OCuLink outpaces Thunderbolt 5 in Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti exams — latter as much as 14% slower on common in gaming benchmarks

External graphics enclosures have develop into a preferred approach to improve the gaming or computing efficiency of thin-and-light laptops and small-form-factor desktops. However, a vital query is which interconnection expertise is the most effective match when it comes to efficiency, as there are a number of eGFX choices out there with Thunderbolt 3/4, Thunderbolt 5, and OCuLink connectors. Try Some Tech has examined all of them and got here to a considerably anticipated conclusion: pure PCIe 4.0 connectivity makes extra sense. However, Thunderbolt 4 and 5 are extra widespread.

OCuLink vs Thunderbolt 5: What is what

OCuLink (Optical-Copper Link) is a high-speed cable interface standardized by PCI-SIG to provide a direct PCIe connection between devices, generally SSDs, but more recently GPUs. Unlike Thunderbolt or USB, OCuLink avoids protocol tunneling, delivering lower latency and higher efficiency as it is essentially a native PCIe link. It supports PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 with up to four lanes, enabling bandwidth of 32 GT/s to 64 GT/s. However, while it is highly effective in terms of raw performance, OCuLink lacks mainstream adoption, is not hot-swappable, and does not support features such as power delivery, USB, or video output, which is why it is hardly used in consumer laptops. It can be used both inside and outside of desktop workstations.