Thunderbolt 5 in 2026 — the real-world dock and eGPU roundup

TB5 docks finally hit the consumer price tier, eGPUs run at near-native bandwidth, and the laptop side is catching up.

Thunderbolt 5 docks finally hit the consumer price tier in Q1 2026. The CalDigit TS5 at $349 and the Anker 778 at $279 are the two clean picks; both deliver the full 80Gbps symmetric and 120Gbps asymmetric bandwidth the spec promises. eGPU performance over TB5 is now within 8% of native PCIe 4.0 x16, which is a real shift.

The laptop side is catching up. Every flagship gaming laptop launched in 2026 ships with at least one TB5 port, and the workstation laptop category is going TB5 across the lineup. The structural read: TB5 is now the right port to buy a laptop around if you plan to dock it as a desktop.