Prior to Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 2 and the original Thunderbolt shared the same cable type and port (which is the same port type as Apple's Mini DisplayPort) and had top data transfer speeds of 20Gbps and 10Gbps, respectively. This means every Thunderbolt 3 port will also work as a USB-C port and every Thunderbolt 3 cable will work as a USB-C cable.īefore you can fully appreciate what a leap forward both USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 are, let's familiarize you with Type-A, Type-B, and the various versions of the Thunderbolt standard. In fact, device manufacturers are so confident in the new USB-C standard that Intel announced last year that Thunderbolt 3, once thought to be a USB replacement, will use the same port type as USB-C.
On average, some 3 billion USB ports are shipped each year, making it by far the most successful peripheral connection type in the world. Look around your house and chances are you have at least a few devices that use Universal Serial Bus.
