New Mac Pro 2013 Thunderbolt Questions

[rezwits]

I was thinking about something while reading a forum post. I didn't want to go off topic so I thought I would make a new thread.

I wonder how Apple will do Multiple Thunderbolt ports on the New Mac Pro for 2013.

I mean check these specs out and then I'll finish.

USB 3.0
SATA III, 6.0 Gbs
128 GB RAM Max
1600 MHz RAM
2 processors 8 cores each
3.2 GHz (probably around 2.9-3.2) GHz, Turboboost to 4.0-4.3 GHz
16 cores, 32 virtual cores
PCIExpress 3.0
10/100/1000 Ethernet

Now here is the trick part how would Apple do the Video card?

Would they put a 1 GB Video card in the PCI slot with 2 DVI/1 MiniDisplay or 1 DVI/2 MiniDisplay and then ...

... have 2 additional Thunderbolt ports? or even 3 or 4 if they expect users to use adapters for Firewire 800 or even Ethernet (10GB) in the Future?

If this is the case you could theoretically have 4 monitors (I would love 3) easily hooked up to your Mac Pro using Thunderbolt ports? and the Video card? I don't actually know but does the E5 Ivy Bridge have a GPU like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Mobile CPUs?

Oh well just wondering what other may think.

Video card plus 2 Thunderbolt? So you could hook up 5 monitors? NICE!!

Laters...

 

[nox-uk]

if it was me, I would have an embedded gfx card as standard in all mac pros and then dedicated cards as an optional extras. I guess you could use the SLI/Crossfire bridge internally or something.

But i'm not Apple.

Nox

 

[wildgiles]

My guess is that apple will make graphics cards with thunderbolt ports available, a modified AMD and/or NVIDEA, most likely 2-4 x TB + DVI + hdmi per card. And these cards will only work in the 2013 Mac pro. Expect these cards to not be cheap. The more graphics cards the more TB ports you have. This makes sense to me.

 

[JaHull]

If this is the case you could theoretically have 4 monitors (I would love 3) easily hooked up to your Mac Pro using Thunderbolt ports? and the Video card? I don't actually know but does the E5 Ivy Bridge have a GPU like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Mobile CPUs?

The E5 Ivy Bridge Xeons will not have an integrated GPU.
Also you may want to know that Nvidia cards support up to 4 displays per GPU and AMD support up to 6 per GPU, of the GPUs which would be suitable to go into the Mac Pro.

 

[rezwits]

PCI Express Thunderbolt

My guess is that apple will make graphics cards with thunderbolt ports available, a modified AMD and/or NVIDEA, most likely 2-4 x TB + DVI + hdmi per card. And these cards will only work in the 2013 Mac pro. Expect these cards to not be cheap. The more graphics cards the more TB ports you have. This makes sense to me.

That's what interesting, because if they get a PCIe 3.0 Video Card, It can't or wouldn't have Thunderbolt, because Apple/Intel have said repeatedly, they will not have a PCI Express Thunderbolt Card. I and many others have said in other forums of course they would because, its built around/on the PCI Express Architecture, so... hmm

The E5 Ivy Bridge Xeons will not have an integrated GPU.
Also you may want to know that Nvidia cards support up to 4 displays per GPU and AMD support up to 6 per GPU, of the GPUs which would be suitable to go into the Mac Pro.

I guess that's what I am saying is how can you make a system with Thunderbolt if it doesn't have integrated video? Cause you should, in theory, be able to take out the Video card, in "Future Mac Pro", and then run with a Display plugged into the Thunderbolt Port. If it did run and there was video, it wouldn't use the Main CPUs right?

Weird...

 

[Umbongo]

128 GB RAM Max

128GB Max would be a bit crappy because 32GB DIMMs will drop in price over the next couple of years, and a DP system actually supports 1.5TB already.

1600 MHz RAM

Ivy Bridge E5 Xeons will use 1833MHz memory at the top end.

2 processors 8 cores each. 3.2 GHz (probably around 2.9-3.2) GHz, Turboboost to 4.0-4.3 GHz

Yeah maybe on the high-end, but such processors currently cost ~$2,000 each and don't turbo that high. We don't know what the Ivy Bridge E5 lineup will look like. My money would be that it is very similar to the current lineup, but with minor clockspeed increases and then core count increases towards the higher end.

I don't actually know but does the E5 Ivy Bridge have a GPU like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Mobile CPUs?

E5s do not have a GPU.

 

[wildgiles]

Well.. I had a look at the Intel website explaining how thuderbolt is implemented. It certainly looks like PCIe is the way to go for the mac pro, the motherboard may need an extra chip that talks directly between the display and the CPU, but thats about it. There may need to be display port internally connected to the motherboard and graphics card.