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No 4K 60Hz? Workaround to do up to 12K 60Hz on 2011, 2012 and 2014

G

giggles

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 15, 2012
1,057
1,294
Use an external GPU ("eGPU") over Thunderbolt. I see no reasons for it not to work.

Works on 2011, 2012 and 2014 Minis, just need a Thunderbolt port.

2011 and 2012 thunderbolt1 is capped at 10Gbps.

2014 thunderbolt2 (20Gbps) can leverage the full 16Gbps of the pcie2.0 4x interface to the thunderbolt controller.

Difference should be negligible in non-gaming (or non-3D) workloads (and really, don't expect to do gaming in 12K with this setup). Still I find nicer to have TB2, so props to the 2014 Mini here.

Full of guides here:

http://bit.ly/10sVFdI

A currently favorite setup is:
- Akitio Thunder2 box
- Gigabyte GV-N970IXOC-4GD (short gtx 970 to fit in the box, plenty of ports)
- molex powered pcie 16x riser
- silent PSU of your choice

Roughly 600$ of a workaround.

Notice how the aforementioned gpu has three Displayport 1.2 ports.
Each port would drive a 4K display @60Hz in a "MST" fashion (single tile 4K 60Hz will only be possible with the upcoming DP 1.3 interface).
There's also an HDMI 2.0 port, also capable of 4K @60Hz on monitors with HDMI 2.0.
This is with GPUs available today, but 12 months from now you could easily have triple DP1.3 and drive even crazier configurations.

This thread is basically for the "omg when 4K displays get cheaper, I'll be forever cut out of the 4K revolution if I buy a current Mini" crowd. No you won't. Not necessarily. Don't quote me on that (wasn't able to find any example of people doing it under OSX), but apparently 12K 60Hz is already possible, even with a 2011 Mini.

By the way nMP (2013) can do 12K, but the third 4K display will be limited to 30Hz or limited color space because of HDMI 1.4. The upcoming nMP (2014) will fix that with HDMI 2.0.

So a 2011 Mini with a 2014 eGPU can do 12K better than a 2013 nMP. Somehow.
 
Last edited:
sorry skipped that line

thanks

price is not an issue, what is, is the mess on the desk for this setup

it would remind of my earlier ages when i built my own PCs

tons of bulky and noisy hardware :confused:


too bad there is no enclosure with sufficient power supply
 
giggles said:
Use an external GPU ("eGPU") over Thunderbolt. I see no reasons for it not to work.

Works on 2011, 2012 and 2014 Minis, just need a Thunderbolt port.

2011 and 2012 thunderbolt1 is capped at 10Gbps.

2014 thunderbolt2 (20Gbps) can leverage the full 16Gbps of the pcie2.0 4x interface to the thunderbolt controller.

Difference should be negligible in non-gaming (or non-3D) workloads (and really, don't expect to do gaming in 12K with this setup). Still I find nicer to have TB2, so props to the 2014 Mini here.

Full of guides here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/

A currently favorite setup is:
- Akitio Thunder2 box
- Gigabyte GV-N970IXOC-4GD (short gtx 970 to fit in the box, plenty of ports)
- molex powered pcie 16x riser
- silent PSU of your choice

Roughly 600$ of a workaround.

Notice how the aforementioned gpu has three Displayport 1.2 ports.
Each port would drive a 4K display @60Hz in a "MST" fashion (single tile 4K 60Hz will only be possible with the upcoming DP 1.3 interface).
There's also an HDMI 2.0 port, also capable of 4K @60Hz on monitors with HDMI 2.0.
This is with GPUs available today, but 12 months from now you could easily have triple DP1.3 and drive even crazier configurations.

This thread is basically for the "omg when 4K displays get cheaper, I'll be forever cut out of the 4K revolution if I buy a current Mini" crowd. No you won't. Not necessarily. Don't quote me on that (wasn't able to find any example of people doing it under OSX), but apparently 12K 60Hz is already possible, even with a 2011 Mini.

By the way nMP (2013) can do 12K, but the third 4K display will be limited to 30Hz or limited color space because of HDMI 1.4. The upcoming nMP (2014) will fix that with HDMI 2.0.

So a 2011 Mini with a 2014 eGPU can do 12K better than a 2013 nMP. Somehow.
Click to expand...

I think I will wait for the Skylake update which should have all the ports included in a small quite box but that is a workaround for someone in a hurry to go 4K.

I am loving that GTX 970 though. :)
 
Crosscreek said:
I think I will wait for the Skylake update which should have all the ports included in a small quite box but that is a workaround for someone in a hurry to go 4K.

I am loving that GTX 970 though. :)
Click to expand...

Do the drivers work in OS X?

1300 for a decent Mini + 600 for that "box", plus the 4k display...
Awfully close to the 5K iMac.
IMO, if you need 4K, you can buy a nMPro.
If you can't make a business-case for buying a nMPro, you don't really need it anyway and it's just "nice to have".
 
MRrainer said:
Do the drivers work in OS X?

1300 for a decent Mini + 600 for that "box", plus the 4k display...
Awfully close to the 5K iMac.
IMO, if you need 4K, you can buy a nMPro.
If you can't make a business-case for buying a nMPro, you don't really need it anyway and it's just "nice to have".
Click to expand...

I guess if your in a hurry for 4K and you have money to burn and you want to use a Mini for what ever reason then it's worth it and I think Yosemite has drivers for the GTX 970 and 980.

Like I said earlier the Skylake Mini should have display port 1.3 and hdmi 2.0 to drive 4 or 5K displays and TVs at a much more reasonable price and more quite option.
 
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