Intel Core Raptor Lake Refresh processor
The new 14th Gen Intel Core processors, also known as Raptor Lake Refresh, do not support Thunderbolt 5. Intel is working on a compatible controller.
The 14th Gen Core desktop processors do not support Thunderbolt 5. Intel is working on its own Thunderbolt 5 controller called “Barlow Ridge”. If everything goes as planned, it will be available in the first quarter of 2024, although without being compatible with the “Raptor Lake Refresh” series desktop processors.
Intel announced the Thunderbolt 5 standard last September and promised to double the bandwidth. 80 Gbit/s (per direction) was promised. In addition, a new feature called Bandwidth Boost is intended to enable a bandwidth of 120 Gbit/s in one direction and reduce it to 40 Gbit/s in the other direction. This can be helpful when transferring large amounts of data.
It’s important to note that the advertised 80Gbps actually corresponds to 64Gbps of underlying PCIe bandwidth, and the 120Gbps corresponds to the Bandwidth Boost at 96Gbps. In comparison, Thunderbolt 4 offers 40Gbps per direction or 32Gbps PCIe bandwidth. Thunderbolt and USB 4 technologies are PCIe-based standards with a separate physical connection for incoming (Rx) and outgoing (Tx) data.
Thunderbolt 5 and Bandwidth Boost functionality will only be available on upcoming desktop platforms equipped with Intel’s latest processors. “Meteor Lake” will not be available on socket desktop platforms and will be replaced by “Arrow Lake-S,” scheduled for the second half of 2024.
Source: TechPowerUp