Hyper’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Will Be Great When Computers Support It
Technology companies are busy showing off their latest and greatest products at CES this week and, as always, some of these new products look perfect for photographers and videographers. While Hyper’s HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 Dock may offer speeds current computers don’t support, it is nonetheless an exciting debut.
The Thunderbolt 5 standard was announced last September, and brings with it bi-directional bandwidth of 80 gigabits per second (Gbps) and up to 120Gbps with Bandwidth Boost.
Thunderbolt 5’s increased bandwidth enables 8K displays at up to 60Hz and frame rates at lower resolutions up to 540Hz. Users can also power three independent 4K displays at 144Hz refresh rates, a considerable boost over a pair of 4K 60Hz monitors. Thunderbolt 4 can support 8K resolution, too, but only at 30Hz, which is prohibitively sluggish for many users.
Thunderbolt 5 also delivers twice the bandwidth for external SSDs, external graphics cards, and more, which is especially enticing for photo and video users with a lot of data. Hyper says its new dock can deliver 80Gbps speeds through a pair of Thunderbolt 5 ports and includes three downstream ports with 120Gbps support. The downstream 120Gbps ports are one-way only, so they are helpful for monitors but not sending data back and forth.
The dock also includes a CFexpress Type B media card slot and supports PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD, although an SSD for this slot must be supplied by the user. Many USB-A devices are still in use these days, so the dock also includes three 10Gbps USB-A ports. Plus, it includes a 5Gbps Ethernet jack and an SD card slot.
Like any dock worth its salt, Hyper’s new product offers passthrough charging up to 140 watts, the minimum power delivery wattage supported by Thunderbolt 5, as the new standard can support up to 240W. Thunderbolt 4 is capped at 100W.
The HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 Dock is slated to ship in the third quarter of this year and will retail for $400. It is not available to pre-order yet, although prospective customers can sign up to be notified on Hyper’s website.
By the time the HyperDrive Thunderbolt 5 Dock begins shipping, there should be computers and accessories that can take full advantage of its speeds. Photo and video users will significantly benefit when the available products catch up to the Thunderbolt 5 standard.
Image credits: Hyper
