Demystifying Thunderbolt™ 3

icon-thunderbol3

What is Thunderbolt 3?

Thunderbolt 3 technology is currently the fastest, most versatile protocol on the market capable of high-speed transfers 8x faster than USB 3.0, connecting multiple displays/monitors and daisychaining storage devices through a single Thunderbolt 3 port.

One Port To Do It All

icon-interface

Connector
Thunderbolt 3 uses the versatile USB-C™ connector - it doesn't matter which end you connect to your PC - making connecting easy.

icon-performance

Performance
Thunderbolt 3 delivers transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s with a portion of the bandwidth reserved for video transmission like dual 5K monitors. That still leaves ample bandwidth for access from storage devices, and other peripherals.

icon-daisy-chaining

Daisy Chaining
Daisy chain up to 6 devices through a single Thunderbolt 3 port (ex. storage + network + monitor + power), leaving other ports available for additional peripheral devices.

icon-data-power-delivery

Single-Cable Versatility
A single Thunderbolt 3 cable can be used for high-speed data transfers or supply up 100W of power.

icon-better-bus-power

Better Bus Power
Thunderbolt 3 delivers up to 15W of power for connected bus-powered devices. This is required for high-performance NVMe SSDs like our G-DRIVE PRO SSD.

Browse Thunderbolt 3 Products

How Thunderbolt 3 is Different from Others?

Protocol Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.2 Thunderbolt 2
Connector USB-C USB-C Mini DisplayPort
Performance Up to 40Gb/s1 Up to 20Gb/s1 Up to 20Gb/s1
Daisy Chaining Up to 6 devices - Up to 6 devices
USB Power Delivery Yes Yes -
Bus Power for Connected Devices Up to 15W Up to 7.5W Up to 10W

Aaron Lieber

Cinematographer

Aaron, is an award-winning surf cinematographer and filmmaker based in Oceanside, California. He works with the world’s best athletes including John John Florence, Kolohe Andino, Mick Fanning, Bethany Hamilton, Rob Machado, Carissa Moore, and Alana Blanchard.

The speed and reliability of Thunderbolt™ 3

With ever-evloving media storage requirement, Aaron relies on the speed of Thunderbolt (TM) 3 to complete his projects quickly. Staying ahead of the technology curve is critical for Aaron’s work, where fast transfers and effective data management can save thousands of dollars in his shoots.

Aaron talks Thunderbolt 3

Thunderbolt 3 simply solves all the bottle neck issues I was having with my work flow. I want to be able to work as fast as I can while editing but also minimize the time I am waiting for data to transfer or be backed up. Thunderbolt 3 helps speed up my work flow and complete my jobs faster. 

I usually do a 2 quick back ups to the fastest SSD’s I can get my hands on which are currently the new SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE SSD Ecosystem Then when I am back in my office I’ll back up to my G-RAID Shuttle 8 to edit from and then to a G-RAID 2 for a second back up. I’ll then clear my SSD’s and re-use them for the next job. 

I’ve tried to build my storage ecosystem to be as simplest as possible, fastest, smallest more durable drives to take on the road with me. Then a shuttle 8 to be able to edit and manage multiple projects from and a G-RAID 2 for a secondary cold storage. Eventually I’d love to back up to the cloud as well.

Right now I use an array of Thunderbolt 3 products. But the main ones are the PRO-DOCK 4 , G-RAID SHUTTLE 8 - 96TB and multiple GRAID 2 - 36TB. 

SanDisk Professional's Thunderbolt 3 Solutions

Disclosures

  1. Based on read speed, unless otherwise specified. As used for transfer rate, megabyte per second (MB/s) = one million bytes per second. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software components and configurations.
  2. As used for storage capacity, 1GB = 1 billion bytes and 1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less, depending on operating environment.
Compare