5 ms·

Well, you could buy a MacBook Air. Actually, I'd like to see an external GPU over Thunderbolt possibly built into the next line of cinema displays, which would

by tl 15y ago

Well, you could buy a MacBook Air. Actually, I'd like to see an external GPU over Thunderbolt possibly built into the next line of cinema displays, which would remove the need for the GPU in the Pro line.

masklinn 15y ago
> which would remove the need for the GPU in the Pro line. No it would not.
- astrodust 15y ago
  I think by "GPU", it's presumed to mean "non-embedded GPU" as Intel has taken to bundling it with their newer i series chips.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    Naturally, it's in that context that I made my reply. I don't see how a laptop without any way to output data would even be considered.
sneak 15y ago
Is the Thunderbolt bandwidth sufficient to run a modern GPU? AFAIK you'd only have one 10 gbit/s lane to use for it, and modern PCIe video cards use a lot more than that connecting directly to mainboards over multiple PCIe lanes...
- jsnell 15y ago
  Light Peak seems to have been sufficient for the Vaio Z.
- elithrar 15y ago
  > and modern PCIe video cards use a lot more than that connecting directly to mainboards over multiple PCIe lanes... Forgive my lack of a source, but was there not an article (maybe on Anandtech?) about high-end cards being 90%+ as performant on a 4x PCI-e slot?
- Artagra 15y ago
  Yes. Thunderbolt bandwidth falls between a PCI-E 2.0 1x slot and 4x slot. Tests that have been done comparing the performance of relatively high end desktop cards on 1x, 4x, 8x and 16x slots have established that while there is a performance penalty, such a solution would still out perform most mobile GPUs. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_S... http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Express_Scaling/24.html http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Expres...

5 ms·

Well, you could buy a MacBook Air. Actually, I'd like to see an external GPU over Thunderbolt possibly built into the next line of cinema displays, which would

by tl 15y ago

masklinn 15y ago
> which would remove the need for the GPU in the Pro line. No it would not.
- astrodust 15y ago
  I think by "GPU", it's presumed to mean "non-embedded GPU" as Intel has taken to bundling it with their newer i series chips.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    Naturally, it's in that context that I made my reply. I don't see how a laptop without any way to output data would even be considered.
sneak 15y ago
Is the Thunderbolt bandwidth sufficient to run a modern GPU? AFAIK you'd only have one 10 gbit/s lane to use for it, and modern PCIe video cards use a lot more than that connecting directly to mainboards over multiple PCIe lanes...
- jsnell 15y ago
  Light Peak seems to have been sufficient for the Vaio Z.
- elithrar 15y ago
  > and modern PCIe video cards use a lot more than that connecting directly to mainboards over multiple PCIe lanes... Forgive my lack of a source, but was there not an article (maybe on Anandtech?) about high-end cards being 90%+ as performant on a 4x PCI-e slot?
- Artagra 15y ago
  Yes. Thunderbolt bandwidth falls between a PCI-E 2.0 1x slot and 4x slot. Tests that have been done comparing the performance of relatively high end desktop cards on 1x, 4x, 8x and 16x slots have established that while there is a performance penalty, such a solution would still out perform most mobile GPUs. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_S... http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Express_Scaling/24.html http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Expres...