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External Video card

A

AndrewForeva

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 24, 2011
47
117
Since Thunderbolt(lightpeak) support such high bandwidth. Would Nvidia and ATI start making external video cards? So even laptops with poor video cards (ie. 2011 13"mbp) can play 3D games smoothly?

PS. just a thought, don't have any support.
 
AndrewForeva said:
Since Thunderbolt(lightpeak) support such high bandwidth. Would Nvidia and ATI start making external video cards? So even laptops with poor video cards (ie. 2011 13"mbp) can play 3D games smoothly?

PS. just a thought, don't have any support.
Click to expand...

The bandwidth isn't high enough for high end video cards, but might support a low-end card that outperforms the integrated Intel solution.
 
solarein said:
The bandwidth isn't high enough for high end video cards, but might support a low-end card that outperforms the integrated Intel solution.
Click to expand...
Im not sure but intel states that it is capable of a speed of 900MB/s in both directions. So I don't know if that speed is good for decent video cards.
 
AndrewForeva said:
Im not sure but intel states that it is capable of a speed of 900MB/s in both directions. So I don't know if that speed is good for decent video cards.
Click to expand...

A standard 16-lane PCI express 2.0 slot is 8GB/s in both directions, for comparison.
 
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Actually it might be possible... Take a look at ViDock. It's an external graphics card for laptops with ExpressCard (Apple removed it) It seems that ThunderBolt has more bandwidth than a ExpressCard slot. So it might be possible...
 
ViDock runs at 2.5 Gbit/s. Thunderbolt runs at 10Gbit/s (4x faster). I'd really like to see if that extra bandwidth can improve things!
 
amarcus said:
ViDock runs at 2.5 Gbit/s. Thunderbolt runs at 10Gbit/s (4x faster). I'd really like to see if that extra bandwidth can improve things!
Click to expand...

I was just gonna say, express card slot can do vidock, so if some options open up for the thunderbolt for an external video card, that'd be SICK! Then I'd really look back into a 13" or 15" base.
 
Didn't the Intel announcement today mention that it can handle PCI-E speeds? This would be a good ass implementation of Thunderbolt (god i hate that name)
 
I believe Thunderbolt is based on PCI-e 4x. GPUs generally run on 16x (or dual 8x for SLI/Crossfire).
 
murdercitydevil said:
hmmm yeah that would really cripple it then. But even so the highest end video card running at 4x would probably still surpass the garbage Apple puts in MBPs.
Click to expand...

It would cripple it some, but still, if it's possible then it makes for VERY good options. I mean, like discussed above, the current viDock option uses the much slower express card port and people get amazing results with ATI 5850's and 6000 series cards hooked up to it. I hope some method gets worked out for the light peak port and an external card with PSU.
 
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