News - MacBook Air uses GeForce GPU via Thunderbolt for gaming boost

[HEXUS]

Solution uses Windows via Apple Boot Camp and a whole pile of electronic spaghetti.

Read more.

[watercooled]

USB memory drive with at least $GB free for Windows Boot Camp and a Windows 7 ISO

Uppercase 4?

I can see Intel *not* wanting to support external graphics as they'd rather you spend lots and lots of money on their GT3e, so maybe that's part of the reason we've seen nothing official released?* However, I can also see latency being a realistic problem using Thunderbolt for external GPUs.

Edit: *Just read rest of text after video - that's already mentioned.

Sadly just another case of Intel artificially crippling something to save their own interests, but ultimately harming consumer choice. This is exactly why we can do without closed, crippled standards like Thunderbolt, and presumably why a lot of MFRs just haven't bothered with it while USB3 is now widespread.

[crossy]

Sadly just another case of Intel artificially crippling something to save their own interests, but ultimately harming consumer choice. This is exactly why we can do without closed, crippled standards like Thunderbolt, and presumably why a lot of MFRs just haven't bothered with it while USB3 is now widespread.

Agreed, USB3.0 has acted as a lighting rod for Thunderbolt customers.

Someone was asking about TBolt the other day, saying that they thought it was an Apple only deal, like the new connector on the iPhone.

[watercooled]

It does seem that way, but Apple are likely one of the few companies willing to pay the license fees for a bit of shiny to differentiate their products. How many people realistically need a >USB3.0 speed DAS connected to their laptop? That's about the only useful implementation for Thunderbolt I've seen so far TBH.

External GPU solutions have been in the works for quite some time now, presumably all blocked by Intel.

I could see latency being used as an excuse for PCIe adapters, to 'ensure a good user experience', but it clearly isn't a major problem if the setup in the article works OK! Sure, you're limited by the amount of lanes available, but it still allows far better performance than you get with the IGP.

I'd like to see some further tests on this sort of setup, like frame time measurements, etc.

[krazy_olie]

Didn't msi have something like this a while back. don't think it got released

[OilSheikh]

Too much money being wasted here!
First rip-off is your Macbook and then this bunch of cabling and external converters ! Hardly cost effective!

It's like using Nitrogen to cool your Processor but it's not practical for all of us to cool our processor that way

[ThermalDroid]

Too much money being wasted here!
First rip-off is your Macbook and then this bunch of cabling and external converters ! Hardly cost effective!

It's like using Nitrogen to cool your Processor but it's not practical for all of us to cool our processor that way

So you're angered that someone who is willing to experiment with this stuff has done something that is achievable (albeit complicated) for pretty much anyone if they have the spare money and time? Why comment?

[Roobubba]

ROFL

In order to game effectively on the mac, we have to spend a fortune for underpowered hardware, then another fortune on components to enable us to use better hardware, then buy the better hardware itself, and finally we have to forget all about OSX and run Windows.

This is what happens when people who like shiny things are allowed out.

[Odeas]

I've got a very setup (but using mPCIe using an Acer 8940g:
Runs Laptop through 2 mPCIe cards > GTX460 GPU > Monitor.

Boot is auto scripted and loads fairly quick.
Took a while to get it set up correctly but now its setup works great.

Let me run Planetside 2, BF3, Bioshock Infinate, GTA4 etc. all at pretty good levels (usually the cpu bottlenecking.
Already had the psu & gpu spare and only cost me £35 for the rest of the kit from Ebay.

[David Wheeldon]

I do like the idea, turns any none gaming laptop (With Thunderbolt) into a gaming laptop at the same time having a very light weight laptop for normal use. No reason this should not work on Mac Mini with Thunderbolt

Would be nice if the setup could be in a more user friendly kit form. i.e. 1 box with a thunderbolt port to pci-e case in one device, maybe later.

[Odeas]

David, you can using this with any laptop with mPCIe (think most internal wifi cards) as well as express card. Thunderbolt increases the performance but is NOT a requirement.

See: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html

[Hardware_Elite]

eGPU is an old idea. viDock has been around for quite some time. I was talking to some Mac dude over on legit reviews about the new Mac tower desgin witht the 6 TBolt ports and he said it was expansive and that its has the advantage of taking less space. But, if you need to connect 6 TBolt external devices, with all this **** everywhere, doesn't that defeat the purpose?

P.S Watch the Mac people go crazy and claim this as an Original mac idea, like the thunderbolt, which Intel actually made. **** Intel, why'd you get into bed with Mac (i know, money)?

[genkifd]

love that thunderbolt is fast enough to cater for external gpus. For desktops this would be great, but software bugs is going to hamper the integration. Nvidia / AMD cant even get sli/xfire working properly to date. For Mac external devices especially bulky devices defeats the purpose of having a minimalistic desk. another point - what is the purpose having these external attachments for laptops? you cant carry them anywhere.

[watercooled]

I don't really see why you'd want to bother with a desktop, you'd be better off just using an internal PCIe port. For laptops, it means you can essentially dock it and have better gaming performance at home, for example.

[Odeas]

I basically use mine like a dock, its only 2 cables that need to be attached/removed and my gpu+psu sits in a plastic box about the size of a shoebox with a plug out the back so its pretty easy to take somewhere.

I do find myself using my desktop more however just for the extra grunt but its very useful if any mates come over.

[crossy]

I don't really see why you'd want to bother with a desktop, you'd be better off just using an internal PCIe port. For laptops, it means you can essentially dock it and have better gaming performance at home, for example.

I'm thinking along the same lines - laptops these days can be pretty well-spec'd on the cpu side, but the graphics side always lets the side down (unless you're willing to spend thousands of pounds on a slab o gaming laptop of course). But perhaps the arrangement Odeas has described could be used to add decent graphics to well spec'd "business" laptop giving it a chance to be used as a gaming PC.
In which case, what's the performance like compared to a desktop PC - e.g. is this external crate just a step up from (crappy) IGP's or can it be used to deliver something approaching a desktop experience? My missus would love if I could replace my "effin huge and ugly" (her words) gaming PC with a laptop.

It's like using Nitrogen to cool your Processor but it's not practical for all of us to cool our processor that way

<pedant mode>Anyone (me included) that's using air cooling is using Nitrogen to cool their processor - since it's the major constituent of "normal" air</pedant mode>
Yes, I know you meant liquid Nitrogen!