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Oldmanmac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 31, 2012
445
14
Edmond, OK
I have a 2015 27" iMac. System software shows PCI. Do I have an accessible PCI? Lots pf neat peripherals available.
 

sublunar

macrumors 68020
Jun 23, 2007
2,016
1,364
I have a 2015 27" iMac. System software shows PCI. Do I have an accessible PCI? Lots pf neat peripherals available.

In a word, no. The PCIe bus is accessible by using Thunderbolt 2 so you'll have access to fast external storage but not (official) eGPU.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
26,130
10,932
The "PCI" that you see represented is kind of a "vestige" from back in the time when Macs actually came with "slots" into which you could plug expansion cards.

That time is "pretty much past" (we'll see if it changes when the new Mac Pro's come out).

If you wanted to use a PCI-based card today, I think you'd have to buy an "expansion chassis" which connects via thunderbolt, and go from there. Not even sure if such stuff still exists. And if it does, I'm going to -guess- that the options for what can be connected are pretty narrow.

What do you "have", that you need to "connect to"...?
 

theluggage

macrumors 604
Jul 29, 2011
6,929
6,479
So, my access is limited to Thunderbolt 2 only?

Thunderbolt is partly based on the PCIe protocol - Thunderbolt peripherals use PCIe internally to drive PCIe-based disc/USB/whatever controllers.

You can get external PCIe expansion boxes that connect via Thunderbolt and accept PCIe cards.

E.g.: https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpress3d.html (an example picked from the web - not an endorsement)

Generally, though, they're expensive - only economical for high-end PCIe cards like specialist video/audio digitisers and 10Gb+ Ethernet interfaces.
 
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