Japanese electronics company Elecom has announced it will be introducing a pair of USB 80 Gbps cables in mid-December. The USB 80 Gbps interface is also sometimes referred to as USB4 Version 2. Each cable flaunts 80 Gbps operation but one is capable of just 60 Watts of power delivery, with the other offering a full-spec 240 Watts of power delivery. According to Elecom, this marks Japan’s first officially certified USB 80Gbps 60W cable, and of course, the common DisplayPort Alt Mode feature works for both cables. The USB 80 Gbps version of DP Alt Mode can reach up to 8K at 60 Hz.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | USB4 / USB 40 Gbps | USB4 v2 / USB 80 Gbps | OCuLink | Thunderbolt 5 | Thunderbolt 4 |
| Supported Transfer Speed | 40 Gigabits | 80 Gigabits | Up to 64 Gigabits with 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes | 120 Gigabits (For displays; 80 Gbps otherwise) | 40 Gigabits |
| Supported Connector(s) | USB Type-C | USB Type-C | OCuLink | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| Supported Power Modes | Up to 240W | Up to 240W | N/A | 240 W | 100 W |
| Supported Alt Modes | DisplayPort Alt Mode | DisplayPort Alt Mode | DisplayPort Alt Mode | DisplayPort Alt Mode | DisplayPort Alt Mode |
In case you aren’t up to date with the current connection standards, widely available Thunderbolt 5 cables supporting all of the above standards except OCuLink have been on the Western market since June. Right now, the best options for eGPU users definitely start at OCuLink and then the 80 Gigabit-plus bandwidth versions of Thunderbolt 5 or what is basically USB4 v2, though officially dubbed USB 80 Gbps to distinguish purely by bandwidth. Interestingly in the case of USB 80 Gbps and older USB 40 Gbps (previously USB4) cables, you should still be able to do 80 Gbps over a standard USB4 cable as long as both the client and host device are updated to utilize USB 80 Gbps. Be sure the cable in question still meets your Power Delivery specification, though.
In any case, it’s nice to see Japan get its first officially licensed USB 80 Gbps cable, particularly the 240-watt version as well. While we’re sure Japanese users truly in need of those cables likely already imported them, it’s still good for the Japanese market to get its own options that will likely be more readily available in electronics stores and the such. For most of our US readers, though, you’ll probably be fine gunning for a Thunderbolt 5 cable to enjoy all the features of USB 80 Gbps with 40 Gbps extra bandwidth when connected to a display in 120 Gbps Boost Mode.
