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Can Intel's Thunderbolt create external video cards?

D

dioxholster

Gawd
Joined
Aug 11, 2010
Messages
801
it carries PCIe speeds so whats preventing me from taking the graphic card out of the case and using it as external with say a laptop?
 
I imagine it won't take long for someone to design a box that has the power supply and connectors built in. It could make a really nice product.
 
It is possible...but each channel only runs at speeds similar to PCIe 2.0 x4, so you won't be running a GTX 580 off of your laptop. :D

(I caught a bit of one of their media calls earlier today)
 
This would be neat, you could almost move around from complete desktops. Just have a "docking station" of sorts at home to play the high graphic demanding games.

Just for clarification I said "ALMOST"
 
FYI, this is already done with current video cards and laptops, too tired to look for the thread...
 
^ that too, I was talking about home made though...
 
86 5.0L said:
^ that too, I was talking about home made though...
Click to expand...

It is possible, but the consensus was unless you have the parts laying around (power supply, expensive adapters etc) its not really worth doing. Even completed its very jerry-rigged compared to the retail options out there. If you want to do it for hobby, just to see if you can, by all means do it. If you are looking for a quick fix thats solid and doesn't look like a 5th grade science project wired to your expensive hardware, the vidock does a good job.
 
Imagine using external video cards for your playstation. No more old graphics for COD and Halo fanboys!
 
>implying if there was a graphics card upgrade for consoles the devs would actually use it...
 
wonder what the latency difference between using a regular onboard PCIe slot and using a PCIe slot connected over a lightpeak cable? they are using copper not fiber, so it probably be much higher then using an integrated slot. that might rule out external video cards, but its a neat idea anyway.
 
ghost6303 said:
wonder what the latency difference between using a regular onboard PCIe slot and using a PCIe slot connected over a lightpeak cable? they are using copper not fiber, so it probably be much higher then using an integrated slot. that might rule out external video cards, but its a neat idea anyway.
Click to expand...

Trust me, you won't notice. Of all the links in the chain you should be worried about, the extra overhead translating PCIe to lightpeak is not one of them.

Your WIRED MOUSE has more input lag than lightpeak.
 
Yossarian22 said:
Jesus, can't anyone read? Oh wait, this is Video Card sub-forum.

[H] Thread on DIYViDock:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522180&highlight=External+graphics+express

DIYViDock @ NBR
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/397667-lets-figure-out-how-make-diy-vidock.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html

There have been similar solutions (XG Station, ExpressBox1, ATI XGP/GraphicBooster etc)
Click to expand...

yes we can read, but the real problem with those previous solutions were the link speed,(expresscard@2.5Gbps) , this offers 8 times the speed (20Gbps) , so it's a completely new method for connecting very high end cards.
 
Last edited:
Nir said:
yes we can read, but the real problem with those previous solutions were the link speed,(expresscard@2.5Gbps) , this offers 8 times the speed (20Gbps) , so it's a completely new method for connecting very high end cards.
Click to expand...

Excuse me if I am incorrect but PCIe 16x offers 8 Gb/s theoretical bandwidth performance and Light Peak/Thunderbolt offers 10 Gb/s. I believe there have been tests here at [H] and also on Tom's or Anand about performance of graphical cards and just now only the highest end cards are beginning to push that 8Gb/s boundary.

I'm not bashing it, my only qualm is that it isn't fiber (yet). It would be great if my laptop had external mPCIe 1x ports but that would be fairly limited. Intel's aim seems to be one protocol/physical cable connection to rule them all. I'm down with that, I think.

But for the here and now, you can do it relatively cheaply if you want to do a bit of technical work spearheaded by the people at NBR and they've got 2x links working on certain laptops. If you want to forward the video frame buffer to IGP using Optimus over 1x you get something like ~60% performance on the internal monitor? That's pretty good and considering the lower end Fermi cards can be run on a typical brick switching PSU means you have a pretty portable solution, just can't crank the IQ.

I heavily recommend anyone to check it out.
 
Yossarian22 said:
Excuse me if I am incorrect but PCIe 16x offers 8 Gb/s theoretical bandwidth performance and Light Peak/Thunderbolt offers 10 Gb/s. I believe there have been tests here at [H] and also on Tom's or Anand about performance of graphical cards and just now only the highest end cards are beginning to push that 8Gb/s boundary.

I'm not bashing it, my only qualm is that it isn't fiber (yet). It would be great if my laptop had external mPCIe 1x ports but that would be fairly limited. Intel's aim seems to be one protocol/physical cable connection to rule them all. I'm down with that, I think.

But for the here and now, you can do it relatively cheaply if you want to do a bit of technical work spearheaded by the people at NBR and they've got 2x links working on certain laptops. If you want to forward the video frame buffer to IGP using Optimus over 1x you get something like ~60% performance on the internal monitor? That's pretty good and considering the lower end Fermi cards can be run on a typical brick switching PSU means you have a pretty portable solution, just can't crank the IQ.

I heavily recommend anyone to check it out.
Click to expand...

ExpressCard can only offer 5Gb/s in ver 2.0, which is similar to PCIe2.0 x1 speed.
Thunderbolt has 10Gb/s per channel, and since it's a dual channel connection, we are talking about 20Gb/s per cable, which is similar to PCIe2.0 x4 speed.

there was a test performed to see how does PCIe link speed affects cards performance :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...18851-diy-vidock-experiences.html#post5324240

the test showed up to 20% decrease of frame rate just because of a slower link speed.
and keep in mind that test was performed on a 4870, today's cards probably uses alot more bandwidth.
 
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