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STL2CHI

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November 17th, 2021 11:00

G5 5090, adding Thunderbolt capability?

I have a G5 5090 Desktop. I've purchased an AOC I1601C portable monitor. The monitor works beautifully when connected to a laptop, but doesn't work when connected to the USB-C port on the front of the G5 5090.

As I understand it, the monitor needs a Thunderbolt port. I tried using an Asus ThunderboltEX 4, but that didn't work either. Asus support wasn't able to help me figure out why and recommended I return it, so I did.

Can anyone recommend an expansion card that would work for this use case?

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fireberd

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November 17th, 2021 13:00

G5 5090 Setup and Specifications shows us that the front USB-C port is for data storage and does not support video/audio.

On commercial motherboards, e.g. ASUS, Gigabyte, etc., the models that are Thunderbolt add on capable have a special Thunderbolt connection on the motherboard (along with the PCIe Thunderbolt card). If the special port is not there, Thunderbolt can't be added, from what I found researching that last year when I upgraded my recording studio desktop (I ultimately went with a Gigabyte motherboard that had Thunderbolt 3 built in).

I don't see anything in the Dell documentation about Thunderbolt or an add on.

speedstep

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November 17th, 2021 14:00

@STL2CHI

Please press the blue Accept as Solution button below if this post answers your question.

If your system had this ability it would show up in bios. However if its greyed out in bios or not there at all then its NEVER an option to be added.

There is no such thing as a Thunderbolt Expansion Card.

If your system has thunderbolt header and controller and OEM Specific card then that is specific to the OEM. HP, ASUS, Dell, etc all do it differently and in general it cannot be added afterwards it MUST BE ordered CTO. Nobody wanted to pay INTEL royalties for thunderbolt so they gave up and its now called USB 4 on brand new systems.

Thunderbolt 3 cables longer than 0.7 meters are active cables which do not support DisplayPort
There are different Thunderbolt 3 cable types – 20Gbps, 40Gbps, Active, Passive, 60W, 100W
Less than 1 meter: Passive, 40Gb TB3, USB 10Gb, DisplayPort, works with USB-C display directly
1 meter and greater:
Passive: 20Gbps TB3, USB 10Gb, DisplayPort, works with USB-C display directly
Active: 40Gbps TB3, USB 480Mb, DisplayPort, DOES NOT work with USB-C display directly
DisplayPort differences
Thunderbolt 4 – DisplayPort 1.4 (HBR3) supported up to 2 meters with passive cables
Thunderbolt 3 – DisplayPort supported with passive cables (less than 1 meter)
but active cables (1 meter or greater) do not carry DisplayPort signal and won’t work to drive a USB-C display

S

STL2CHI

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November 17th, 2021 14:00

Thank you for the insights! I didn't realize that limitation existed, good to know.

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G5 5090, adding Thunderbolt capability?