Is there any thunderbolt eGPU solution available

[Karant-rex]

So i may buy the MBP if there is a thunderbolt eGPU solution that i coul use. How faster will thunderbolt be compared to the express card slot eGPU solution on the x220.

[moviemarketing]

the 6750m on the latest MBP refresh is not going to run Metro 2033 maxed, obviously, but it is already fast enough to deliver decent framerates for most games at native resolution.

At least it's ranked higher than the 5830m, which works just fine for me for about any game I've tried at 1920x1080.

[User Retired 2]

Sonnect Echo Express

[Karant-rex]

Sonnect Echo Express

Yeah i found that too but that has not been launched yet. Is that the only solution right now, any eta for it.

[hawk1410]

Don't know about MBP but isn't the new Z also supposed to have a external GPU connected via thunderbolt.
A question, do you think we will be able to use this sonnet stuff and have the display on the MBP screen itself or will we have to get a external monitor?

[Karamazovmm]

Don't know about MBP but isn't the new Z also supposed to have a external GPU connected via thunderbolt.
A question, do you think we will be able to use this sonnet stuff and have the display on the MBP screen itself or will we have to get a external monitor?

you would still need it more than probably

the Z is also a 2000 laptop, not to mention sony is also going proprietary again! and the gpu is not what was commented and that I advertised, its not going to be a 6770m, probably a 6630m\

I do hope that the concept spreads forward

[hawk1410]

Aren't MBPs also 2k$ laptops(if you consider the 15inch ones). The reason i mentioned the Z was cause it will have eGPU support from sony itself and will be able to run it on its own display, so chances are if we use these Sonnet expansion chassis with it there will be some way to get the eGPU to work with the laptop display, and i dont think it would be possible with the MBP.

[User Retired 2]

Don't know about MBP but isn't the new Z also supposed to have a external GPU connected via thunderbolt.
A question, do you think we will be able to use this sonnet stuff and have the display on the MBP screen itself or will we have to get a external monitor?

The Thunderbolt port also carries a Displayport signal. Sony just needs to wire that as an input into the LCD.

The other way of doing it would be for the pci-e signal to carry the display image signalling and use the iGPU as the frame buffer, just like NVidia Optimus does. Problem with this approach is it uses a portion of the total bandwidth available for output display.

I'm sure Sony will use the Displayport approach to maximize bandwidth.

[hawk1410]

So that means that if someone replaces Sony's external GPU with their own thunderbolt eGPU solution they should be able to use it on the laptops display right. And as i sad such a thind would not be possible with the MBP.

[User Retired 2]

So that means that if someone replaces Sony's external GPU with their own thunderbolt eGPU solution they should be able to use it on the laptops display right. And as i sad such a thind would not be possible with the MBP.

If it provides the same input signalling into the Thunderbolt port then there is no reason why it shouldn't work. If using a desktop video card then the output DP port would need to be routed to be an input into the Thunderbolt port. I'm sure Sonnet will be aware of just what people want to put into their box and provide an adapter to do just that.

So i may buy the MBP if there is a thunderbolt eGPU solution that i coul use. How faster will thunderbolt be compared to the express card slot eGPU solution on the x220.

bandwidth: using an expresscard-based eGPU setup

Maximum bandwidth is x1 1.0 (2.5GT/s). This will double to x1 2.0 when hwtools finally provide a pci-e 2.0 compliant hardware for use on a Series-6 chipset. Or alternatively just use a Villagetronic solution which already claims pci-e 2.0 compliance.

Now with NVidia cards we've been able to get x1 pci-e compression going which approximately doubles bandwidth. So the best that we'll get will be approximately equal to x2 2.0 (10GT/s) with an NVidia Fermi card. If using the Optimus internal LCD mode then part of this bandwidth carries the display image data back to the iGPU for display.

bandwidth: using a Thunderbolt port

Sonnet suggest it's a x4 link. Intel say it's 10Gbps, which means x4 1.0. This is odd given that Series-6 chipset can do pci-e 2.0. So is it x4 2.0 (20GT/s) or x4 1.0 (10GT/s)? Now if it's x4 1.0, which I'm 90% sure it won't be, then it's going to be pretty much the same as the top-end x1.2Opt NVidia expresscard eGPU implementation.

A Thunderbolt port also has a Displayport input signal wire.

If it's x4 2.0, then I've read a report somewhere that x4 2.0 gives 95% of a x16 2.0 link's performance. So we are looking at very close to full desktop video performance. In addition, the separate DP input signal means none of this bandwidth needs to be used up to carry the final display image to the LCD.

Conclusion

A x4 2.0 Thunderbolt port eGPU implementation is superior in every single possible way: more bandwidth, designed for internal LCD mode, small port size.

Now just need notebook vendors to incorporate Thunderbolt across the board. The bean counters that have been dependant on consumers to upgrade their notebooks every two years to get better dGPUs won't like this since now they could upgrade their eGPU by just buying a new desktop video card.