Can Thunderbolt interfaces be used with a PC?

[Rod L. Short]

It appears that many interface makers are switching to Thunderbolt these days. They certainly do seem to have their advantages. I'm just wondering if they are a realistic option with a PC.  Are there Thunderbolt cards for PC that are reliable? I know a couple years ago it was pretty much a Mac-only thing. I might be tempted to update my interface to a Thunderbolt one if it's actually a reality now.

[Matthew Sorrels]

Your PC motherboard must have support for Thunderbolt built in.  There is no way to add a card to a generic motherboard that doesn't have support to get Thunderbolt on a PC.  But if you own the "right" motherboard and buy the motherboard's Thunderbolt card (or it could come with it for some "deluxe" packages or be actually built on the board for some recent motherboards) you can get Thunderbolt on a PC.  Your audio interface manufacturer also has to provide a Windows driver.  I think most are these days, but older Thunderbolt audio interfaces could be Mac only.  You can't just add Thunderbolt to any PC.

I don't think many(any?) AMD motherboards have Thunderbolt support (yet), so you'd have to an Intel motherboard.

[Rod L. Short]

Oh, that's disappointing. I guess I was hopeful that progress had been made on this since TB is becoming so popular with the interface makers. Guess I'll be waiting for a while longer.

[rsinger]

It may be a long wait. The USB 4 spec says it may, optionally, support Thunderbolt 3. The fact that it was made optional implies there's not much interest in it on the PC side. 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3435844/thunderbolt-is-optional-in-usb4-usb4-spec-says.html