Shadowing Practice: USB4 is a Glorious Mess - Learn English Speaking with Video
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USB 4 is an absolute game changer.
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We're talking 40 gigabit per second data rates, support for 8K displays and external GPUs, single cable docking at up to 240 watt charging rates,
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and all over the same USB type C connectors and cables that you have come to know and to...
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Yes!
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What?
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Actually, USB 4 is more like a collection of optional standards, okay?
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It sounds like what you're talking about is USB 4 Gen 3x2 with some of those optional features implemented.
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So your sponsor, Origin PC, would probably want you to clarify that, so okay.
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Pedantic Riley is very annoying, but he's also right.
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I mean, it shouldn't surprise me coming from the same industry consortium that brought us naming like USB 3.2 Gen 2x2,
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but five years after Intel's announcement that they would open source Thunderbolt, USB 4 is finally out in force,
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and has turned out to be one of the most confusing standards ever to make it onto a consumer PC.
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The good news though, is that by the time we're finished here, you will understand both its pros and cons,
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and how it operates or doesn't with other standards like Thunderbolt, including real-world examples.
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The simple explanation really is
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that USB 4 is an open version of Thunderbolt 3 based on the specifications that Intel released back in 2017.
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There is a lot to love about this move.
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For one thing, it frees vendors from the shackles of Intel's notoriously onerous certification process.
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And for another, it allows non-Intel CPU manufacturers, like Apple or especially AMD, who didn't co-develop the standard,
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to support features that used to be Thunderbolt exclusive, like 40 gigabit data rates, daisy chaining together multiple devices,
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and PCIe tunneling, which is super cool,
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and allows you to turn your USB-C port into a PCI Express connection for devices like external GPUs and other add-on cards.
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The problem is that when you free the notoriously cheapskate computer industry from compliance programs, you invite shortcuts.
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And USB 4 invites a lot of shortcuts.
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In no particular order, here are the optional components of the spec that can be left off of your device,
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while still allowing the vendor to slap USB 4 on the spec sheet.
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40 gigabit transfer rates, 20 gigabit USB 3.2,
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Thunderbolt alternate mode, USB-C alternate mode, and yes, PCIe tunneling.
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Yeah.
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In a world where almost nothing you can connect to a
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laptop needs the speed of even a last gen USB 3.20 gig port, isn't the whole point of USB 4,
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PCIe tunneling and interoperability with Thunderbolt 3 devices?
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Well, Microsoft sure thought so, which is why they actually require external USB 4 ports on Windows 11 devices to support PCIe tunneling,
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which theoretically ensures backwards compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 devices.
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But there is no such guarantee if you were to buy a bare motherboard or a non-Windows device.
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And from my conversations with a device maker whose previous Thunderbolt 3 notebook actually never ended up getting certified by Intel,
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there's a lot more to this interoperability than just checking a box for PCIe tunneling.
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Making matters even more confusing, Microsoft does not appear to have mandates in place for any of the other features.
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The good news is that when it works, it works really well.
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Here is a small bushel of Thunderbolt 3,
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Thunderbolt 4, and USB 4 devices that we've tried on the Voyager A1600 gaming and content creation laptop
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that Corsair provided for this video.
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And I'm gonna show you guys what the experience is like
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on a USB 4 laptop after the short message from our sponsor.
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Corsair packs the Voyager A1600 with high performance gear like their Vengeance DDR5 memory, and yet managed to keep it amazingly slim.
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The integrated Elgato Steam Deck allows you to map streaming commands
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and keyboard shortcuts to 10 easy access customizable shortcut buttons using simple drag and drop customization.
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And Corsair's iCue software lets you fully customize the system's look, monitor performance, and manage your Corsair devices so you can update and fine tune the settings to your needs.
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It comes with a one-year comprehensive warranty for peace of mind, making it the premier choice for laptop PC gaming or content creation in a super compact package.
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Visit the link down below to learn more.
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For our first trick, we'll be trying to connect a couple of Thunderbolt 3 devices to our USB 4 laptop.
