Tip #150: USB Bandwidth
… for Codecs & Media
Tip #150: USB Bandwidth
Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com
Different versions of USB provide different amounts of bandwidth
![](https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/USB-logo.jpg)
The speed of USB has increased significantly since its initial release. For example, USB 1.0 was released January 15, 1996, with a maximum speed of 1.5 MB/second. Compare that to USB 4.0 which was released August 29, 2019, with a maximum speed of 5 GB/second! USB4 is based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol.
However, recently, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) renamed virtually all USB versions and made things REALLY confused. Here are the new names and speeds of the different versions of USB.
Old Name | Released | New Name | Speed |
---|---|---|---|
USB 2.0 | April, 2000 | USB 2.0 | Up to 60 MB/sec |
USB 3.0 | Nov. 2008 | USB 3.1 Gen 1 | Up to 625 MB/sec |
USB 3.1 | July, 2013 | USB 3.1 Gen 2 | Up to 1.25 GB/sec |
USB 3.2 | August, 2017 | USB 3.1 Gen 2×2 | Up to 2.5 GB/sec |
USB4 | August, 2019 | USB 4 | Up to 5 GB/sec |
NOTE: Keep in mind that all versions of USB, except for USB4, are optimized for small file transfers and generally don’t provide all the bandwidth that the spec calls for. I don’t recommend any version of USB earlier than USB 3.2 for video editing.
I believe you need to fix your chart. The new names are “USB 3.2…” not “USB 3.1…”, correct?
Tod:
Nope. The USB forum changed the names 2-3 months ago and made everything a lot more confusing.
Larry
Where does my 2019 5K iMac’s Thunderbolt fir into this schema?
Marc:
Depending upon which port you plug into, your iMac supports USB 3 and USB-C.
Check your System Report for more details.
Larry