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Attaching a Thunderbolt GPU to a Macbook Air
- whitehat2k9 13y ago...Or you could put together a proper gaming machine for the same price.
- simias 13y agoThis website is called hacker news you know. That's a pretty cool hack. Although I grant you that lately it was more "NSA circlejerk news", so it's an easy mistake to make.
- pizza 13y agoI didn't see where it said they did this for cost-effectiveness
- jonny_eh 13y agoWhy do something interesting when you can do something boring?
- mosselman 13y agoI am a developer and I prefer developing on my macbook by FAR over windows and I prefer it a lot over Ubuntu et al. Right now I still have my desktop PC taking up space and clutering my desk just so that I can play a few games. I'd rather sell it and for less than what I get for the whole thing buy a thunderbolt GPU and game that way. Your argument is invalid and only considered from a 'I want to game' point of view, not from a "I prefer a Mac and would like to play PC games without a 'proper gaming machine'" point of view.
- bryanlarsen 13y agoWith this solution you have a PC power supply + a GPU + a bunch of adapters and cables. This probably takes up as much space as a small case would. This solution also only works in Windows. So you still have to set up and maintain a separate "gaming machine", aka a Windows partition on your Mac.
- infinita740 13y agoI don't think it's a really great idea, games take a lot of disk space and you must have a windows partition. The macbook air storage is a bit small imo. Plus you don't want to play on a 13 inches screen, let's be realistic. Not to mention that "clutering" desk with a full keyboard, a good mouse and a bigger screen will still be needed.
- mosselman 13y ago@bryanlarsen and @infinita740 I don't agree and I think you lack imagination. My computer case is still a lot bigger than such a setup would be. I do agree to an extent with Bryan, saying that one could get a small case and put a computer in there, but then I'd have 2 things to keep up to date (and pay for). My Macbook has 16GB of memory and an i5 processor. My Desktop has an i5 as well and 8GB of memory plus some hard drives, dvd, drive, etc, etc and the GPU. The GPU is the one thing my Mac lacks. So with $250 (according to the article) I can upgrade something that I will have no matter what, my Macbook, since I use it to work on, and get rid of something that I am now forced to have (hobbying aside). @infinita I already have a 'proper' 24inch screen on my desk at home and some Logitech Z5500 speakers and a gaming mouse. I can game using my Macbook's keyboard easily. This will all be there even if I'd get rid of my Desktop. With this 'new' setup I can have just the GPU on my desk, or build some custom casing (cables and adapters be gone) and attach it behind my monitor. I then just plugin the Macbook and boom, instant gaming pleasure. Besides, when companies start building these setups they would grow smaller and more practical. As for windows, that is nothing a small thunderbolt (or USB3) harddrive won't solve. Granted it might be a bit slower than SATA (is that true for thunderbolt as well?), but hard drives are not the main bottleneck in gaming anyway, the GPU, CPU and RAM are still more important. I for one don't even use RAID in my current PC. It is not all ideal, but it still is a lot more ideal than maintaining and upgrading 2 machines and have this huge case standing around just for some GTA V.
- x3ro 13y agoSure you can. However, I already own a MacBook which I use for everything except gaming, for which I had to buy a PC. As soon as these external GPUs become available commercially, I don't have to buy a separate PC for gaming anymore, just a nice GPU and the case, which actually _is_ more cost effective bottom line, assuming that I need my notebook anyway.
- oijaf888 13y agoYou can put together a good gaming machine for $250? That seems a bit low to me but I haven't priced computer parts in a while.
- aroch 13y agoPretty sure they're referring to the cost of the computer + parts...Also, its like $400-500 for parts unless you have a [fairly] recent graphics card just sitting around
- bryanlarsen 13y agoThe OP costs $250 + GPU + Windows license, and doesn't have a case. It's also quite likely that the OP is also using an external hard disk rather than putting Windows & a few large games on his SSD. If so, $250 can get you a MB/CPU/RAM/PS.
- nobodysfool 13y agoMust have forgotten to include the Thunderbolt cable for $29...
- glogla 13y ago$250 is too low. But the whole setup with MBA with 512 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM and i7 CPU, the GPU and then the $250 in parts is not only enough money for powerful desktop computer, it is enough money for cheaper MBA variant and then powerful desktop computer.
