Thunderbolt 3 nicknamed the USB-C that does it all. Caught the attention of many users like you and me. Even laptop manufacturers have also seen its importance and have begun to design new model laptops that support the Thunderbolt 3. However, the question most laptop owners have is, does my laptop have thunderbolt 3? To get the answer to this question, you have to stick around a little.
Does my laptop have thunderbolt 3? The quick answer to this question is to check the ports of your laptop. Thunderbolt 3 usually comes with a lightning symbol. If your laptop has this symbol by the side or on top of the port, your laptop has Thunderbolt 3. But if it doesn’t, that signifies that your laptop does not have thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 3 uses a USB-C connector. And this has confused a lot of laptop owners,as both share some certain similarities. Some users try the hard ways by connecting the Thunderbolt 3 cable to test if their laptops support thunderbolt 3. Let me save you the stress. In a situation where your ports do not come with any symbol, there are other ways to know if your laptop has Thunderbolt 3. Let us say you are an owner of a Windows PC, you can find out if your laptop has a thunderbolt 3 by checking the manual. If it has, it will be listed in the main features in the manual. You can also check the manufacturers’ webpage to check for this.
Mac users must know that Apple began inputting the thunderbolt 3 on Mac laptops in 2016. So if you are using a Mac laptop with a model date of 2016 upwards, your laptop already has thunderbolt 3. However, MacBook 12 which has a single USB-C port does not have thunderbolt 3. It is the only laptop made in 2016 that doesn’t have Thunderbolt 3. So if you are holding a Mac laptop made before 2016, yours doesn’t have Thunderbolt 3.
There are a lot of advantages if your laptop has a thunderbolt 3,as we know it is the fastest cable available right now. It has made a connection to an external GPU possible. And it has a tremendous speed when it comes to transferring data. You now see why laptop owners try hard to find out if theirs have the thunderbolt 3. So they to can enjoy the advantages the thunderbolt 3 brings to the table.
Is Thunderbolt 3 The Same As The USB-C
The thunderbolt 3 and the USB-C are identically similar to each other. That’s why so many laptop owners think they are the same. And it’s the reason some believe their old MacBook or Windows PCs have thunderbolt 3. You might be shocked to hear this, though they are somehow similar to each other, there is a great lot of differences between them. The simplest explanation for this is that USB-C is the port shape. Whereas thunderbolt 3 is the connectivity standard
The Thunderbolt 3 can do all that the USB-C can, except faster. It transfers data at a speed of 40Gbps. That’s twice as fast as the fastest USB-C can manage and four times as fast as the original USB-C. With this tremendous speed it commands, it has become more suitable connected with an eGPU. A task which the USB-C finds hard to manage. It also allows you to connect as many as six devices through a single port. The performance quality of thunderbolt 3 makes it stand out among others.
Benefits of having Thunderbolt 3 on your laptop.
There are a lot of benefits that a laptop that has thunderbolt 3 comes with. It is these benefits that Apple saw and quickly adopt on their latest Mac laptops. One benefit is its high performance. You can now run high graphics games on your laptop due to the presence of these ports. Something that wasn’t possible in the past. You can now connect to an external GPU to run a game or a high graphic intensive work. Which has help give your laptop flexibility and expendability.
The speed it brings is another advantage. You can transfer data bits at a speed of 40Gbps per second. Something that USB-C could not manage. That means you can transfer 4K videos that will normally take you four hours in just a minute. Ti has help curb time. Then waiting a whole four hours to transfer a video, I can now do it in minutes. It also allows for 10Gbps per connection. This means you can connect to a co-worker or a friend’s laptop to transfer data files,which is much faster than Ethernet port connections.
Thunderbolt 3 on your laptop means more connections are welcomed on your laptop. You can connect DisplayPort, PCI Express, and USB 3.1. So you can now see that the thunderbolt 3 welcomes other connections. The PCI Express allows for a video card, faster Network Interface Cards all this can be done on your laptop.
Thunderbolt 3 laptop users can access a huge amount of power delivery from their devices and accessories. It delivers power up to 100W to keep your laptop charger. This implies that you can bypass charging brick opt to charge your device through your docking station. This helps reduce clutter on your desk and the number of cables you need to bring along in your laptop bag. These are few benefits of the thunderbolt 3 on your laptop. You now see why many try to find out if their laptops have it.
Related Question
Can I connect USB to thunderbolt 3?
Yes, you can. Thunderbolt 3 supports all USB devices and cables. So you can connect your USB to any thunderbolt 3 ports, and it will work without any form of problem. But you cannot plug a thunderbolt 3 into a USB-C this will not work. Thunderbolt 3 was designed to carry out high-performance requirements than the USB-C. So USB-C ports do not have sufficient requirements to withstand the speed of the thunderbolt 3. For this very reason, the thunderbolt 3 will not work when plugged into a USB-C port.
What operating system supports thunderbolt 3?
All operating systems support Thunderbolt 3 as long as the technology and drive are available on your laptop. Apple was first to adopt the use of thunderbolt 3, then other operating systems like Windows, Linux followed after.
What type of thunderbolt devices are available?
There are three available thunderbolt devices. They include thunderbolt 1, 2, and 3. The Thunderbolt 3 is the fastest of all. It runs at a speed of 40Gbps which is 2x faster than thunderbolt 2 and 4X faster than thunderbolt 1. And thunderbolt 3 is more efficient and more flexible than the other previous thunderbolts.
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