Intel has just revealed Thunderbolt 5, which brings a stonking bandwidth increase to the speedy connector. Not only does that mean you’ll be able to charge connected laptops much faster than you can with Thunderbolt 4, but Intel also believes it could breathe new life into a forgotten product for gamers and creatives: the external GPU.
Thunderbolt 5 is a substantial improvement over Thunderbolt 4. The new standard offers 80 gigabits of bidirectional bandwidth — double that of its predecessor — and 120Gbps of bandwidth for external displays.
That’s a threefold increase over Thunderbolt 4 and means you can now power multiple 8K displays or one with a refresh rate up to 540Hz. If you’re after one of the best gaming monitors around, chances are Thunderbolt 5 will be able to handle it.
All that extra speed is great news for data transfers and charging speeds. For one thing, Thunderbolt 5 devices can provide up to 240W of power, meaning many laptops might simply opt for a Thunderbolt 5 slot rather than a separate power port. That should leave more room for other ports on the chassis.
That extra bandwidth has another implication. In an interview with PC Gamer, Jason Ziller, head of Intel’s Client Connectivity Division, said that it could mean a wholehearted revival of external graphics cards.
A few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for people to buy a large, separate enclosure that housed one of the best graphics cards and a power supply in order to boost the graphical output of their PC or laptop. That was useful if your laptop wasn’t up to the task, but the expense and bulk meant they never really took off.
Now, though, Ziller thinks Thunderbolt 5 could bring them back into the mainstream. “We also have seen over the years external graphics connected over Thunderbolt,” Ziller told PC Gamer, “and I think that with the new version doubling bandwidth we will see a resurgence of that category.”
That’s not all. Ziller added: “And then I think also going forward over the next few years, we’ll maybe start to see some kind of external AI accelerator products because of the push for AI in the client space.”
However, before we get too excited, we’re unlikely to see any Thunderbolt 5-equipped devices hit the shelves until 2024. When they do, though, we could be set for a sizeable speed bump. And perhaps a resurgence of external GPUs, too.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.