When USB 3.0 was announced it was seen as a big deal to have because it allowed for speeds of 5Gbps, and while this was seen as a vast improvement over the previous version, something even better was looming. Intel had their own plans and wanted to outdo the competition and so they launched Thunderbolt with an acceptable 10Gbps speed.
However, not to be outdone a new standard will be launched shortly called USB 3.1 and promises speeds of 10Gbps, the same as the current Thunderbolt. Things will not be in the favor of USB for long though, as Thunderbolt 2 will be released later this year and will come with even faster speeds.
USB 3.1 vs. Thunderbolt 2 speed — The expectations for the latter is 20Gbps, which is twice as fast as the current version, and also twice as fast as the new USB 3.1 as well.
It seems no matter what USB comes up with, Intel and their Thunderbolt hardware interface has an answer.
From those figures it is clear who the outright winner is, yet there will still be people out there ready to talk bad about Thunderbolt. We find this very strange because it is the most advanced out of the two, or any other connection available.
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