In other words, people like me who want OSX but can't give up playing Fallout and Elder Scrolls.
Thunderbolt is still MUCH slower than PCIe so I wouldn't wish for an AMD 6990.
TB = 10Gb/s
PCIe 2.0 x8 = 32Gb/s
PCIe 2.0 x16 = 64Gb/s
Might be fine for lower-end graphics but not for the most powerful cards.
I would also be afraid of latency..?Thunderbolt is still MUCH slower than PCIe so I wouldn't wish for an AMD 6990.
I would also be afraid of latency..?
Its not possible. TB has a maximum data rate (in perfect conditions) of 1GB/sec, AGP 4x has 1.06GB/sec. So no matter what video card you use it will be very weak by modern standards.
In other words, the Mini's integrated GPU is more powerful than anything you could put though a TB port, so you might as well just connect the display directly to the TB port!
Its not possible. TB has a maximum data rate (in perfect conditions) of 1GB/sec, AGP 4x has 1.06GB/sec. So no matter what video card you use it will be very weak by modern standards.
In other words, the Mini's integrated GPU is more powerful than anything you could put though a TB port, so you might as well just connect the display directly to the TB port!
Pretty much every other quote I've read says 10gb/sec, not 1. And this article at least http://www.huliq.com/10177/intels-thunderbolt-port-makes-external-graphics-cards-feasible suggests that most x16 PCIe graphic cards using about 4gb to 7gb/sec, which is within the usable range.
Here's a second article on the same point. http://appleheadlines.com/2011/02/2...derbolt”-can-help-your-future-mac-experience/
Edit: Ah, I just suddenly realized you said GB rather than Gb. My reading says that you are basically correct, though the GB number is 1.25. As PCIe 1.x supports 250MB/sec per lane, at 16x lanes, that'd be 4GByte/sec up and down, which is nearly 4 times faster than Thunderbolt at 10Gbit/sec.
That's assuming I'm reading everything correctly and no authors are playing fast and loose with the byte/bit distinction.
The articles you've been reading talk about giga bits. We are talking about giga bytes.
Pipe dreams. The cost of a Mini plus an external dedicated graphics card won't make any sense and it will never happen. Just get an Imac.
for people who want to choose the monitor of their choice, and dont have 2k for a mac pro, i think it makes perfect sense.