I am particularly interested to see how Thunderbolt 5 will benefit the best gaming laptops.

We will update this page with any Thunderbolt 5 announcements, so please come back to see more information as it becomes available.