Thunderbolt

[8G Nitrate]

Hi all...

I'm currently putting together a new build which will include an Asus sabertooth z77 along with an i5 3570k IB processor and GTX680 (or similar).

I already own an Apple Thunderbolt Display and I was wondering if I bought a Thunderbolt expansion card (when they are finally released) would I be able to use my Apple Thunderbolt display as my main monitor or would this end up bypassing my graphics card?

Hope i've explained myself well enough so you understand my question.

Thanks in advance to any help/advice you can offer.
Cheers.

 

[mfenn]

I'm pretty sure that you need an actual Thunderbolt port in order to make the Thunderbolt display work. So an expansion card would need some way to take a mini-DisplayPort input and add it to the Thunderbolt signal. That's not impossible to do, but who knows if any released card will have that capability?

 

[Jamiex]

I'm not sure about this, but I think I read somewhere that the TB_header on the ASUS z77 boards was there so that it could get the displayport signal. As I said I don't know if this is true, but I hope so since I also got the Apple thunderbolt display

 

[Dahak]

the TB_header on the ASUS z77 boards was there so that it could get the displayport signal.

I remember in the anandtech z77 chipset video where he was talking to an asus guy, the asus guy did mention that, it is to allow the dp signal to the external card. but you still need x4 slot(most asus boards the black x16 is x4 electrical) for the card to work as thunderbolt is a combo of a x4 pcie lane and display port. He did not mention when the card will be available though