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11" MacBook Air Owner Connects High-End Graphics Card With Complex Thunderbolt Setup
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"You can't do that."
"I did, therefore I can."
This article super floats my boat. Apple could make this sort of thing and a dozen others very simple, but they decline. Make a few things hobbies besides Apple TV. Hear me?
Rocketman
For the price of a MBA, you could build a custom Mac, portable or not, with screaming fast specs... Just sayin'.
Won't have Apple's logo on it, but it will run OSX.
Won't have Apple's logo on it, but it will run OSX.
I've wanted something like this from when Thunderbolt started... Would be perfect to allow some gaming on Apple's always-underpowered consumer hardware.
Too bad there's still no affordable single-box solution like this. I'd so buy it! But this is too much trouble, I could just get an AlienWare X51 on the side for the same price, which is what I'm probably going to do anyway.
Too bad there's still no affordable single-box solution like this. I'd so buy it! But this is too much trouble, I could just get an AlienWare X51 on the side for the same price, which is what I'm probably going to do anyway.
On the contrary, right now I'm using the TB plug on my MacBook Pro for...well...nothing really. None of my accessories that I own or any that I could afford plug into it. I might be getting an adapter to use it as a video out for an external monitor, but that's like 1% of what it's capable of.
So I guess you're right.
"Run". Not to mention it won't be a laptop, or at least not a sleek one. After helping my friend upgrade his PC (new GPU which demanded a new CPU which demanded a new motherboard), both of us have had more than enough of custom PC building.
Yeah, exactly. It's like using a big display for your laptop. You don't need it everywhere, but at home, it's like having a desktop.
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ExpressCard? They had those in the older MacBook Pros. Does this mean that you can do this with a 2007 MBP?
That's awesome! Third parties have dropped the ball so far, but I expect the day will come when I can have my tiny Air and still good gaming performance from a brick I keep at home.
Doesn't have to equal a top-tier tower, just look good and be fun, beyond what the Air alone can deliver!
(My current plan, though, is higher-performance and more expensive: an Air plus a Mac Pro. Use the Air as an external drive via network or Target Disk Mode, so all my documents are naturally there when I want to leave the house. But boot from the Pro and use its faster SSD for app launching, virtual memory, and OS. And of course I get extra CPU/GPU speed and an external display out of the deal as well--not half bad for gaming.)
Doesn't have to equal a top-tier tower, just look good and be fun, beyond what the Air alone can deliver!
(My current plan, though, is higher-performance and more expensive: an Air plus a Mac Pro. Use the Air as an external drive via network or Target Disk Mode, so all my documents are naturally there when I want to leave the house. But boot from the Pro and use its faster SSD for app launching, virtual memory, and OS. And of course I get extra CPU/GPU speed and an external display out of the deal as well--not half bad for gaming.)
Genius! I think this is what the future of computing should be: have a relatively low cost, ultra-portable laptop with great features like good battery life, multi-touch trackpad and all that, and if you want to play hardcore, buy an external graphics card to do serious work or play games when sitting at a desk. You wouldn't need all that power on the go anyway, so it makes sense to leave that at home. It's also upgradable (an upgradable laptop GPU? who would have thought!) and you don't have to pay for something you won't use. Also, if you buy a new notebook, you can keep using your expensive graphics card.
I can't wait for an external enclosure to come out. Since they announced thunderbolt it was contemplated to attach a GPU to it.
I can either get a a windows gaming PC, or just get an external GPU. I would leave it at home, it can require a power adapter and so long as I can hook it up via thunderbolt i'd be happy. If i can daisy chain it to my monitor that would be epic.
However there isn't really one available yet (i think 2 companies have made one but they are expensive). Hopefully in a year or so someone will have one and apple will increase support.
Luckily my mac has enough power for the meantime but who doesn't love running at high frames! ! !
I can either get a a windows gaming PC, or just get an external GPU. I would leave it at home, it can require a power adapter and so long as I can hook it up via thunderbolt i'd be happy. If i can daisy chain it to my monitor that would be epic.
However there isn't really one available yet (i think 2 companies have made one but they are expensive). Hopefully in a year or so someone will have one and apple will increase support.
