PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2048 MB) External PCI Caddy

[guyrws]

Hello All,

I am looking to upgrade my iMac and MacBook Pro. (I don"t want to buy new yet)
I already have a GPU:
PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2048 MB) (VCQ4000MACPB)
Both machines have Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
So I was thinking a Thunderbolt PCI caddy with 3 slots for a possible CPU upgrade later.
Can anyone give me a best buy please?

My computers specs are below.

Cheers, Guy.

My MacBookPro
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B2C
SMC Version (system): 1.68f99
Serial Number (system): C2VF5X14DH2G
Hardware UUID: 6599CE93-7CA7-525A-B475-2C5C6EEA2E71


My iMac:
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
Model Identifier: iMac11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.59f2
Serial Number (system): CK1130N1DNR
Hardware UUID: 9BB39B6C-ACFE-50FF-885C-E7F498E6083E
ATI Radeon HD 5750:

 

[redheeler]

Your 2010 iMac only has Mini DisplayPort, so it won't work with it at all. The early 2011 MBP has Thunderbolt, but only Thunderbolt 1 so it's hard to say if performance will be acceptable as that could definitely be a bottleneck.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yep as the other poster notes, the 2010 doesn't have thunderbolt so absolutely no use with that and the bandwidth on thunderbolt 1 will be lucky to give you more than 40-50% of the cards performance, even thunderbolt 2 at double the bandwidth won't get more than 80% performance out of an external card, thunderbolt 3 will make external graphics a decent option though.

 

[guyrws]

Thank you both for the heads up on Thunderbolt Display-port protocol, I wasn't aware of the difference.
They are the same fitting though aren't they?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yeah same connector so that thunderbolt could also double as a mini display port, but thunderbolt wasn't released until 2011.