We knew that USB4 was going to change everything thanks to the marriage of Thunderbolt (TB) and USB-C together into one happy specification. However, even we didn’t see this coming so soon. The USB Promoter Group has already announced the release of the USB4 Version 2.0 specification. This means that manufacturers can now start considering it for upcoming devices.
So what makes it so special? USB4 Version 2.0 is getting a huge speed boost that matches up to most of the next-gen USB speed-bump patterns (where speed typically doubles each time). In this case, the new spec will be capable of up to 80 Gbps using the same USB-C connection. Perfect for taking some of these newer NVMe drives external while actually being able to reach their top speeds.
Not bad since the drives capable of these kind of speeds have only been out for a few years now. With 80Gbps, you’ll be able to obtain speeds of up to 10GB/s via a tiny USB-C port (as long as the port and connected device supports USB4 Version 2.0, at least). This, of course, is all theoretical since it hasn’t been mass-tested in the wild just yet.
And here we were happy to finally get our hands on a TB4 card for some of the MSI motherboards around here (which is limited to 40Gbps). 80Gbps changes everything with the ability to use the latest NVMe technologies on all of your favorite (supported) devices as new motherboards and laptops release in the future. It may take some time though as what is already close to release has already been designed and in the manufacturing process, thus would support TB4 at most depending on what they include with each model/device. We likely won’t see anything with the new spec until mid to late next year.
USB4 Version 2.0 is a much better naming process than what happened to USB 3.x specifications that ended up confusing the heck out of a lot of people. Hopefully, they stick to this naming process and stop bouncing all over the place trying to perfect it further.
Just keep in mind that both your system and connected devices need to support the new spec to be able to obtain these speeds (like any new version of USB). If not, it is backward compatible thus these cables and devices will also support every USB spec before it (including Thunderbolt 3), all the way down to USB 2.0 (with the slower speeds that come with each spec). You’re limited to whatever your weakest link in the connection is.
