Yeah, but since Apple has only promised to release something that will appeal to the current Mac Pro users, they might change things here.
Cooks' vague comment was cleaned up by Apple PR after folks started mutating into wild goofy stuff that tracked into other products.
" ... Apple PR has reached out and clarified that only the Mac Pro is expected to be next updated in 2013. ... "
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/1...c-pro-and-imac-designs-likely-coming-in-2013/
It is really that simple folks. Folks really don't need keep pulling out of context subquotes out of Cooks emails messages. At this point, that activity is is largely just FUD.
Well, how could you have all mDPs ports coming out of third-party graphic cards have TB integrated if they fit into one PCI slot?
Simply you don't. The output from multiple cards now isn't co-mixed. What is the point of mixing it. It is inventing a problem where one doesn't even exist. [ Sort of like adding PCI-e expansion to a box that already has PCI-e expansion but even more unmotivated. ]
Folks keep trying to find a solution to a problem that doesnt' exist.
The embedded GPUs output goes into Thunderbolt. The 3rd partty graphics cards' output goes out the
same sockets it goes out now. Nobody has major problems hooking 3rd party PCI-e cards video outputs to monitors now.
The extremely small corner case are folks trying to send video output over relatively very long distances. In that extremely narrow niche fiber Thunderbolt has some advantages. In a normal desktop connection configuration it doesn't. HDMI , plain DisplayPort, and/or DVI work just fine.
Right now TB requires that the output of the graphic card is weaved together with the TB signal.
Not. PCI-e data stream and Display Port data streams are encoded into TB data streams. Those are decoded back into their respective encodings when they arrive at where they are suppose to go.
Since Mac Pro graphic cards are built to have their ports directly facing outwards, this would require the graphic card to plug into two PCI slots and integrate the TB weaving into the graphic card housing.
Largely a completly utter waste of time and effort. If want to hook up two montiors to a current Mac Pro's video card. Two cables. Thunderbolt can do no better. Certainly can't do better with more affordable cables.
All these gyrations to get the video into Thunderbolt do what? Primarily they only increase the number of cables (and/or proprietary connections) and likely significantly drive up the costs.
Soldering a GPU to the motherboard solves the "TB needs 1 or 2 DisplayPort output streams" problem in a cost effective and straightforward way. It is non-removable but nothing says that all the parts in a Mac Pro have to be removable. That is the huge disconnect. People invent that constraint but it doesn't necessarily exist.
There can still be removable components: RAM DIMMs , PCI-e cards , etc. In that respect, it would still very much still be a Mac Pro in the same way as it is now. There is also nothing particularly special about the Mac Pro only having one GPU in the default configs. The default configs for the iMac , MacPro 15" all have two. The Mac Pro could just join those ranks.