suggest video card that will work with thunderbolt display

[endo022]

Is there a video card out there that can connect to the Apple's 27" Thunderbolt display and work in full resolution?

I see a ton of cards that has the mini-display ports. Will connecting to that port work or does it absolutely require a TB port?

 

[Arkadrel]

1) thunderbolt doesnt make sense for monitors, no real gains from useing it there.
2) thunderbolt is more expensive than other solutions (for no gain from useing thunderbolt).

Which begs the question... why even bother? unless you reaaaally love Apple.

 

[gmaster456]

1) thunderbolt doesnt make sense for monitors, no real gains from useing it there.
2) thunderbolt is more expensive than other solutions (for no gain from useing thunderbolt).

Which begs the question... why even bother? unless you reaaaally love Apple.

It is my understanding that the thunderbolt display only works with machines sporting a thunderbolt port, hence the OP's question. I could be wrong though.

 

[moriz]

It is my understanding that the thunderbolt display only works with machines sporting a thunderbolt port, hence the OP's question. I could be wrong though.

^that's correct. thunderbolt monitors absolutely require a thunderbolt port to work. a miniDP won't work. however, thunderbolt ports can run miniDP/DP monitors with no issues.

 

[Arkadrel]

@Gmaster456

Yeah Im not really sure either, but I believe the same.

Which means you wouldnt plug the monitor into any ports on the GPU, but rather much like how youd plug in a USB device, your monitor would just go into a thunderbolt port (I believe you can do the same with USB3 as well, there are solutions that work with USB3 as well (though only for 1 monitor pr cable)).

again not really sure.... to me thunderbolt is a worthless tech, made so apple can force people to buy their proprietary tech and charge more for it, and force them into only buying apple products and not other competitors (ei. for monitors, hard-drives (if apple decides to make their own some day) ect ect).

USB3 > Thunderbolt in all the ways that matter.

 

[SolMiester]

10Gbps is not worthless tech....Just ask some VMWare infrastructure guys what they would do with removable 10Gbps I/O..
On the other hand, to use it for video output is.............

 

[endo022]

thanks for the responses. I don't agree that USB3 > TB. Read up on the specs and you might change your stance.

I was just trying to see if there's any way for me to connect that display to my pc since the monitor upgrade is free courtesy of my boss =) and I wanted to future proof the purchase for a little while, especially if TB catches on.

TB was actually co-developed by intel and apple.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-technology-developer.html

apple's monopoly on this technology will end this year so we might actually start seeing tb ports on video cards on the pc side soon (hopefully). Now the question is...can I wait that long hmmmm...

 

[Arkadrel]

Where does the "avg" consumer need 10Gbps though? external raid SSD HDDs? really?

Then look at the price of the cables and the extra cost of motherboards with controllers, and the products that support it that apple hike prices up on. Can you honestly say its not a worthless tech for like 99% of all users? USB3 > thunderbolt.

Its not needed to drive monitors (which is what TS thread is about).
There are USB3 -> HDMI adapters... sure they dont do daisy chaining, so you would need "6" of them if you wanted to hook up 6 monitors over your USB3 hub, but you could do it.

But why would you want to? HDMI/DVI ect all work fine atm
(plus they dont force/lock you into buying 1 brand, that then ends up costing more for no reason).

 

[ddarko]

again not really sure.... to me thunderbolt is a worthless tech, made so apple can force people to buy their proprietary tech and charge more for it, and force them into only buying apple products and not other competitors

And yet, despite Apple "forcing" you to buy their product, you've managed to resist. It's a curious definition of the word that offering a product that anyone is free to decline to buy is "forcing" anyone to do anything. Damn AMD/Nvidia/Microsoft/Google/Intel/Apple for forcing you to buy their products by making them!

And can you stick to what the OP asked? He didn't ask for a discussion about the pros and cons of Thunderbolt (he didn't even mention USB 3.0). He asked about the monitor's compatibility with PC video cards. That's it.

And to the OP, as some of the other users said, reviews say the Thunderbolt display doesn't work with a PC video card that has a mini-DP port, even though the Thunderbolt port is physically the same as the mini-DP port. It'll fit but it won't work. If you're just interested in the panel, I believe Apple may be still selling the previous non-Thunderbolt display. The panels are the same.

 

[Arkadrel]

. If you're just interested in the panel, I believe Apple may be still selling the previous non-Thunderbolt display. The panels are the same.

