Tried out the first Thunderbolt 5 SSD

Thunderbolt 5 doubles the speed of compatible SSDs that can be connected to notebooks via a USB cable, for example. With theoretical speeds of up to 8 GByte/s, a movie collection can be copied quickly for a trip, for example. Thunderbolt 5 also tunnels four PCI Express 4.0 lanes – instead of PCIe 3.0, which was half the speed of its predecessor.

The number of Thunderbolt 5-capable end devices is now increasing – Apple is the first major manufacturer to offer broad support with its new MacBook Pros and Mac minis. But other notebook manufacturers are also already integrating Intel's TB5 controller called Barlow Ridge. This includes the German distributor Schenker with the Key 17 Pro.

Fast copying with write cache

We received the Thunderbolt 5 SSD Envoy UItra from US manufacturer Other World Computing (OWC) and tested it on the Key 17 Pro. In Windows' own WinSAT tool and in the Iometer benchmark, it just exceeds the 6 GByte/s advertised by the manufacturer (or around 5.6 GiByte/s in binary). There is still a bit of room for improvement to exploit Thunderbolt 5.

The SSD is slower when writing: On Windows notebooks, it achieves 2 GByte/s with default settings. In this state, the write cache is deactivated, as with all external USB SSDs. If it is activated manually, the write speed increases to 5 GByte/s.

Windows then stores the data temporarily in RAM and sorts the write commands in order to optimize the transfers to the NAND flash memory. Disadvantage: If the SSD is disconnected from the notebook during writing, cached data can be lost. Sudden power failures are not a problem, at least on notebooks, thanks to the rechargeable batteries.

To activate the write cache, you must first open the device manager. This can be done by right-clicking on the Windows logo in the taskbar. Expand the drives in the middle and right-click on the Thunderbolt 5 SSD and select Properties. Switch to the Policies tab and click on "Enable write cache on the device".

Moderate IOPS

Typical for external SSDs is the lower speed compared to internal SSDs when accessing random addresses with around 47,000 IOPS according to Iometer. This is completely sufficient for additional data storage, and an operating system and applications still start quickly.

OWC does not comment on the installed NAND flash components and the controller. It is quite possible that the Envoy Ultra contains technology from OWC's only PCIe 4.0 SSD, the Aura Ultra IV. This would be TLC flash from Micron, which stores three bits per cell, and the Innogrit IG5236 controller.

In addition to the almost 64 Gbit/s per direction via PCI Express, Thunderbolt transmits image signals via Displayport and USB 3 signals – a total of 80 Gbit/s per direction is possible. For multiple high-resolution monitors with a high refresh rate, there is an asynchronous mode that splits the transfer speed between 120 and 40 Gbit/s. USB4 version 2.0 uses the same technology as Thunderbolt 5, but with lower requirements.

In the case of the OVA Envoy Ultra, interested parties will pay a high novelty surcharge at the start: the 2 TByte version costs 400 US dollars (445 euros including taxes), the 4 TByte version 600 US dollars (665 euros including taxes). Delivery will begin later this month.

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(mma)