New 10 GbE USB adapters are cooler, smaller, cheaper

For years, the best way to get 10 gigabit networking on laptops was to buy an expensive, large, and hot 10 GbE Thunderbolt adapter. With new RTL8159-based 10G USB 3.2 adapters coming onto the market, the bulky adapters might be a thing of the past. Just look at the size of the thing in comparison to my Thunderbolt adapters:

2.5G and even 5G USB adapters have been out for a while, but sometimes you need more bandwidth.

The 10G adapter I'm testing is this $80 model from WisdPi. That's double the price of most 5G/2.5G adapters, but less than half what I paid for my Thunderbolt 10G adapters.

If you need 10 gigs, this might be the best option, if you use RJ45 and not SFP+. If you don't need 10 gigs, a 2.5 or 5 Gbps adapter is still the best value.

Also, you might not even get 10 Gbps with these new adapters, depending on your computer. I'll summarize why after the video:

USB is fast frustrating

I tested this adapter on four computers:

Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 (includes USB 4 / USB 3.2 Gen 2)

MacBook Neo (USB 3.1 and USB 2.0)

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