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11" MacBook Air Owner Connects High-End Graphics Card With Complex Thunderbolt Setup
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I wonder if it would be possible to use 2 Thunderbolt 1 ports for this so you could get the speed of Thunderbolt 2 which would allow more bandwidth?
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It's supposed to get hot. The Air's enclosure is just like a giant heatsink, same for the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro etc.
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It's supposed to get hot. The Air's enclosure is just like a giant heatsink, same for the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro etc.
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Great idea. I'd happily contribute to that!
I left the Apple platform about 10 years ago because a major hobby is gaming. And I mean "proper" games. All my mates were building their own PC rigs, customising as required and we were all into tech and components anyway so it was a great tech outlet.
A year ago I switched back to the Mac but still use the PC for gaming.
Sad to see that not much has changed on the Mac gaming front.
Especially sad as it's Apple. Yeah, yeah I know you can probably get *some* of the major titles like Elite and Half Life 1 but the fact is I would'nt consider the Mac a gaming platform. And I wish it was because then I wouldn't have to switch machines when I want a decent game to play.
Even if I bootup in Paralells or BootCamp, we still have the issue of needing a TB connected GPU in a sexy exnclosure.
So yeah, I'd put my money where my mouth is and fcrowd fund a TB enclosure for something like this small GPU
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/asus-geforce-gtx-670-directcu-mini-graphics-card/
I'd love it if I could attach an external video card to my rMBP. I have this big beautiful 1800p screen, but I can't run any but the most basic games at native resolution. Could also be a good opportunity to have adaptors for more external monitors, rather than the paltry three that the rMBP offers.
Yup. They could put a high-performance GPU inside the Thunderbolt display.
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QUESTION
Can anyone explain to me why Intel is apparently preventing third parties from producing Thunderbolt-to-PCI-Express adapters?
How would it harm their business (or the adoption of Thunderbolt) if these existed?
For extra credit, please provide a car analogy.
Not clear enough?
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Possibly very stupid question ahead, but how is that setup different to something like this :
http://www.magma.com/expressbox-1t
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But then it wouldn't be upgradeable along Apples current trend.
Funnily enough, I can live with my CPU being a few generations old and not have any issues on my line of work but a non upgradeable GPU would be a dud.
Keep the GPU in an external enclosure and then you can use it on your macbooks, iMacs, etc etc
Yep, you can use the new Sonnet Echo Express III-D/R with Avid Pro Tools. It supports up to three Pro Tools|HDX cards:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpressiii.html
It's quite expensive, but it has Thunderbolt 2 and is upgradeable to future versions of Thunderbolt.
Or, if you're okay with previous-gen Pro Tools|HD Native, Avid makes its own Thunderbolt interface:
http://www.avid.com/US/products/Pro-Tools-HD-Native
Seems like what they are doing with the Mac Pro. Not sure if notebooks will also see the modular approach.
It's not about the money or the gaming performance,
it's about sending a message.
I own the early 2011 13" MBP with thunderbolt lol never used it,
why?
cause there is no single thunderbolt device for a causual person like me.
dont need a superfast big external hdd, cause i got a nas so all network devices can use the files. for sharing files i got an usb 3.0 64gb stick.
first time i heard of the tb->pcie box i was amazed and couldnt wait to buy one, but nothing came and i forgot about it. then silverstone presented their box, i was still amazed but thought *its about time*... and damn nothing came.
in my opinion, thunderbolt could be the best interface, but if there is a lack of products and no range of things to buy, the interface will go down...
it's about sending a message.
I own the early 2011 13" MBP with thunderbolt lol never used it,
why?
cause there is no single thunderbolt device for a causual person like me.
dont need a superfast big external hdd, cause i got a nas so all network devices can use the files. for sharing files i got an usb 3.0 64gb stick.
first time i heard of the tb->pcie box i was amazed and couldnt wait to buy one, but nothing came and i forgot about it. then silverstone presented their box, i was still amazed but thought *its about time*... and damn nothing came.
in my opinion, thunderbolt could be the best interface, but if there is a lack of products and no range of things to buy, the interface will go down...
Take those numbers with a grain of salt.
They're the theoretical numbers, and the bus is never actually saturated with that much data. From what I've read on Notebook Review you're only seeing a 15% loss in real-world performance against PCI-E x8 v2.0?
Not trawled the whole thread so unsure if it's been listed, but check out:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-external-graphics-discussion/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html
Sorry for insisting, but what about products like this?
http://www.magma.com/expressbox-1t
I'm not sure I understand what's different here...
they're not.
they're just not giving it away for free.
want to make thunderbolt, you pay the License fees for the patents.
(sound familiar?)
Wow! Did not know this existed. This would have been the ideal set-up for me. Macbook Air just for on-the-go, and some sort of Power Dock at home that I can just plug and play for games/movie editing and such.
Magma's boxes are not rated to handle GPU's.
The 1t you listed only supports up to 65w power draw in a 1/2 height PCI-E card.
Effectively limiting the power of any GPU you would install to well, probably on par with the internal GPU that the macbook airs already have.
And this box alone (no cards with it), starts at $480. (cable is $60 extra)
at $979, you can get 3 "half height" cards
I also have read somewhere on their site in the past, that it is not for use with GPU's
Fair enough, so if I understand you correctly the only limiting factor here is power supply (?). And well yeah, price.
Is it really crazy to imagine that the next generation of such products will support higher power draws?
Is it really crazy to imagine that the next generation of such products will support higher power draws?
The concept of notebook and docking station with dedicated GPU is quite old. In fact IBM's Thinkpads had this in the past. As with all external solutions they're expensive and technically limited (bandwidth). Thunderbolt doesn't change this boundary condition.
Commercially this never took off. Only few people really need high end GPUs:
* engineering/construction/CAD (very limited market, mainly using PCs)
* gamers (wide market, but very price sensitive)
There are just not enough people that would be willing to spend a huge amount of money on this (expect more than USD 1.000 for such a solution).
The guy who did it is cool, nonetheless !
WARNING: notebookreview.com are one of the main saboteurs of the project. They continue to host misleading and inaccurate stale info from which they draw ad revenue, ignoring DMCAs and copyright laws to remove it. Costly legal action would be required to get their compliance.
DIY eGPU experiences [version 2.0] is the up-to-date version.
Stupidly expensive for gaming purposes. It's cheaper to just buy a desktop system. Hence why there is a lot of interest in a US$250 Silverstone T004 capable of hosting dual-width full-length cards complete with a 450W PSU. From article (second post):
Best upcoming option: US$250 Silverstone T004 450W native 10Gbps Thunderbolt enclosure
The affordable gamechanger may come if Silverstone T004 is released in the coming month or two. US$250 for a 450W double-width, full length and width 10Gbps Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure. No messy wiring, well priced and looks great. Awesome. Will only be available for purchase if they pass Intel certification. Am curious if Intel will continue to be a fun-wrecker or finally concede.
SilverStone debuts Thunderbolt external graphics card case
Computex 2013: Thunderbolt Graphics from Silverstone
Computex 2013: Thunderbolt Graphics from SilverStone
