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VideoBeagle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 17, 2010
822
18
App Q&A testing by request.
Ok, once again, I'm on the verge of getting a new imac, to replace my current milange of aging machines....

I've seen talk of "Will there be Thunderbolt 2 in the next version!!!"

now obviously, tbolt2 would be faster...but necessary? The main use i see for TBolt for me is with adapters so my various Firewire800 drives can be used. Im under the impression that Tbolt is already faster than Firewire.... I'm not going to hook the iMac up to a TBolt display, for example.

So my question is...what does Tbolt2 bring to the table, that will be so much better?
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
TB 2 will be twice as fast a TB 1, but if you do not need it for more than FW 800, TB 1 is perfectly sufficient for your use.

TB 2 will be built into the new Mac Pro to expand the bandwidth of devices one can connect to it, like RAID systems or signal processing units or even external GPUs.
 

jamesjingyi

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2011
840
144
UK
Ok, once again, I'm on the verge of getting a new imac, to replace my current milange of aging machines....

I've seen talk of "Will there be Thunderbolt 2 in the next version!!!"

now obviously, tbolt2 would be faster...but necessary? The main use i see for TBolt for me is with adapters so my various Firewire800 drives can be used. Im under the impression that Tbolt is already faster than Firewire.... I'm not going to hook the iMac up to a TBolt display, for example.

So my question is...what does Tbolt2 bring to the table, that will be so much better?

Its just faster at 20gbps compared to 10gbps and therefore can handle 4K displays which run at ~15gbps. Before, TB used to be four channels, two upstream, two downstream. With TB2, these get merged into two channels, one upstream, one downstream. Therefore, there will be no overall increase in bandwidth however an increase in transfer speeds and (as mentioned before) support for 4K. Whereas most Thunderbolt storage devices top out at 800 - 900MB/s, Thunderbolt 2 should raise that to around 1500MB/s.

For you, TB2 wouldn't be essential. Its an upgrade but you probably won't notice it since there is no increase in bandwidth and you are running off Firewire 800 ports which will max out and not get higher in transfer speeds. (If you get what I mean). It's like plugging a USB 2 into USB 3. You will only get the speeds of USB 2. Of course, the real specs have not been released and I'm not an expert so don't take everything I say to heart and please correct me if I am wrong.

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TB 2 will be twice as fast a TB 1, but if you do not need it for more than FW 800, TB 1 is perfectly sufficient for your use.

TB 2 will be built into the new Mac Pro to expand the bandwidth of devices one can connect to it, like RAID systems or signal processing units or even external GPUs.

It has the same bandwidth but turns from 4 channels to 2 so that each channel can support 20gbps compared to the 10gbps before.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Its just faster at 20gbps compared to 10gbps and therefore can handle 4K displays which run at ~15gbps. Before, TB used to be four channels, two upstream, two downstream. With TB2, these get merged into two channels, one upstream, one downstream. Therefore, there will be no overall increase in bandwidth however an increase in transfer speeds and (as mentioned before) support for 4K. Whereas most Thunderbolt storage devices top out at 800 - 900MB/s, Thunderbolt 2 should raise that to around 1500MB/s.

For you, TB2 wouldn't be essential. Its an upgrade but you probably won't notice it since there is no increase in bandwidth and you are running off Firewire 800 ports which will max out and not get higher in transfer speeds. (If you get what I mean). It's like plugging a USB 2 into USB 3. You will only get the speeds of USB 2. Of course, the real specs have not been released and I'm not an expert so don't take everything I say to heart and please correct me if I am wrong.

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It has the same bandwidth but turns from 4 channels to 2 so that each channel can support 20gbps compared to the 10gbps before.

Okay then I probably misunderstood it somehow. I want my Lightpeak now. :(
 

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
Ok, once again, I'm on the verge of getting a new imac, to replace my current milange of aging machines....

I've seen talk of "Will there be Thunderbolt 2 in the next version!!!"
...
My guess is that the next iMac won't have Thunderbolt 2. I feel that the Mac Pro will get it initially and no other Mac will get it until the first update after April 2014. Repeat, this is my guess, but I feel it's a good one.

So don't delay buying a new system because of Thunderbolt 2.
 

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,671
1,378
My guess is that the next iMac won't have Thunderbolt 2. I feel that the Mac Pro will get it initially and no other Mac will get it until the first update after April 2014. Repeat, this is my guess, but I feel it's a good one.

So don't delay buying a new system because of Thunderbolt 2.
I agree with this and wouldn't even expect any actual TB2 enabled devices, especially 3rd party, till 2014 either.
 
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