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And the reason this matters is
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because these older devices would have been designed at a time that USB 4 compatibility wouldn't have been a consideration.
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So if they work, it means that USB 4 is transparently compatible with Thunderbolt 3.
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at least, okay, this one works, for these particular devices.
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Now that first one I plugged in using a USB 4 cable, and the second one, we're gonna try an older Thunderbolt 3 cable.
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I think we got it.
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There it is, CalDigit 10 gig network adapter.
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This backwards compatibility means that any Thunderbolt 3 device and USB 4 system should work with each other.
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Now, I would expect to find some edge cases, particularly with very old devices due to Intel specific handshakes that used to be required.
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But we didn't run into any of them while we were working on this video.
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Now let's try a Thunderbolt 4 device.
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In the interest of giving ourselves our best shot here, we're gonna go ahead and use a Thunderbolt 4 validated cable.
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Look at that.
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Easy.
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And we don't even need that old Intel application for managing all of our connected devices.
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I mean, I expected this to work.
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The main difference between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 is actually also in enforcement of compliance.
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So Thunderbolt 4 requires, in order to get the Intel badge, support for two 4K displays, or a single 8K display.
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Computers must have 32 gigabit per second of PCIe bandwidth.
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This is to address issues folks would have with high bandwidth devices on some Thunderbolt 3 laptops,
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particularly eGPUs, and they must support security improvements that protect your device from malicious connected devices.
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Plugable.com actually has a great write-up on the differences between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4.
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What about speed though?
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In an attempt to crack over 20 gigabit per second of transfers, we are using three separate SSDs and our network share,
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oh, and copying all to our boot drive at the same time.
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3.6 gigabytes a second, yes!
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Can confirm that we are not limited to 20 gigabit per second, even though that could be the case with USB 4.
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Wow, those transfers are almost all done.
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That's really impressive.
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Those were 22 gigabyte files.
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Mind-blowing.
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And the most mind-blowing thing is that aside from some CalDigit devices that took a little while to be detected,
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we didn't run into any issues using Thunderbolt devices on this laptop.
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And those CalDigit ones, they were actually just downloading drivers in the background.
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Wow.
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But there is definitely more to know here we tested a lot of configurations
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and discovered not only some differences between Thunderbolt and USB 4, but also between Apple's implementation and the one we found on the Corsair Voyager.
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See, on a Mac, two Cinema 5K displays, this would work.
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Just connect them to any Thunderbolt port you want and it works as expected.
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However, when we attempt to do the same thing with the Voyager, either only one display works, Or if we go through a hub,
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we can run both of them, but they're limited to 4K resolution.
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Unless, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, we actually unplug them from our Thunderbolt ports,
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plug one into Thunderbolt, and one into the regular USB-C 3.2 port over on the other side.
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Et voila, both running at 5K.
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The reason for this is quite interesting.
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In the Verges coverage of this laptop,
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Corsair senior public relations specialist Justin Okbina revealed that the USB 4 ports are hooked up to the CPU for display.
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Meanwhile, the 3.2 ports are hooked up to the GPU.
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So they might look the same, but because they're running DisplayPort alt mode,
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they're limited to the capabilities of whichever GPU is physically attached to them.
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So we're able to run more than one 5K display by connecting to each of those GPUs separately.
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This is another really interesting example of different protocols behaving in different ways, even if they go over the same connectors.
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Now, alt mode, what we're talking about here, uses a physical chip connected to the USB port to send a signal down it that differs from standard USB.
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Tunneling is not the same.
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It converts the DisplayPort signal to packets that can be sent along a USB connection
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Allowing for things like data and PCIe tunnel packets to be sent alongside
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So your mileage may vary depending on whether your machine uses alt mode or tunneled DisplayPort
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Poor Tanner If only Apple could have provided a display with an actual stand.
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Okay, you're good.
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You're unplugged Yeah, he's got the tracksuit and everything.
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Okay.
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Thank you Let's try some older more obscure stuff like this Akiteo dual drive dock and
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How about this Thunderbolt archival tape backup system?
