Is Thunderbolt a dead interface?

[Kirihuna]

Honest question.

 

I would love Thunderbolt. It seems like the perfect hardware interface. Except it's expensive.

 

I can only find two manufactures. MSI (has two boards, both Z77) and Asus, who has one Z77 and two Z87. So you're between $220 to $350 in terms of price.

 

There are also very few hard drive enclosures and such for Thunderbolt. Remember when people said "There will be a PCI enclosure for dGPUs to hook up to your Mac or whatever for computer power." I don't think this ever happened. There are very few laptops that actually have Thunderbolt in it. Only one brand that has it in every product. Apple. Apple has been known to drive innovation. Could this be one innovation that may never happen?

 

And yet we're getting Thunderbolt 2 this year? It's a niche product already.

 

So is this dead? If it were cheaper, would you consider using Thunderbolt?

[M-ursu]

Longest answer ever: No

(thunderbolt is future, it just ain't here yet, but soon it is coming to mainstream)

[_ASSASSIN_]

no, with Thunderbolt 2.0 speeds of 20gbps, no way

[tristan1035]

Thunderbolt has amazing qualities, but it still hasn't breached the mainstream market. I really hope for it to become popular and it probably will in the future; but for now it will remain a niche piece of computer technology. Unless case manufacturers start to embrace it, then we will see the tides change.

[whatthe_fuzz]

i say use it as a PCI throughport and create laptops that can have a beefier GPU when at home. just plug in a Titan and youre good. when on the go, stick with a 760 or something for low power. no one games standing up so a portable GPU+laptop setup is ideal

[Kirihuna]

i say use it as a PCI throughport and create laptops that can have a beefier GPU when at home. just plug in a Titan and youre good. when on the go, stick with a 760 or something for low power. no one games standing up so a portable GPU+laptop setup is ideal

This would be cool if manufactures actually did this.

 

There are PCI enclosures, but most of them are for SSDs, but none can fit a graphics card.

[whatthe_fuzz]

This would be cool if manufactures actually did this.

 

There are PCI enclosures, but most of them are for SSDs, but none can fit a graphics card.

 

exactly. but just imagine, you come home, sit you laptop on your desk and BOOM. you are connected to an external monitor, LAN, and a powerful GPU along with some extra juice. its possible and will truly allow for a mobile desktop IMO

 

 

*patent pending*

[Guest]

Hopefully Haswell-E will bring onboard GPU's so Thunderbolt will be supported on a more prosumer level. 

[Kirihuna]

Hopefully Haswell-E will bring onboard GPU's so Thunderbolt will be supported on a more prosumer level. 

What exactly would having an onboard GPU have to do with Thunderbolt for prosumers? Just curious.

[Guest]

What exactly would having an onboard GPU have to do with Thunderbolt for prosumers? Just curious.

Thunderbolt requires an on board GPU as it supports display outputs. 

[Kirihuna]

Thunderbolt requires an on board GPU as it supports display outputs. 

Would you be able to use Thunderbolt for a storage transfer without onboard GPU?

[Guest]

Would you be able to use Thunderbolt for a storage transfer without onboard GPU?

No, Thunderbolt technology requires the GPU to  function.

[Kirihuna]

No, Thunderbolt technology requires the GPU to  function.

Didn't know this at all.

[Kamil]

I don't really mind Thunderbolt, but it relies on a whole lot of things and nobody wants to be the one to start everything out. I think that if some company like ASUS started putting Thunderbolt (or Thunderbolt 2.0) on all of their motherboards and laptops, then also made a whole bunch of Thunderbolt peripherals, then it might have a chance; I mean, they could just put out an ultrabook with an included Thunderbolt-connected enclosure with a GPU and additional accessories available for purchase. I would buy it. Heck, Sony tried it a while ago and the only reason I didn't buy it was that the GPU they used was a low-end notebook GPU anyway; still better than you'd get with any other Ultrabook at the time, but not good enough for me.

 

But if Thunderbolt isn't going to be the future, I do have an alternative that seems like it wouldn't require that much work from any company. You know how eSATA is exactly like SATA except for external (or at least, I presume that's how it works)? Well, why not ePCIe? It would still end up being a pretty huge port, but if they established a standard for a way to connect an external device through PCIe then you wouldn't even need to make special drivers for anything, or any special compatibility for implementing it; just wire it internally just like a PCIe port, wire it externally from the connector to a single PCIe port with enough space for a 2-slot card and it's all set for external graphics, external sound, external super-fast SSDs, external networking cards... anything that would normally be in a PCIe slot. And since motherboards can only handle 16 lanes of PCIe anyway, I don't see why you couldn't do even multi-card configurations, put the entire PCIe section of the motherboard in an external enclosure and the only difference between a desktop and a laptop with that would be in the CPU.

