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What just happened? USB4, which is supported on most recently launched motherboards and devices, caps out at an impressive 40Gbps throughput. But with USB4 2.0 cables finally here, users will soon experience double those speeds and up to 240 watts (48V/5A) power delivery.
The cables come courtesy of Elecom, which just became the first company to have its USB4 2.0 cables officially certified, as reported by PC Watch. The Japanese company is set to launch two varieties in mid-December: one offering a transfer rate of 80Gbps with 60W power delivery, and another cranking that up to a whopping 240W at 48V/5A. These will be limited to Japan initially and it's unclear if availability will be expanded.
Beyond speed, that 240W power delivery option is incredibly fast for a simple USB cable and should be able to juice up powerful laptops or whatever power-hungry device you can throw at it – as long as they support the wattage levels. The cables will also support DisplayPort passthrough for up to 8K @ 60Hz (7680 x 4320 pixels) video output.
Despite Elecom's options landing in December, the adoption of actual USB4 2.0 ports by major hardware makers will likely take longer. Currently, no available motherboards offer native support for the standard. The tech was first announced back in 2022 but hasn't rolled out in the form of a product yet.
Microsoft has already started preparing Windows 11 for USB4 2.0 in Insider preview builds. However, PC and device manufacturers will need to integrate support for PCI-Express 5.0 x4 bus connections to fully enable the high bandwidth USB4 2.0 allows. Sadly, that means next-gen hardware is required.
The USB governing bodies plan an official launch for USB4 2.0 this December though, so the ball is now rolling.
It's worth mentioning that USB4 2.0 is theoretically capable of delivering up to a whopping 120Gbps, though that's limited to a single direction and requires an asymmetric configuration. When configured this way, it maintains 40Gbps in the other direction.
The new specification is also backward compatible with previous USB versions, including USB4 Version 1.0, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, and even Thunderbolt 3.