- aroch 13y agoAnd you can still run OSX on it... This is my current setup (minus the drives / SSDs I own already): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mjxn http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1mjxn Runs OSX 10.8/10.9, Arch linux and Win7
- TomAnthony 13y agoAny caveats on running OS X on this setup? Thanks for sharing, btw. :)
- aroch 13y agoI run 2 x 30" (2560x1440) and 1 21"(1920x1200) IPS monitors (all DVI). I have 3 Samsung 540 256GB SSD, 2 WD RED 7200RPM 3TB drives (with lifetime warranty!) in the slots. 1. You should probably jump up to 750W PSU (Which is what I did in the end) just for a little more wiggle room. I also moved to small footprint RAM to fit under my cooler -- 4 x 8GB sticks. 2. Use Clover not Chameleon as your bootloader. It's EFI emulation is much better and will give a better OOTB experience (less fiddling with Kexts) 3. You might want to use a different mobo, the Realtec989 can behave strangely under OSX (popping / random interrupts) but this only happened on one install for me and a fresh install cleared it up. 4. Win7 will not install if the drive isn't device 1 or if there are HFS drives around (I have no idea why, seeing as it installs fine on my MBP -- there must be some EFI magic). 5. Fuck any SSD not made by Intel or Samsung -- make sure to use one of the Trim Enablers on the OSX side of things. 6. Don't OC the graphics card unless you're prepared to do some debugging under all OSes you plan on running. 7. OC in increments for the CPU -- test under all OSes before ratcheting up 8. Don't use Win8 with HFS drives, it does stupid shit to their metadata and headers. 9. I didn't bother setting up WiFi since my apartment is wired, but it shouldn't be too hard. Use the included wireless card and there are drivers out there that are confirmed to work.
- imissmyjuno 13y ago> Fuck any SSD not made by Intel or Samsung Why?
- shurcooL 13y agoWhy make a newer smartphone with 2x faster graphics when... you could buy a proper gaming machine for the same price.
- dmix 13y agoWindows only. > Oh and we're using Windows because games only exist for it, and I can't get the setup to work on OSX (haven't tried too much though).
- supergauntlet 13y agoIs this necessarily true? If you can get drivers for the video card, wouldn't it work?
- cloudwalking 13y agoYou need Apple drivers, and Apple only makes drivers for video cards they support. So it would not be quite that straightforward.
- schappim 13y agoA vendor can create their own drivers. This happens all the time for hardware made for the existing Mac Pro.
- baddox 13y agoThe existing Mac Pro is quite old. Are graphics cards still being made that support it?
- flomo 13y agoMy understanding is newer 'PC' cards with EFI firmware are unofficially supported.
- gilgoomesh 13y agoThe current Mac Pro is only 1 year old (although that was just a minor CPU bump). Similarly, graphics cards you can get for the Mac Pro are typically a year or so old. You can buy GTX 680s from NVidia or Radeon HD 7950s from ATI. The newest cards need to be flashed to Mac firmware. For example, you can buy pre-flashed GTX 770s like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-770-2-GB-for-Apple-Mac-Pro-680-Fastest-Mac-Card-available-today-/261226130579?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3cd24a6c93 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-770-2-GB-for-Apple-Mac-Pr...
- larsberg 13y agoI've been assuming this is what Apple is going to do with the next MBP retina. Intel graphics when headless + a new Thunderbolt Display with built-in Nvidia or ATI card when "docked."
- ckluis 13y agoPartially agree. I assume Apple wants to go down the truly portable route and offer an addon graphics card in the size and shape of either an airport extreme or apple tv/mini. This would allow someone with a mini to stack a graphics card under it and have the graphics card inbetween the mini & any other screen.
- Shivetya 13y agoI am/was hoping thunderbolt would provide me the equivalent of a docking station set up for Apple laptops. Hooking up one cable is an acceptable alternative to a docking station. My last Apple laptop setup required four plug ins, monitor, power, keyboard, and mouse. Yeah I know I could wireless the mouse/keyboard but that isn't the point.
- jfb 13y agoApple already sells a Thunderbolt docking station, with a very nice 27" display built in.
- roc 13y agoPersonally I think baking the GPU power into the displays themselves is the more Apple-y approach. As opposed to some sort of additional-stackable-boxes solution. (Which I'd love to see; I just don't see Apple doing it.)
- grecy 13y ago> Personally I think baking the GPU power into the displays themselves is the more Apple-y approach. I don't agree. Any Monitor with built in GPU won't make sense with the new Mac Pro, which (I think) will be the driving force for the new (likely 4K) Thunderbolt cinema displays.
- rheide 13y agoHm, the only reason I want a new Macbook Air over an Ultrabook is that it has the HD5000 graphics which are way faster than anything else on the ultraportable market right now. Ultrabooks with HD5000 graphics still haven't launched. If you're going to install Windows on it you might as well buy a (way cheaper) notebook instead.
