ASUS Introduces ThunderboltEX 4 Add-on Card

ASUS has announced the ThunderboltEX 4 Add-on card for any PC builder looking to add Thunderbolt 4 connectivity to your PC. This card is capable of delivering up to 100 watts of power and features two Thunderbolt 4 ports. This power delivery allows for USB-C monitors without connecting a power adapter, while the Thunderbolt 4 ports can also support DisplayPort 1.4 passthrough. ASUS has yet to reveal any pricing information or when this add-on card will be available for purchase.

The ThunderboltEX 4 Add-on card is designed to give your PC full Thunderbolt 4 connectivity to your PC, a versatile connector that uses the USB Type-C format. Adding this card to nearly any PC is easy but does come with a catch; the connected PC needs to use an ASUS motherboard that features a Thunderbolt Readiness header. This header provides timing and other low-level system commands to the cards. In addition to this specific header, the motherboard will also need to have a USB 2.0 slot, a PCIe 3.0 x4 host interface, and an extra 6-pin PCIe power input.

That may seem like a lot of cords to add Thunderbolt 4 connectivity to your PC, but this card adds not just one Thunderbolt 4 port but two ports. These ports support a power delivery of up to 100 watts which can easily support single cable monitors, allowing for a cleaner PC setup. Users can daisy chain up to five Thunderbolt devices to allow for a significantly increased amount of connectivity for your PC. Users can connect three devices and two Thunderbolt monitors or connect four devices and a single Thunderbolt monitor.

These Thunderbolt 4 ports each feature 40 GBps of bandwidth. This card also features two Mini-DisplayPort and comes with Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cords. This add-on card supports DisplayPort 1.4 passthrough with the ability to scale up to a resolution of 8K. This card's design is a black color scheme, ensuring that it can fit into nearly any PC color scheme.

ASUS has yet to announce the pricing for the ThunderboltEX 4 add-on card or when this add-on card will become available for purchase.