Dual Head via Thunderbolt?

[stevja1]

Just saw this on Engadget. Just another rumor for the rumor site...
Apple leaks Cinema Display refresh, teases dual-monitor Thunderbolt setup?

This is one thing I'd really like on my MBA. A tiny computer I can take from work to home that works with my dual head rig.

I realize you can do this with the Matrox DualHead2Go, but its a cleaver hack. This is the real deal. I also wonder if triple head is possible...

 

[Patriot24]

There won't be a dual port. Thunderbolt has the ability to daisy chain devices, in this case monitors.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

I don't think that the graphics card in the Air would be able to run both displays.

May even struggle with one.

 

[robbieduncan]

Thunderbolt has always had the capability to connect 2 (but not 3 without an external CPU) monitors to the port. But thus does not mean it has to be supported by all computers with a Thunderbolt port.

 

[theSeb]

I don't think that the graphics card in the Air would be able to run both displays.

May even struggle with one.

What do you mean it would struggle?

 

[JasonR]

From all reports I've read the Macbook Air powers a single 27" display just fine.

 

[KnightWRX]

I don't think that the graphics card in the Air would be able to run both displays.

May even struggle with one.

Yeah, back in 1998, when we barely had 8 MB of VRAM and crap GPUs, we didn't have 1600x1200 desktops.

 

[NZed]

I don't think that the graphics card in the Air would be able to run both displays.

May even struggle with one.

That was the 90's in a 2 inch thick laptop computer with 30 minutes of battery and like KnightWRX said, we didnt have 1600x1200 displays back then.

 

[KnightWRX]

like KnightWRX said, we didnt have 1600x1200 displays back then.

You missed the sarcasm. The Matrox Millennium II which wasn't even able to run any Direct3D games at all for lack for hardware accelerated texture mapping was able to power a 1600x1200 resolution desktop at 16 bit color with the 4MB WRAM version of the card. The 12 MB version could do the same for a 24 bit color desktop (alpha is not a bit that is considered for display output).

Displaying a desktop is a big job in pixel pushing. As long as you have the bandwidth to do it, the GPUs are on top of it. The greatest bottleneck we have is since the switch to digital outputs, pixel bandwidth for high refreshes hasn't been following GPU tech.