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I remember the tape drive actually requiring special software
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So it's possible this hard drive will show up even if the tape drive wouldn't.
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Oh, hey, there we go.
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Look at that.
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That's awesome Goodbye monitor external drive and there they are They are!
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That's wild!
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I mean, it shouldn't surprise me that much given
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that USB 4 is supposed to be based on the Thunderbolt spec and therefore should be the same thing,
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but you just don't expect heck to work that well right out of the gate.
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And there were some things that led me to believe that maybe they weren't quite the same.
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For example, Thunderbolt has supported multiple Thunderbolt devices, daisy-chained together since the beginning.
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But the Wikipedia page for USB 4 explicitly says that such daisy chaining is not supported.
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To clarify, you could totally plug a Thunderbolt hub into your USB 4 laptop, and then a USB hub into that, and another one into that,
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and so on and so forth until the signal timing becomes an issue,
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but Intel seems to believe that connecting additional PCIe tunneling devices downstream, well that's their jam.
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So what happens if we try it?
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I guess we've already got this guy right here.
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So instead of plugging our additional drives into the laptop directly, why don't we daisy chain?
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I see the hard drive in here so pot.
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There they are.
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The SSDs in here have shown up.
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But how far can we go?
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Why don't we do a hub?
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Oh yeah.
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Okay, I don't know if we have to go all the way to six, but let's do one more at least here.
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Here comes another one.
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There they are!
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It's all showing up!
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I want one more!
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I want my 10 gig Ethernet!
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6A...
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Oh...
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Oh!
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Nope, it's not like that one.
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We got it working with anywhere from two to three devices pretty consistently,
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but as you can see, your mileage may vary.
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Though, this is unlikely to ever affect you.
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Many newer Thunderbolt devices, especially hubs and docks,
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have controllers in them that can communicate either using Thunderbolt-like PCIe tunneling protocols or traditional USB protocols.
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So in many cases, it won't necessarily be obvious to you until you try to plug in another downstream device,
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which protocol your device is using.
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Now, rather than trying to run all five of these devices, let's go for a single really demanding one, an external GPU.
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Here we go.
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Oh, fan spinning.
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That's a good sign.
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There it is.
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Our RTX 2070 external GPU.
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Not that we'll need to upgrade the GPU anytime soon, given that this laptop has a Radeon 6800 in it already anyway.
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But the point is that it does work.
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And the A1600 does all of this partly thanks to AMD's inclusion of USB4 on their Zen 3 Plus Ryzen 7000 processors.
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But in the absence of Intel's standards compliance team, it's also thanks to the way that Corsair has worked with their OEM to internally validate their implementation.
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However, watch how easily I can break things.
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Whoops.
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Here's what happened there.
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While Thunderbolt has used the same USB-C connector as USB devices for half a decade now,
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the Thunderbolt protocol, which you've heard me refer to a few times, and it's kind of like the language that's actually being spoken over the cable,
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well, it's closer to PCI Express than it is to USB.
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So this, along with its traditionally much higher data rates means that it has far less tolerance for latency and inconsistency,
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which means that cable quality matters a lot.
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It's not all bad.
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Like here, oh, this anchor cable is one that I specifically pulled aside for this.
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This is pretty cool because this cable is older than the USB 4.0 spec.
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It's just a high quality C2C cable and give it a second.
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Oh wait, did that not work?
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I actually tried it on a different Thunderbolt only device.
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This network adapter.
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And on the network adapter, it totally works in spite of this thing not having a USB operating mode.
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That's wild.
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Let's try this USB 4 type C cable, one that is actually a newer validated one and see if the external GPU picks up that one.
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No. As you can see, standard USB-C cables might work fine even with Thunderbolt only devices,
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but only the ones with the built-in signal stabilizer, like this one, are actually guaranteed to work with Thunderbolt devices.
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And that's gonna be true for any connection using that PCIe-based Thunderbolt protocol,
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regardless of whether it's on an Intel certified Thunderbolt device or a USB-4 device.
