Thunderbolt port limited to 20Gbps

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  • the i/o panel on the back of my PC has 2x40Gbps Thunderbolt ports

  • the BIOS is confirmed to have Thunderbolt support enabled, including boot.

  • plasma thunderbolt settings show it as enabled (but no devices present).

  • i have a ZIKE 40Gbps thunderbolt enclosure plugged into one of these ports.

  • a crucial p310 nvme inside capable of 7100 MB/s (58Gbps)

when open the drive in Discs and use their benchmark utility it shows a bandwidth of about 2000 - 2800 MB/s which correlates with a 20Gbps connection

haven’t tried it in windows yet, but i really want it to work in linux at full speeds.

lsusb -t does not show any ports with 40000M speed, just 20000M speed

/:  Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/16p, 480M
    |__ Port 005: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 3, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 4, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 5, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 6, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
    |__ Port 006: Dev 003, If 7, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 480M
    |__ Port 007: Dev 004, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 001: Dev 006, If 0, Class=Printer, Driver=usblp, 480M
        |__ Port 002: Dev 008, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 002: Dev 008, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 002: Dev 008, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 003: Dev 011, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 014, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 014, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 014, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 014, If 3, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 014, If 4, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 008: Dev 005, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 009, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 009, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 009, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 004: Dev 009, If 3, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 010: Dev 007, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 003: Dev 012, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=[none], 12M
        |__ Port 003: Dev 012, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 003: Dev 012, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 011: Dev 010, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=[none], 12M
    |__ Port 011: Dev 010, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 014: Dev 013, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 014: Dev 013, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
/:  Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/9p, 20000M/x2
    |__ Port 007: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
    |__ Port 008: Dev 003, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
        |__ Port 003: Dev 005, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
    |__ Port 009: Dev 004, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 10000M
/:  Bus 003.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
/:  Bus 004.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
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Update: tried crystalmark in windows and got results for the thunderbolt port that were around 23Gbps and when the same usb drive was swapped to a 20Gps port on the front of the case it, the performance dropped to around 16Gbps

so it seems the thunderbolt port is working to provide some greater amount of bandwidth above a 20Gbps port limit, just not as much as i would have hoped given that the SSD is rated for much higher bandwidth than even the max Thunderbolt limit.

Update2: back in linux, Disks benchmarks the thunderbolt port at 2980M/bs or 24Gbps which indicates better than 20Gbps port bandwidth as well even tho it is not listed by either lsusb or uhubctl

not sure why i can’t seem to get system info on the status of thunderbolt ports, but it does seem to be doing “something”.

also found

lspci | grep -i thunder and boltctl to be tools for examining thunderbolt ports… tho when using boltctl list it doesn’t come up with anything.