OP wanted a video card that works with a thunderbolt display... the answear would be any (I think right?)

as long as he has a Apple PC with a motherboard that has thunderbolt already with it
(atm I dont think theres any other way to get thunderbolt ports, no add-in cards that give you it ect (to my knowledge of it => this means if you dont have a new apple pc, you wont be able to use thunderbolt anything).

*IF* OP you have a mac pc newly bought, that has thunderbolt ports,... then reguardless of what GPU it came with, it should work with a thunderbolt monitor.

Apple has a nice 27" thunderbolt monitor for about 999$ on apple.com mac store.




*IF*

you can live without (or you dont have a new mac pc) here is a nice 27" abit cheaper
(its 279$ (720$cheaper) but its not thunderbolt):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236091

Im not sure about quality of this vs the apple one, but I doubt it ll be anything big, and at a differnce of over 300% in price... well.

 

[Arkadrel]

10Gbps is not worthless tech....Just ask some VMWare infrastructure guys what they would do with removable 10Gbps I/O..
On the other hand, to use it for video output is.............

Yeah I exagerated abit there.. its not useless tech, and it is abit faster than USB3 atm.

Soon as USB4 is out, it ll be faster then Intel will make thunderbolt 2.0 or something, and again no one will need it (we are the 99%) because we dont have devices that require that much bandwidth.

I also agree that to use it for video output is slightly crazy, theres no gain to it.... and it forces you to buy apple only monitors (not sure if anyone else has thunderbolt monitors) that cost a fortune, without being much/if any better than something much cheaper.

I was trying to help the OP save a ton of cash, and not get milked by apple.

I still think the only place thunderbolt really makes sense is for external hard drives....
but even those usually arnt fast enough to need anything more than USB3.

Unless your doing something most normal consumers arnt, theres no need for thunderbolt, and it has alot of disadvantages (mostly in the cost department, and being forced into buying from 1 supplier).

 

[PhoenixEnigma]

*IF*

you can live without (or you don't have a new mac pc) here is a nice 27" a bit cheaper
(its 279$ (720$cheaper) but its not thunderbolt):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236091


I'm not sure about quality of this vs the apple one, but I doubt it ll be anything big, and at a difference of over 300% in price... well.

1080p TN vs 1440p IPS is pretty big...

At any rate, Apple still has the 27" Cinema Display in stock, it's the same panel and same price, so if you can get your boss to swing that instead, you'll have a lot more options in connectivity - anything with a standard mini-DP or Thunderbolt port would be able to drive it. If it's worth anything, I'd be willing to bet the Cinema Display will hold its value better, too, with far more potential users out there.

If you can't, well - you'll need a Mac with a Thunderbolt port to drive the Thunderbolt Display. Sorry. No new video card for you.

 

[SolMiester]

Yeah I exagerated abit there.. its not useless tech, and it is abit faster than USB3 atm.

Soon as USB4 is out, it ll be faster then Intel will make thunderbolt 2.0 or something, and again no one will need it (we are the 99%) because we dont have devices that require that much bandwidth.

I also agree that to use it for video output is slightly crazy, theres no gain to it.... and it forces you to buy apple only monitors (not sure if anyone else has thunderbolt monitors) that cost a fortune, without being much/if any better than something much cheaper.

I was trying to help the OP save a ton of cash, and not get milked by apple.

I still think the only place thunderbolt really makes sense is for external hard drives....
but even those usually arnt fast enough to need anything more than USB3.

Unless your doing something most normal consumers arnt, theres no need for thunderbolt, and it has alot of disadvantages (mostly in the cost department, and being forced into buying from 1 supplier).

TB is quick enough to drive VMs on...The slowest part of DR is the restoration of files via I/O...Man, what I could do with TB on my work ESX infrastructure, that would be real sweet!

 

[ckelly]

As of right now, if you want to use an Apple 27" display with a PC, get the LED Cinema Display, and NOT the Thunderbolt display. There are currently no available video cards that work with the Thunderbolt Display. You should still be able to get the LED cinema Display from Apple and other retailers. I'm running one now with a 7970, no problems.

If you already have one, I'd try and wait until a "mac compatible" version of the 7XXX series comes out (I'll assume when new Mac Pros hit). Then you may have a chance at getting something that'll work with the Thunderbolt Display, though no guarantees.

 

[gmaster456]

I'd also like to point out Sony has had machines with thunderbolt ports not too long (couple months I think) after TB came out. So its not just an apple thing, although they had a huge hand in it.