[GoodBytes]

No. But it's current path is similar to Firewire.. so while it would be on system, there won't be much purpose.

Unless Intel can drastically cut the price of manufacturing it won't gain traction.

[Nicolas]

I don't really mind Thunderbolt, but it relies on a whole lot of things and nobody wants to be the one to start everything out. I think that if some company like ASUS started putting Thunderbolt (or Thunderbolt 2.0) on all of their motherboards and laptops, then also made a whole bunch of Thunderbolt peripherals, then it might have a chance; I mean, they could just put out an ultrabook with an included Thunderbolt-connected enclosure with a GPU and additional accessories available for purchase. I would buy it. Heck, Sony tried it a while ago and the only reason I didn't buy it was that the GPU they used was a low-end notebook GPU anyway; still better than you'd get with any other Ultrabook at the time, but not good enough for me.

 

But if Thunderbolt isn't going to be the future, I do have an alternative that seems like it wouldn't require that much work from any company. You know how eSATA is exactly like SATA except for external (or at least, I presume that's how it works)? Well, why not ePCIe? It would still end up being a pretty huge port, but if they established a standard for a way to connect an external device through PCIe then you wouldn't even need to make special drivers for anything, or any special compatibility for implementing it; just wire it internally just like a PCIe port, wire it externally from the connector to a single PCIe port with enough space for a 2-slot card and it's all set for external graphics, external sound, external super-fast SSDs, external networking cards... anything that would normally be in a PCIe slot. And since motherboards can only handle 16 lanes of PCIe anyway, I don't see why you couldn't do even multi-card configurations, put the entire PCIe section of the motherboard in an external enclosure and the only difference between a desktop and a laptop with that would be in the CPU.

That would work for laptop gaming, but I don't see that working on desktops, because ce can already have that inside the case, maybe and ePCI-e for maybe an external super fast ssd or something but if I can have my gpu inside my case, why would I take up more space to have a gpu enclosure outside?

[antoainb]

I don't think it is dead yet, I think it isn't alive yet, only Apple uses it besides Asus and other motherboard brands having one or two models with it.

[MdX MaxX]

Thunderbolt won't die.  But I feel it will remain a very niche technology.  It will never come close to the ubiquity of USB; its power consumption and proprietary nature will make sure of that.

 

And honestly I don't see much value in the fact that it interfaces with both GPUs and storage devices.  Am I gonna unplug my monitor to hook up my Thunderbolt SSD?  Probably not.  Sure, you can daisy chain, but plugging in your drive to the end of a Thunderbolt chain can't be any easier than just plugging it into your computer directly.  Not to mention Thunderbolt cables are super expensive, so it can cost $100 just to daisy chain a couple monitors and an external drive together.

 

Just give me DisplayPort and USB and I'll be happy.

[Kamil]

That would work for laptop gaming, but I don't see that working on desktops, because ce can already have that inside the case, maybe and ePCI-e for maybe an external super fast ssd or something but if I can have my gpu inside my case, why would I take up more space to have a gpu enclosure outside?

You seem to have missed the point that I was suggesting it specifically FOR laptops. There might be a few niche situations where you would rather have an external enclosure than put the cards inside your desktop, such as if you wanted to change them out frequently without needing to move the whole tower somewhere more accessible, but desktops already have everything they need in terms of external peripherals and internal components.

[IdeaStormer]

No. But it's current path is similar to Firewire.. so while it would be on system, there won't be music purpose.

Unless Intel can drastically cut the price of manufacturing it won't gain traction.

 

Right here people ^^^^

 

Firewire was faster than USB 2.0 in its hay day and look what happened to it. I for one had external Firewire drives and loved the faster transfer speeds than USB but for most they were not willing to pay the price over USB 2.0 and it was no way close to the higher difference of USB 3.0 vs Thunderbolt.

 

The best tech doesn't always win, especially if overpriced. Who remembers Linus's $100 Thunderbolt cable review, he spent more time dancing around than talking about the cable, why? Because he had nothing to plug it in to and it played better as a joke due to the redonculousness of the price.