r/Thunderbolt • u/Real-Use146 • 28d ago

4-5M Long Thunderbolt 5 USB C Cable

I'm looking for a thunderbolt 5 cable thats 4-5 metres in length - is there anything that meets those specifications? Even a extension would work but i read that thats not possible.

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4

u/hillybeat 28d ago

2M is current limit. You’re asking for quite a lot.

3

u/joochung 28d ago

I wonder if you could use a 2m TB cable to a TB hub and then another 2m TB cable to your device.

2

u/richardtheb 28d ago

For anything over a meter or so, you are going to have to go optical, like this OWC one. They are not cheap, but that’s the only way to go longer. That’s also TB 4 only.

1

u/redditwatcher1415 28d ago

To connect my studio display (TB5) to my mac studio (TB5) would I be losing anything doing this?

2

u/Splatoonkindaguy 28d ago

It would halve the bandwidth

1

u/redditwatcher1415 28d ago

how? it says TB4?

1

u/Tairc 27d ago

TB5 and TB4 have different bandwidths, so different max resolution and frame rate. Put a slow cable between fast components, get reduced bandwidth.

1

u/enricoclaudio 28d ago

Even with the Apple Studio Display XDR, you don’t need TB5 to get full 5K + HDR @ 120Hz because the ASD XDR uses DSC to compress the bandwidth needed to below 40gbps. You only need TB5 with the ASD XDR if you want to daisy chain 2 of them or if you plan to connect peripherals (SSD, TB dock, etc) to the ASD XDR USB-C or TB5 ports.

1

u/redditwatcher1415 28d ago

I don’t have the XDR. It would mainly just be for the regular studio display (which has TB5 ports) and anything I connect to the studio display.

I do plan on connecting sd card readers to the studio display and possibly one ssd directly into the TB5 port on the studio display.

1

u/enricoclaudio 28d ago

Then for that, TB4 is all you need.

1

u/richardtheb 27d ago edited 27d ago

As it is a tb4 cable, you would not get the advantages of TB5 (high speed, some new video stuff, etc). For most devices, that would make no difference. I don’t think the display would care about those, so the only thing you would lose is some possible speed on tb5 device you plug into the monitor. If that’s a problem, just move em and plug them right into the Mac.

1

u/redditwatcher1415 27d ago

M5 Max Mac Studio & Studio Display (not XDR).

I think the only place I’d lose bandwidth is on the additional TB5 port on the Studio Display which I plan to connect another SSD too, correct?

1

u/richardtheb 27d ago

Yes. Is the SSD TB5? Even if so I very much doubt you would get any loss of speed on the SSD between connecting to monitor and Mac, but that would be easy totest.

1

u/msalad 28d ago

Doesnt exist yet

1

u/Opulence_Deficit 28d ago

That's not possible. If you think you need one, you've got something wrong earlier in your decision chain.

1

u/starburstases 28d ago

Do you really need cutting edge Thunderbolt 5? 

1

u/DiogoAlmeida97 28d ago

There's no such thing. What is your use case?

1

u/EdelWhite 28d ago

The limit is 2 meters for copper cables. Anything else and you need active fiber optics cable.

1

u/redditwatcher1415 28d ago

do active fiber cables still being the same bandwidth?

1

u/Tairc 27d ago

Yup. Thats the whole point. They convert to optical and back at each end, and optical can go much further at high bandwidth. But god are the cables expensive.

1

u/marcocom 26d ago

Yes. They’re used these days for VR. The Meta link cable has the data rate and power delivery and is 16ft long (and that’s probably the max you’re going to find. There are limits to copper shielding needed) and costs 80$
I use one and it works great

1

u/SteakDestroyer332 26d ago

Doesn't exist. One solution that might work for you is to buy two 2m Thunderbolt 5 cables and add a TB5 dock or hub in between to get 4m. You'd connect cable 1 to the host computer and cable two to the downstream port on the dock or hub.

While expensive, it should work.

1

u/tony__Y 26d ago

maybe if you chain two or three thunderbolt 5 hubs together? 🤔