 

[exar333]

1) thunderbolt doesnt make sense for monitors, no real gains from useing it there.
2) thunderbolt is more expensive than other solutions (for no gain from useing thunderbolt).

Which begs the question... why even bother? unless you reaaaally love Apple.

Very uniformed post.

Thunderbolt does offer some huge advantages related to displays over USB 3.0. Speed and latency are much better, with the latter being key.

 

[wahdangun]

wow just wow, thuderport is useless tech, why the hell you need thunderport display while there are more Displayport display available and support more format (like DHCP, 3D, daisychain dysplay, 4K resolution) and its supported by all new GPU.

 

[wahdangun]

Very uniformed post.

Thunderbolt does offer some huge advantages related to displays over USB 3.0. Speed and latency are much better, with the latter being key.

yeah just like firewire it was superior than usb 2.0. but what happen to it now ??

 

[DerQ]

I have a similar request as the original poster. It seems as there was a lot of TB bashing around here.

In my case, I wanted to purchase a new 27" iMac, but hope to use it in 'Target Display Mode' as my 4th monitor for my Windows 7 machine.

It seems as though if I bought an old iMac (with mini DisplayPort), this would be easy, but don't know how I can make it work with a new iMac with TB.

Any help?

 

[blackened23]

Is there a video card out there that can connect to the Apple's 27" Thunderbolt display and work in full resolution?

I see a ton of cards that has the mini-display ports. Will connecting to that port work or does it absolutely require a TB port?

You're out of luck, it won't work. Some motherboards with allow it, but then you can't use discrete graphics - which has the net effect of still being completely worthless (with HD4000)

TB display is the wrong choice for any PC. Get a better monitor instead, or perhaps the LED Cinema display which apple still sells.

 

[blackened23]

Very uniformed post.

Thunderbolt does offer some huge advantages related to displays over USB 3.0. Speed and latency are much better, with the latter being key.

Displayport has higher bandwidth than Thunderbolt. Furthermore, displayport has more features than TB for display specific features.

Thunderbolt has benefits, but displays do not benefit. In fact, thunderbolt is worse in every way than current interfaces DVI-DL and DP -- The benefits are in areas such as external storage, external raid arrays, etc - but Displayport is better than TB in every respect than thunderbolt. Displayport also allows discrete graphics. Thunderbolt does not. Thunderbolt also has royalty fees which are completely ridiculously overpriced, adding a thunderbolt port x2 adds nearly 75$ to the cost of any product. Screw that.

Summary:

Cons:

1) Thunderbolt does not allow discrete graphics
2) Thunderbolt cables are completely overpriced, often costing 50$ or more for a mere cable.
3) Thunderbolt has less bandwidth than displayport
4) Thunderbolt has less features for displays than does displayport.
5) Thunderbolt does not allow 10 bit color output, DP and DVI-DL do.
6) Thunderbolt adds 75-100$ cost to any peripheral using it.

Benefits:

1) Better than USB 3.0 for external storage.

Thunderbolt display is unusable with a PC unless you want to absolutely use HD4000 - some motherboards allow this, some don't. The ones that do don't allow discrete graphics.. Therefore it is worthless, do not buy this monitor for use on a PC.

 

[Tweak155]

I'm not a fan of thunderbolt due to it being proprietary - but I thought it did have several distinct advantages.

Can't it carry a networking signal? I.e I leave the network cable plugged into the monitor and disconnect / reconnect a laptop at will? Kind of like a docking station.

It carries a charge signal, yes? Thus charging the laptop as well.

Pretty much it acts like a docking station in a cable. I kinda like that.

But yeah, for the price, I don't like it THAT much

 

[Childs]

Some modern PC motherboards have thunderbolt ports, but that would mean you would be driving the display via integrated graphics.

On the Mac side, one of the main benefits is simplifying I/O. One cable for video, storage, and high speed I/O peripherals that can all be daisy chained together. For example, at work I have a Mini driving a 27" thunderbolt display, and off that I have a Promise thunderbolt to fiber channel adapter for connectivity to a SAN. Down the line I wouldnt be surprised if there were external video cards, as the connection is definitely fast enough.

Eventually, this will show up more and more on the PC, as laptops and tablets shrink, having one port serving the function of many makes more sense. Apparently there is an Asus thunderbolt expansion card in the works that lets you do MDP out to Thunderbolt in, then Thunderbolt out to where ever you want, but its projected to be around $200, and only on certain Asus motherboards.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5935/asus-thunderbolt-ex-upgrade-card-for-7series-motherboards