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This is why USB 4 is only rated at 40 gigabit per second over a 1 meter cable
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While Thunderbolt 4 is rated at that same speed at up to 2 meters.
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To my knowledge, there are no non-Intel Thunderbolt USB 4 signal stabilized cable products.
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And curiously, this is another really interesting one,
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this active Thunderbolt 3 cable from Corning didn't work on any of our devices on our USB 4 laptop.
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Here, hold on, I can just demonstrate this real quick.
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There we go.
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Yeah, no dice.
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Which means that our days of hit or miss cable compatibility are not over, even if they are a lot better.
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To answer the question then, is USB 4 compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and 4 devices?
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The answer is yes, but also no. The level of compatibility really is going to come down to how good of an implementation you get.
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The Corsair Voyager A1600 performed admirably, but it's a machine that implements far better than the bare minimum spec,
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and one that doesn't go this far may not be as smooth.
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And, as we saw today, your mileage may vary when it comes to unofficial features,
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like daisy chaining and support for specialty cables like these optical ones from Corning.
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The big question this raises then is why did the USB-IF allow half-baked USB 4 at all?
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Well, it seems to come down to phones.
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Mobile devices could get some very valid benefits from USB 4, like higher data rates and DisplayPort tunneling for external devices with Samsung decks or whatever.
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But they're unlikely to need the PCIe tunneling that Thunderbolt is known for or daisy chaining and the like.
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They're also unlikely to need this segue to our sponsor that I'm known for, because we already told you it's sponsored by Corsair.
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If you guys enjoyed this video and you're looking to learn more about Thunderbolt, this video on short circuit shows off my very favorite Thunderbolt 4-dog.
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It's actually, this one.
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It's freaking awesome.
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Two and a half gig land.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Este vídeo tiene 211 frases y 2602 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 17:04. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 152 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. Solo el 76 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| laptop sustantivo | /ˈlæp.tɑp/ | portátil, computador portátil |
| tunnel sustantivo | /ˈtʌn(ə)l/ | túnel |
| daisy sustantivo | /ˈdeɪ.zi/ | margarita común, chiribita |
| connect verbo | /kəˈnɛkt/ | conectar, empalmar |
| speculation sustantivo | /ˌspɛk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/ | especulación |
| compatibility sustantivo | /kəmˌpætəˈbɪlɪti/ | compatibilidad |
| plug sustantivo | /plʌɡ/ | enchufe, clavija |
| sponsor sustantivo | /ˈspɒn.səː/ | patrocinador, patrocinadora |
| implementation sustantivo | /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/ | puesta en práctica, implementación |
| unlikely adjetivo | /ʌnˈlaɪkli/ | improbable |
| vary verbo | /ˈvɛəɹi/ | variar |
| compliance sustantivo | /kəmˈplaɪ.əns/ | cumplimiento, acatamiento |
| dock sustantivo | /dɑk/ | puerto, muelle |
| optional adjetivo | /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/ | opcional |
| mileage sustantivo | /ˈmaɪləd͡ʒ/ | millaje, odometraje |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| show up verbo | comparecer, personarse | |
| end up verbo | terminar, ir a parar | |
| go ahead verbo | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | venga, adelante |
| go over verbo | sentar, pasar | |
| go through verbo | atravesar | |
| pick up verbo | coger, asir | |
| show off verbo | chulear, lucir |
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verbo — un hábito o estado pasado que ya no es cierto | used to be |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | can be left · have been designed · be required |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | have come · has turned · we've tried |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 44 contracciones y formas reducidas, como we're, don't, they're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “th”: bandwidth /ˈbændwɪdθ/, smooth /smuːð/, motherboard /ˈmʌðɚˌbɔɹd/
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: speculation /ˌspɛk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, sheet /ʃit/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: speculation /ˌspɛk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/, compatibility /kəmˌpætəˈbɪlɪti/, implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, compatible /kəmˈpæt.ə.bəl/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como laptop, tunnel, daisy.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.