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Can I add a PCI video card via thunderbird?

A

adagio

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2009
41
0
I'm interested in bitmining and the GeForce GT 650M in my 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 iMac is known for not being very good for this. Obviously I don't have PCI slots in my iMac, but I did a little Googling and discovered, (from what I can work out at least), that I should be able to buy a thunderbolt to PCI adapter http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/sonnet_son-echoexpse (for instance) into which I would be able to plug a PCI video card http://www.ebuyer.com/454252-sapphi...-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-11196-19-20g that would vastly increase the rate at which I can mine. Can someone with a better idea of the above confirm this for me? Would this be a valid way of plugging in a second monitor (which should mean the card is also available to the bitmining software?)

Forget the card above, I meant to link to this one http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-Sapphire-Mac-HD7950,21610.html but I'm only after an answer in principle, I'll look at actual models/cost effectiveness etc. once I know this is possible
 
Last edited:
The only way to use it is through Windows so far. There are no drivers for Mac OS.
 
FYI further research suggests even if there is a Mac driver for a a particular PCI video card, the driver would probably not be thunderbolt aware and so not work. Confirmation would be appreciated however.
 
It not going to work, it has been confirmed here many times on MacRumors, graphic cards need a lot more bandwidth than thunderbolt supports.

If you search MR with the help of the next search tool you'll find out, it has been asked many times before, don't waste your money on it.
Eventually it might be possible if thunderbolt gets fast optical connection.

http://mroogle.chaseh.net/
 
justperry said:
It not going to work, it has been confirmed here many times on MacRumors, graphic cards need a lot more bandwidth than thunderbolt supports.

If you search MR with the help of the next search tool you'll find out, it has been asked many times before, don't waste your money on it.
Eventually it might be possible if thunderbolt gets fast optical connection.

http://mroogle.chaseh.net/
Click to expand...

Thanks, whilst bandwidth is not so important for the task I want to perform, I think this is probably why the drivers have not been written.
 
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