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Retina MacBook Pro Can Run Three External Displays Simultaneously

adamberti said:
Hang on, are you saying that if any of us (myself included) had bothered to read the quoted article first, we would have seen that picture and not had to debate it and ask anyone?

:D
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My message was referring to the MacBook Air driving two displays. I don't see that in the MacRumors article, or the one they quoted.
 
yep, this is what i wanted confirmation of. Now I'm totally going to buy this computer. I would love to have native monitor support (rather than the 2 usb-dvi converters i use). Great news, cant wait
 
tonytiger13 said:
"Thunderbolt is interoperable with DisplayPort 1.2 compatible devices."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

We sure about this? I'm not saying it does, but interoperable seems to mean it does.
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Interoperable does not mean it supports the new 1.2 features.

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costmo said:
Just like the automobile was a step backwards because there was no way to connect your horse to it? The telephone was a step backwards because you couldn't use it to send telegrams?

Thunderbolt will do everything that DisplayPort did, plus more. DisplayPort can't do everything that can be done through Thunderbolt. They're not compatible, and that may cheese you off, but your claim that it was a step backwards is silly by any means of measuring such things.
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Thunderbolt can do what DP 1.1 does, not the new stuff DP 1.2 can do.
 
Yamcha said:
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..
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eyefinity worked with the other amd cards. the main issue is for them to work well you need to have identical display resolutions (for optimal perf) this works with the iMacs and minis for instance. just not notebooks. but it is a step in the right direction.
 
KnightWRX said:
Thunderbolt can't do everything that DisplayPort 1.2 does though. DisplayPort 1.2 can drive 21 Gbps of framebuffer bandwidth, Thunderbolt is limited to half.

As far as displays go, DP 1.2 is superior to TB.
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TB has two independent 10 Gbps channels, so TB cannot offer 21 Gbps to a single display but it can offer 10 Gbps each to two displays that are daisychained. As usual, some limitations can apply in reality.

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KnightWRX said:
The batteries haven't been "user replaceable" since 2009 on Unibodies. Why is it such an issue now ?

The concept was actually introduced with the 17" MBP refresh in January 2009 :

https://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/1...eplacements-same-day-service-at-apple-retail/

It then was implemented in every other model at their refresh in the same year.
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Actually it was introduced even a bit earlier, in October 2008 with the Al-unibody 13" MB and the 15" MBP, the 17" MBP took a bit longer and went unibody and fixed battery in early 2009 as you said.

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mjtomlin said:
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.
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At least pre-TB, this was limited to the larger screen iMacs.

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ryanflanders256 said:
Could a traditional 15" MacBook pro also do this with daisy-chained thunderbolt monitors?
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Yes, at least with up to two external monitors. Don't know whether the actual implementation of TB in the TB displays and the 15" MBP supports three external monitors (and three external Apple TB might be too many pixels anyway).
 
Yamcha said:
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..
Click to expand...

Mac Pro could always do any number of graphics cards, so no problem there. This is about running three external displays off an Ultrabook.
 
I still wonder what the performance for stuff like 3D rendering and FX rendering and even certain compute intensive Photoshop filters under this kind of setup would be. With so much energy going to powering a very dense display and with the GPU not really being "Best of Class" I wonder if it's really going to be a step up for everyone that might be on the market for a MacBook Pro.
 
Apparently they are working on a circular desk so that you can completely encircle yourself with monitors and a set of glasses that will allow you to split your vision across up to eight separate sources of video and a brain firmware upgrade that will...allow you to walk and chew gum...it's amazing!

Can someone with more time do a photoshop of the desk idea and get that into patent for me, please.
 
baryon said:
Impressive! Though do you have to use both Thunderbolt ports, or could you not simply use one and daisy-chain the second Thunderbolt display off of the first one?
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I'd like to know this as well.

I saw on 9to5mac a picture of the new MBAs able to drive two Apple displays, but they only have one Thunderbolt port so the monitors are daisy-chained?

Then on the MBP Retina, this set-up could have been achieved using one port and leaving one free?
 
Too bad you can't use the Apple TV as an extra display. If they can do mirroring, they could let you use a wireless hookup.
 
ryanflanders256 said:
Could a traditional 15" MacBook pro also do this with daisy-chained thunderbolt monitors?
Click to expand...

Don't despair, non-retina MacBook user :)!
It's true that non-retina macbook pros have only one thunderbolt port used as a displayport, but there are two USB 3.0!!
It is possible to use USB to DVI/HDMI adapters and software from DisplayLink, which comes with several of them, to connect many displays (up to 4 simultaneously).
You just need the two USB 3.0 ports and two hubs.
With a display connected to the thunderbolt and the main LCD we could arrive to 6 monitors!!
Then a nice nuclear meltdown of the CPU and GPU, so bring a fire extinguisher with you :D
 
"that is amazing"
outside of stock and futures trading , I don't see any benefit to having somuch screen real estate.
I'll say it again, it really pisses me off that there is no FW or gigabit and yet there are 3 yes THREEE video outputs.
I can just see people laughing at this oddity several years down the road.
Reminds me of the firewire-less MBP from ...what was it 2009?
 
calaverasgrande said:
outside of stock and futures trading , I don't see any benefit to having somuch screen real estate.
I'll say it again, it really pisses me off that there is no FW or gigabit and yet there are 3 yes THREEE video outputs.
I can just see people laughing at this oddity several years down the road.
Reminds me of the firewire-less MBP from ...what was it 2009?
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Apart from thunderbolt isn't just a video display technology is it now.

And...

Just because YOU don't see a use, doesn't mean that no one else does.
 
Yamcha said:
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..
Click to expand...


You do know that Macs have had built-in multiple display support since 1987?
 
iRobby said:
Which MBPR configuration you have. I'm replacing my dell desktop that is 7 years old and eventually would like to do exactly you are. At home function like a desktop with Thunderbolt Display and keyboard and trackpad yet take the laptop wherever I go. Desktop and laptop in 1.
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2.6 GHz w/16GB RAM (that's the only thing I customized from the stock configuration - I left the 512GB SSD and processor alone).

I had been running a VM with Windows Server 2008 R2 on the laptop and Windows 7 Ultimate with Visual Studio 2010 on the iMac for doing C# .NET development work. Now I can run both VMs on the MBP, with 4GB of RAM dedicated to each, while having all my productivity apps open (Mail, iCal, Chrome, iTunes, etc.), and still have almost 4GB of RAM free and have no lag in any of the apps or VMs. It's an amazing change from my 5-year-old iMac and 4-year-old laptop.
 
Wait a minute...I could have sworn that, with the proper NuBus cards...a Mac II could have done this as well. They may have been 12" monitors, but it could do it. So, it's not the first, nor are the Mac Pros.
 
tonytiger13 said:
"Thunderbolt is interoperable with DisplayPort 1.2 compatible devices."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

We sure about this? I'm not saying it does, but interoperable seems to mean it does.

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I think you mean Retina Thunderbolt Display? When the iMacs get it. I'm thinking late this year or WWDC 2013.
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What it means is Thunderbolt can currently run a DisplayPort 1.2 capable monitor but not at max resolution. DisplayPort 1.2 passthrough will be part of the 2013 Thunderbolt chips, which is when we are most likely to see Quad Full HD Cinema Displays
 
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