Running an external GPU via Thunderbolt

[bcredeur97]

hey guys, was browsing my twitter feed today and found that someone actually got an external GPU to work over Thunderbolt. He didnt do it with a thunderbolt to PCI-e box, but he used a Thunderbolt to Express Card adapter, which although slower (5Gbps) compared to thunderbolt (10 Gbps) it still allows us to get a VERY, VERY big performance boost out of laptops, macs, and even some PC desktops where an external GPU may be required. The guy in the post im linking to used a 2013 11in. MacBook Air, but i assume this method should be possible on a PC based computer as well, since he used windows 7 on his MacBook Air. anyways, enough of me speaking, the link is below:)

 

Link to this guy's post: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4271-2013-11-macbook-air-win7-sonnet-echo-expresscard-pe4l-internal-lcd-%5Bus%24250%5D.html

 

 

Enjoy!

[dyent10]

pe4l is nothing new. there are alot of videos on youtube about it.

 

although the most interesting part of it is that he did not need an external display. 

[bcredeur97]

pe4l is nothing new. there are alot of videos on youtube about it.

 

although the most interesting part of it is that he did not need an external display. 

yep i probably should of put that in the title(no external display) lol, would of drew in more attention

[Blade of Grass]

This is kinda old...

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/06/06/silverstone-external-graphics-card-case-deb/

[criso8]

This is really cool. Can you do it without thunderbolt?

[Kamil]

This is really cool. Can you do it without thunderbolt?

I think Thunderbolt is the only external connection standard that has enough bandwidth. USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s at a theoretical maximum, and that has significant overhead as well as splitting it between all your USB devices. There is supposed to be an updated USB 3.1 (which isn't the official name, but I really don't understand why not) that can go much closer to 10, so there might be a version available for that... but I'd prefer they work on utilizing the whole Thunderbolt bandwidth or even up to Thunderbolt 2; sure a huge performance boost on ultrabooks is cool, but I doubt any gamer would really be satisfied with a graphics card running on PCIe 2.0 1x instead of PCIe 3.0 16x which (if I understand correctly) can transfer information 32x faster. I don't think that most graphics cards really use all the bandwidth in a 3.0x16 slot, but I'm pretty sure they benefit from higher than 5 Gb/s.

[bcredeur97]

Keep in mind this guy used a thunderbolt to expresscard adapter so he only got half of thunderbolt's power (5 Gbit/s)

[criso8]

I think Thunderbolt is the only external connection standard that has enough bandwidth. USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s at a theoretical maximum, and that has significant overhead as well as splitting it between all your USB devices. There is supposed to be an updated USB 3.1 (which isn't the official name, but I really don't understand why not) that can go much closer to 10, so there might be a version available for that... but I'd prefer they work on utilizing the whole Thunderbolt bandwidth or even up to Thunderbolt 2; sure a huge performance boost on ultrabooks is cool, but I doubt any gamer would really be satisfied with a graphics card running on PCIe 2.0 1x instead of PCIe 3.0 16x which (if I understand correctly) can transfer information 32x faster. I don't think that most graphics cards really use all the bandwidth in a 3.0x16 slot, but I'm pretty sure they benefit from higher than 5 Gb/s.

Okay, what about using this with an external monitor because from what I understand the problem is with getting the video signals to display on the laptop screen. Thanks, I'm really interested in this.

[Kamil]

Okay, what about using this with an external monitor because from what I understand the problem is with getting the video signals to display on the laptop screen. Thanks, I'm really interested in this.

I don't know for sure; I don't have any devices with thunderbolt to really try this out. I can't think of any particular reason an external monitor would lack issues that an internal monitor has (short of one actually being broken in some way), but I have heard that using an external monitor helps even though I don't know why.

[bcredeur97]

i think its cool to be able to display this on a laptop screen over an external screen, it gives you a sense that your laptop is more powerful htan it really is. this would do great on something like a retina macbook pro (or equivelnt PC[with thunderbolt connector???]) where you have this beautiful screen, and a ton of horspower to drive it. Just have to make sure you get the highest end CPU when you buy it:)

[onionring]

people have been doing this for years on a pcie 1x slot... (wifi card slot + ribbon cable)

if you want your comp to feel faster than it is just use splashtop and a better desktop comp, when you ll be tired of the tiny screen , you ll just use the desktop instead.

[bcredeur97]

people have been doing this for years on a pcie 1x slot... (wifi card slot + ribbon cable)

if you want your comp to feel faster than it is just use splashtop and a better desktop comp, when you ll be tired of the tiny screen , you ll just use the desktop instead.

lol yes we know this, I believe expresscard has more bandwidth though, and splashtop can lag on slower networks.

[TheProfosist]

Pci-e to expresscard has been done ages ago, hell asus even had a retail product that did that. I was a quite rare product though and cost a pretty penny.

[onionring]

lol yes we know this, I believe expresscard has more bandwidth though, and splashtop can lag on slower networks.

exprescard or mini pcie(2.0) 1x has 4Gb/s, Thunderbolt 10Gb/s

your gigabit network port on your laptop should be able to transmit 1000mb/s...

if you want to add an egpu, beeing connected with a wire shouldn t be a problem.

[TheProfosist]

exprescard or mini pcie(2.0) 1x has 4Gb/s, Thunderbolt 10Gb/s

your gigabit network port on your laptop should be able to transmit 1000mb/s...

if you want to add an egpu, beeing connected with a wire shouldn t be a problem.

 

though a network jack wouldnt work unless you designed a protocol to handle it.

[onionring]

though a network jack wouldnt work unless you designed a protocol to handle it.

no, that s not for the egpu,the parc about lan cable concerned the use of splashtop instead of a egpu if all you want is to think your laptop is faster than it rly is.

[bcredeur97]

exprescard or mini pcie(2.0) 1x has 4Gb/s, Thunderbolt 10Gb/s

your gigabit network port on your laptop should be able to transmit 1000mb/s...

if you want to add an egpu, beeing connected with a wire shouldn t be a problem.

expresscard is supposedly 5 Gb/s i heard.

[skullbringer]

Why not just use the shield tech to stream prerendered stuff from your desktop to your laptop, instead of carrying around a gpu and enclosure. That breaks the mobile experience.

Nvidia Shieldbooks are the future. As Linus would say: "You can quote me on that!"

[TheProfosist]

expresscard is supposedly 5 Gb/s i heard.

thats because its equivalent to PCI-E x1

 

 

Why not just use the shield tech to stream prerendered stuff from your desktop to your laptop, instead of carrying around a gpu and enclosure. That breaks the mobile experience.

Nvidia Shieldbooks are the future. As Linus would say: "You can quote me on that!"

 

Why not just remote desktop into a dedicated server then? People are going to be carrying around their GPUs (I hope) as that would defeat the purpose. I mean I could see you bringing it on business or something if you going to be there a while and what your working on would need the power but if you need that much portable gfx power all the time stick with a standard internal dedicated card. This mostly for someone who want to bring the data with them everywhere and the hardware so they have a contestant environment to work in and are comfortable and what not but when their at their desk want/meed the extra power i envision the same people that use docks would be drawn to these especially. But this may bring more people in to this world which I think would be a good thing.