Thunderbolt 5 cables are here! But only one is worth buying right now

A Thunderbolt 5 cable has finally appeared, even before Thunderbolt 5 docks have begun shipping. Cable Matters is now advertising several “Intel Certified” Thunderbolt 5 cables capable of 120Gbps—but only one is worth buying, eventually.

Cable Matters is selling Thunderbolt 5 cables at Amazon for $32.99 apiece, with a 10 percent discount coupon on top of that. That nabs you a 3.3-foot cable, which is probably the ideal length. Cable Matters is also selling cables in 1-foot for $22.99 and 1.6-feet for $26.99.

I wouldn’t recommend the shorter lengths, especially the foot-long, which may be great for a sandwich but not for your desk. It’s too short for practical use. The 1.6-feet length could be okay depending.

Thunderbolt 5 is the next iteration of the Thunderbolt specification for PCs and Thunderbolt docking stations. While Thunderbolt 4 transfers up to 40Gbps in either direction, Thunderbolt 5 doubles that to 80Gbps bidirectionally, plus an optional 120Gbps “boost” in the display direction if needed.

Keep in mind that none of these three cable lengths will truly satisfy a Thunderbolt 5 desktop PC placed under your desk, which is a key reason for buying a standalone cable in the first place. (I’d also expect every Thunderbolt 5 dock to ship with its own cable, too, which are typically about 2.5- to 3.5-feet long.)

But the release of these cables does signal that Thunderbolt 5 devices are drawing nearer. We saw the first Thunderbolt 5 hardware at CES this past January, with the caveat that they would ship later this year. We’re still hoping for Thunderbolt 5 hardware to arrive this fall, even though it won’t be officially integrated into Intel’s Lunar Lake processor.

Cable Matters’ Thunderbolt 5 cables are hereGet them on Amazon now

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

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