- kayoone 13y agoGood writeup! For a home workstartion setup this would be pretty ideal imo..it would possibly also reduce heat as the load is moved from the internal GPU to an external one. Windows only kills this though, as i can use my old windows rig from 2009 with a somewhat recent GPU (core2quad 2.8Ghz + HD6870) which still plays basically every game without breaking a sweat. For my work setup with OSX something like this would be great!
- roc 13y agoYeah, $250-not-counting-the-GPU is very much in the "why wouldn't I just dust off my old mid-tower?" range.
- recuter 13y agoI was hoping for an external GPU enclosure, like a storage bay, that lets me plug in my own card ever since Thunderbolt was announced. This is a hack that goes: Thunderbolt -> ExpressCard -> PCI-Express. Two adapters is not quite so elegant, but whatever, this seems to work and I love it. A 13" Air has 12 hours of battery life and weighs nothing and now you can dock it at home to game. Perfect.
- FooBarWidget 13y agoMe too. It's sad to read that Intel is blocking the release of such a product. I don't want a separate gaming system, I want an addon for my mac.
- atourgates 13y agoApart from cost - what's preventing this from working with something like the Echo-Express pro? http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html - are there software limitations that will prevent a graphics-card from working in that chassis?
- dnissley 13y agoI think you're looking at power problems. That page says that it has a 100W or 150W power supply. High end cards often top out above 200W[1]. [1] - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/279391-28-power-requirements-specs-popular-graphic-cards-guide http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/279391-28-power-requiremen...
- potatolicious 13y agoBandwidth. We can (and already have) gotten video cards working across external links, but they are severely bandwidth constrained. Thunderbolt is constrained to 10Gbit (20Gbit in some contrived used cases if your'e using Thunderbolt2). A 16-lane PCI-e gaming video card consumes anywhere between 32Gbit and 126Gbit (with modern cards coming in on the high end of that). So you can get it working, but it'd be mostly pointless. The main impetus for an external video card is to get desktop-like video performance for demanding applications like gaming, but you are heavily bus-bottlenecked which reduces the video performance to a small fraction of its potential.
- apashee 13y agoHmmm, this is really cool. I'm wondering how well this'll work with my first gen Thunderbolt MBP.
- kashnikov 13y agoSo can I do this with my mid 2011 27" imac to get additional graphics performance or drive additional displays with ease?
- tvararu 13y agoI just got my shiny new MBA 13" 2013 today and was searching for something like this. Talk about timing.
- ChikkaChiChi 13y agoLet's be honest: The Thunderbolt ecosystem is tragic. - We're only now seeing the first docks come available. It only took Belkin an extra year to develop it. - The hopes and dreams of internal buses being used outside the standard case is still only a dream unless you are willing to pay extreme premiums. Even then there is still no native solution for video. - I still need a special cord from Apple to run Dual-link. If I want a Thunderbolt display for my Macbook, I still end up with a power cord adapter that's over a year out of date. - And now Apple wants to convince us that somehow, someway, the forthcoming Mac Pro will somehow usher in a new wave of adoption? What flavor Kool-Aid are they drinking and are they somehow consuming it through FW800? While USB3 is faring a little better, I still encounter mystical errors any time I use a card that relies on Displaylink drivers. The fact of the matter is that it seems like this latest generation of ports is being hindered less by the underlying technology and more by corporate bullshit that leaves us all frustrated.
- wcfields 13y agoUgh, don't get me started on the $300 Belkin Docks. ($250 for the Matrox DS1 / $400 for the Sonnet Echo 15!) I feel like I'm living in the early days of VHS (USB3) vs. BetaMax (ThunderBolt) right now: Expensive, and while BetaMax is technically better, VHS will win on price & availability.
- senorprogrammer 13y agoCould you expand on this? I've been eyeing the Belkin.
- wcfields 13y agoNothing personal/technological; the reviews of it have been very positive. It's the $300 MSRP is a just a little ridiculous. (Though I know it takes a lot of R&D.. etc..., but this is just how Firewire devices were: full of promise, but are few and far between plus priced too high)
- 13y ago
- tzaman 13y agoIs it possible to achieve the same result on a mac mini (with an external display, of course) ?
- tankbot 13y agoI don't see any reason why not. Coincidentally this is exactly what interests me as well, though I do have an 11" MBA too so I might use it for both at different times.
- Finster 13y ago> It has become very clear that gaming is not only high-performance, but super practical on an 11" Macbook Air. I think we have different operational definitions of "practical" here.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- SG- 13y agoVillage Instruments released a ready-made product years ago: http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock