Thunderbolt out ports, you can't just plug one mac into another and use it as a monitor, they must have some kind of special software or something correct?
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Retina MacBook Pro Can Run Three External Displays Simultaneously
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Thunderbolt out ports, you can't just plug one mac into another and use it as a monitor, they must have some kind of special software or something correct?
Thunderbolt has the bandwidth to support 10 monitors, but you still need a graphics card powerful enough to support all of those monitors.
Thats awesomebut those are iMac's not thunderbolt displays? How did they do that?
iMacs support video in as well as out... So you can hook up an external device and use the iMac display. I believe any iMac with a Mini DisplayPort (or now Thunderbolt Port) has this capability.
Thunderbolt
Couldn't the MacBook Pro theoretically run even more than 3 displays if they were daisy chained via Thunderbolt.
Couldn't the MacBook Pro theoretically run even more than 3 displays if they were daisy chained via Thunderbolt.
Depends on the resolution. It can theoretically only drive three 2560x panels at 60hz & 8 bit colour channels for example, and graphics cards can handle more than that.
More displays over a thunderbolt wire requires lower resolution, reduced update rates, or reduced bitrates.
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What is the lowest price point MacBook Pro that can do that or anything similar? I understand HD4000 graphics supports three (or 4) monitors, not sure how many can be video. Anyone have experience or insight what the limits are for say the 13" MBP with H4000 graphics or the 15" with NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M?
I see standalone USB3 boxes also support 3+ DVI displays as well.
Rocketman
I see standalone USB3 boxes also support 3+ DVI displays as well.
Rocketman
This isn't something new on PC's, it's been around since 2009 when the first Eyefinity compatible graphics cards were released.. Now you can hook up to 12 displays on a single machine..
But It's nice to finally see it on a Mac.. I'd really wish Apple would start adopting these type of technologies earlier, we still don't have the ability for scaling & getting better performance when using multiple graphics cards..
I'd love to see Crossfire or SLI Technology come to the Mac..
But It's nice to finally see it on a Mac.. I'd really wish Apple would start adopting these type of technologies earlier, we still don't have the ability for scaling & getting better performance when using multiple graphics cards..
I'd love to see Crossfire or SLI Technology come to the Mac..
Thats awesome
They used target display mode.
Yes, I'm doing that right now
I have a 27" Thunderbolt Display hooked up to the laptop, which is sitting on a Laptuk Pro stand underneath the monitor. I also have a wireless Apple Keyboard and Magic Trackpad hooked up. Definitely recommend this setup as an iMac and laptop replacement (that's what I did - replaced both my old MBP and iMac with this display and laptop).
While it does make sense that you should be able to do it and I assumed it could after the keynote, Apple's product specs says:
"Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors"
So until now, we had to assume that the graphics card couldn't handle more than 3 displays.
bwillwall: Thats awesome but those are iMac's not thunderbolt displays? How did they do that?
iMacs have a 'target display mode' these days. You can boot them up so they act like monitors for displaying from a external computer. Say when your iMac becomes too slow or the HD fails, you can use it as a monitor for another system.
bungiefan8:
I thought Thunderbolt was supposed to be powerful enough to support up to 10 monitors...
Xian Zhu Xuande:
Thunderbolt can do things that the actual computer may not be able to do. In the case of monitors, while Thunderbolt can support 10 monitors, the hardware capabilities of a given computer may not be able to.
While the built in video card may only be able to drive 4 monitors (a pretty nifty trick for a single video card IMHO), it may not be able to handle that many external displays.
BUT you could conceivably build a monitor with a built in video card that connects to the PCI-bus via Thunderbolt to drive as many monitors as Thunderbolt devices you can hook up (10x2 maybe since there are 2 TB ports). Probably need extra drivers like the USB video adapters need though to make that work.
Nostromo:
This shows the huge potential of the retina MBP. The HDMI input was just a great idea! No more adapters!
Personally, I'd had rather seen that space used for an extra USB port myself. But that's jsut a personal choice.
With TB you're supposed to be able to daisy chain displays. Doesn't that mean you could have 6 displays?
1 MBPR Display
2 Thunderbolt Displays on TB port 1
2 Thunderbolt Displays on TB port 2
1 HDMI Monitor
1 MBPR Display
2 Thunderbolt Displays on TB port 1
2 Thunderbolt Displays on TB port 2
1 HDMI Monitor
I couldn't find anyone in this thread who addresses the important question: when an application goes "full screen" does it take up all four screens or only one of the screens? I confess, I want to play WoW on a multi-screen.
Sorry for the noob question but are these displays just duplicates of the original macbook laptop display or are they an expansion of the desktop?...i.e. you can view different things on different monitors like a tradition dual screen PC.
12 displays on a PC laptop in 2009... Really?
Even if you're right, it's a 3rd party requirement to buy a special graphics card. So even though it was available as an add-on, it's not like the PC manufacturers were ahead of Apple. So "It's nice to finally see it on a Mac" and the ensuing comments don't really make sense. Apple is [one of if not] the first to adopt these technologies into their out of the box computer.
It's simply nice to know that one laptop has the ability to operate so many pixels out of the box.
4 displays is nothing new on Macs, either (you can slap an extra graphics card in the Mac Pro) However, 4 digital displays on a laptop is going some. Some PC laptops will give you the internal screen, one HDMI output and a VGA port, and that's about it.
