Thunderbolt 3 card for AMD motherboard - not super expensive

[philb2]

I need to add USB 3 ports, but then I read about Thunderbolt. I am slot-limited in my motherboard (AMD Strix-E X570) so I'm thinking that the USB 3 card should also support Thunderbolt 3. Why is it that there are very few Thunderbolt 3 cards and they are very pricy? I've done searches on the Egg and Amazon and there are very few choices, even if I spend over $100 bucks.

Is there a Thunderbolt 3 card that I haven't found that also has some normal USB A/C ports?

 

[Zepher]

I need to add USB 3 ports, but then I read about Thunderbolt. I am slot-limited in my motherboard (AMD Strix-E X570) so I'm thinking that the USB 3 card should also support Thunderbolt 3. Why is it that there are very few Thunderbolt 3 cards and they are very pricy? I've done searches on the Egg and Amazon and there are very few choices, even if I spend over $100 bucks.

Is there a Thunderbolt 3 card that I haven't found that also has some normal USB A/C ports?

I noticed that as well. Also, some of those cards only work if the motherboard also has a thunderbolt header on it.

 

[philb2]

I noticed that as well. Also, some of those cards only work if the motherboard also has a thunderbolt header on it.

My mistake was that in 2019 I bought a motherboard without Thunderbolt. Guy I know bought an ASUS board about the same time but he did get a model with Thunderbolt.

Seems like the Tbolt card situation is a hot mess.

 

[Zepher]

My mistake was that in 2019 I bought a motherboard without Thunderbolt. Guy I know bought an ASUS board about the same time but he did get a model with Thunderbolt.

Seems like the Tbolt card situation is a hot mess.

Ya, I was looking into it recently for a friend who is possibly going to get a couple of large NVME drives for internal work drive and an external backup and wanting the fastest transfer possible.
Probably just wait till USB4 gets more prevalent. as well as lower priced 4TB NVME drives.

 

[lopoetve]

Thunderbolt is (effectively) an extension of the PCIE bus AND USB at the same time - and it's an Intel product. Unlike USB, it requires a licensed controller (the ones that only work with headers on the board are effectively just extending the existing controller) and is somewhat more complex than just USB-C.

That's part of what makes it unusual on AMD boards (Apple helped develop it, so they still use it too) - AMD is effectively selling Intel parts when it does that.

So it's a mix of licensing, complex tech, and not always compatible parts.

 

[D-EJ915]

Thunderbolt is (effectively) an extension of the PCIE bus AND USB at the same time - and it's an Intel product. Unlike USB, it requires a licensed controller (the ones that only work with headers on the board are effectively just extending the existing controller) and is somewhat more complex than just USB-C.

That's part of what makes it unusual on AMD boards (Apple helped develop it, so they still use it too) - AMD is effectively selling Intel parts when it does that.

So it's a mix of licensing, complex tech, and not always compatible parts.

This and also keep in mind there are a few different thunderbolt controllers which is why certain cards are validated only with certain boards (not to mention brands put custom connectors on them). Generally if you don't need it really quickly though you can get them pretty inexpensively on ebay, I picked up some for 30-35 dollars.

 

[Zepher]

I bought this somewhat in-expensive AMD board and it happened to have a Thunderbolt header on it. My top of the line X570 boards do not have a TB header, which is strange to me.

 

[GotNoRice]

I think that the biggest reason why thunderbolt is not more common is because USB itself has come a long way. The bandwidth available via USB 3.2 is pretty amazing, and even USB 3.1/3.0 is fast enough for most things. You can also get Displayport over USB now, removing another advantage that thunderbolt used to have.

I'm curious OP, what do you need thunderbolt for that you can't do using USB 3.2?

 

[philb2]

I think that the biggest reason why thunderbolt is not more common is because USB itself has come a long way. The bandwidth available via USB 3.2 is pretty amazing, and even USB 3.1/3.0 is fast enough for most things. You can also get Displayport over USB now, removing another advantage that thunderbolt used to have.

I'm curious OP, what do you need thunderbolt for that you can't do using USB 3.2?

A friend just bought a 2 bay drive dock with Thunderbolt. Transfer speeds are much better with Thunderbolt (on his desktop system) than USB 3.2. His laptop has a crappy
Tbolt controller thgat is much slower. I'm planning to get the same drive dock, but I think I will have to settle for USB 3.2.

 

[lopoetve]

I think that the biggest reason why thunderbolt is not more common is because USB itself has come a long way. The bandwidth available via USB 3.2 is pretty amazing, and even USB 3.1/3.0 is fast enough for most things. You can also get Displayport over USB now, removing another advantage that thunderbolt used to have.

I'm curious OP, what do you need thunderbolt for that you can't do using USB 3.2?

Can't do a PCIE bay on USB yet - which means some of your expansion options are limited (no true 10G USB Nics out there, for instance).