Monday, October 26th 2015
GIGABYTE Offers Thunderbolt 3 Support on Select Boards with a Firmware Update
GIGABYTE announced that it's enabling 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 support on select boards that have 20 Gb/s Thunderbolt 2 support, with a mere firmware update. It turns out that the Thunderbolt controllers on the company's Z170X-Gaming G1, Z170X-Gaming GT, and Z170X-Gaming 7 motherboards physically support Thunderbolt 3, but due to a lack of certification, its support was withheld, and bandwidth limited to 20 Gb/s.
What's more, these boards support the Thunderbolt protocol over USB 3.1 type-C, at lowered bandwidth, besides its traditional Thunderbolt/mini-DisplayPort connector at rated bandwidth. This should help with the new generation of Thunderbolt daisy-chaining docks that support USB type-C connections. To get the latest firmware, all you need to do is update your board's BIOS to the latest one on GIGABYTE's website.
What's more, these boards support the Thunderbolt protocol over USB 3.1 type-C, at lowered bandwidth, besides its traditional Thunderbolt/mini-DisplayPort connector at rated bandwidth. This should help with the new generation of Thunderbolt daisy-chaining docks that support USB type-C connections. To get the latest firmware, all you need to do is update your board's BIOS to the latest one on GIGABYTE's website.
5 Comments on GIGABYTE Offers Thunderbolt 3 Support on Select Boards with a Firmware Update
That's not to say I'm against it. If my new laptop came with a Thunderbolt port I might use it for a dock. Though, that's not 100% certain because I'd get a PC laptop and I probably wouldn't be hurting for ports.
You do not need Thunderbolt for a dock, you can use USB for that.
PCIe lanes in Thunderbolt are great and it just shows that everyone should be using the same standard for data transfer instead of different standards for external and internal devices like USB, SATA, PCIe, M.2, Thunderbolt.... One standard to rule them all!