Any difference between USB 3.0, 3.1, & 3.2 cables?

Hatake

Hatake

Hatake

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Like many others, I have collected a ridiculous amount of USB cables over the years. Some came free with devices, some are longer / braided aftermarket ones. I'm guessing the majority of them can charge portable devices (phones, power banks, headphones, etc) devices at maximum without much issue. But what about data capacity?

I'm assuming all below USB 3 have black connectors and all above have blue connectors. But is there a difference between 3.0 / 3.1 / 3.2? Is there a visual way to tell the difference or will a 3.0 cable function at 3.2 speeds?
 
There's USB 4 as well which is the fastest of the lot capable of 40 Gbps whereas the next best USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is only capable of 20 Gbps. USB 4 denotes faster speeds than any sort of USB 3. I've got a USB 4 NVMe enclosure plugged into my Mac mini M4 which has very up to date Thunderbolt 4 ports in it which is similar to USB 4.
 
Hatake said:
Like many others, I have collected a ridiculous amount of USB cables over the years. Some came free with devices, some are longer / braided aftermarket ones. I'm guessing the majority of them can charge portable devices (phones, power banks, headphones, etc) devices at maximum without much issue. But what about data capacity?

I'm assuming all below USB 3 have black connectors and all above have blue connectors. But is there a difference between 3.0 / 3.1 / 3.2? Is there a visual way to tell the difference or will a 3.0 cable function at 3.2 speeds?
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Usually USB 3.0 has a blue insert inside the outer shell, the others may have a different colour; however that isn't guaranteed to be the case.

To complicated things, the cables will have been tested against a compliance spec and may be able to achieve the higher rating but we're made pre that specification being released or we're never planned to be binned by spec given the low sales value.

Additionally, something that was sold as a 3.0 may pass 3.1 initially but then fail due to aging; which assuming the manufacturer has done good validation would mean they would be labelled as USB 3.0 as that's what they guarantee over predicted lifetime.


They best chance you have of figuring out which can do which spec is if you have something to test them with (like a file transfer where you know you could saturate the throughput, accounting for transfer protocol overheads rather than a dedicated speed tester). I would also assume that aging won't be relevant as that's a lot more difficult to deal with with a box of random leads and without a lot more effort than it is really worth vs how much time you would save in terms of transfer times in use.
 
Most though not all usb 3 have blue connector
So it's not 100% guarantee
That if it's not blue it's usb 2


And we are up to 120Gbs on usb4 with version 2
Last time I looked anyway
Not the 40Gbs someone mentioned
Though that's 80Gbs one direction 40Gbs the other
 
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