Luckily my mac has enough power for the meantime but who doesn't love running at high frames! ! !
Sony did a cleaner thing with the Sony Vaio Z2, several years ago. I'm amazed that nobody else has jumped on board the eGPU bandwagon. It's such an OBVIOUS money-maker given the right hardware.
Looks like something Google would sell in the Play store.
And then replace in six months with something else
And then replace in six months with something else
Doesn't need to be portable; if you only do your gaming under Windows at home, then you can just unplug and use OS X on the go. When you get back home just plug back in, reboot and game away.
Not sure why the article mentions doing this with the new Mac Pro though; I know Fire Pros aren't really intended for gaming, but I'm sure they'd be perfectly good for gaming anyway. Although I suppose the potential for adding even more GPUs is interesting, though the bandwidth over Thunderbolt won't be nearly as good as the two internal cards, for adding extra OpenCL computing power it could be interesting.
Obviously I'd rather someone came up with a good enclosure or prepackaged GPU, but since it's an even more niche segment of a currently niche connection type that may have to wait for now
It was all that and more. Sony was way ahead of Apple as far as implementation of the concept. I'd bet that Apple has configurations running in the lab, but, when that transfers to products, would be pure speculation.
What happened? Why isn't there another VIAO with TB and a GPU in a monitor?
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Doesn't need to be portable; if you only do your gaming under Windows at home, then you can just unplug and use OS X on the go. When you get back home just plug back in, reboot and game away.
Not sure why the article mentions doing this with the new Mac Pro though; I know Fire Pros aren't really intended for gaming, but I'm sure they'd be perfectly good for gaming anyway. Although I suppose the potential for adding even more GPUs is interesting, though the bandwidth over Thunderbolt won't be nearly as good as the two internal cards, for adding extra OpenCL computing power it could be interesting.
Obviously I'd rather someone came up with a good enclosure or prepackaged GPU, but since it's an even more niche segment of a currently niche connection type that may have to wait for now
No reason other than SKU that Apple couldn't use less costly gaming parts.
I've connected a 1 TB Thunderbolt drive to a 2011 iMac 27" with a 256GB SSD inside, and have the two of them running in an array as a Fusion drive. So I suppose some people do have a use for it, after all.
I think this is pretty great. Somebody mentioned that it didn't make sense for somebody owning a Macbook Air? Uh, what?
This is a great solution because it allows somebody to have the portability of a Macbook Air AND gain access to GPU power and performance that otherwise won't be done on the current Macbook Air.
This is a great solution. Even if it's limited in some ways, it's much better than nothing.
As somebody who is just a casual gamer, I would love to have one of these so that I don't have to buy a desktop computer to play games like League of Legends or something on minimum settings.
This is a great solution because it allows somebody to have the portability of a Macbook Air AND gain access to GPU power and performance that otherwise won't be done on the current Macbook Air.
This is a great solution. Even if it's limited in some ways, it's much better than nothing.
As somebody who is just a casual gamer, I would love to have one of these so that I don't have to buy a desktop computer to play games like League of Legends or something on minimum settings.
I think it's cool and everything, and I personally have no issue with modular computer schemes and everything, but this 'add things with dangling cables if you want' approach seems the very antithesis of Apple's elegant design principles... So it's all a bit weird. But not necessarily in a bad way.
Now where are those "geniuses" who keep saying that TB is not fast enough for high-end GPU kits?
Or it just might work for another Apple product...like say turning your Mac Mini into a legitimate home workstation.
Which is exactly what I'd love to do.
Id love to have a slim and light laptop for daily usage and such a thunderbolt dock at home to do some decent gaming when I get back from work.
Right now, you need two computers to do that so everyone who say this isnt practical think about the poeple who do casual gaming from time to time.
A notebook need decent cpu and ram. Everything else should be upgradable via thunderbolt if you need so. You need extra storage, go external, you need fast gpu for some gaming with friend, go external. Easy.
Right now, you need two computers to do that so everyone who say this isnt practical think about the poeple who do casual gaming from time to time.
A notebook need decent cpu and ram. Everything else should be upgradable via thunderbolt if you need so. You need extra storage, go external, you need fast gpu for some gaming with friend, go external. Easy.