thunderbolt connection for monitor and speed

[nphc]

This might be a stupid question...

Hoping without much hope that apple will soon announce my "dream machine" which is the innards of the latest imac without the monitor. So let's just assume I will have a mini in my near future.

If I got the 27 inch thunderbolt monitor, does the thunderbolt connection create any kind of speed with the display over a regular monitor connected by other means? Would this help compensate for the slower gpu in the mini? (vs. a monitor with another type of connection to the mini)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If I got the 27 inch thunderbolt monitor, does the thunderbolt connection create any kind of speed with the display over a regular monitor connected by other means? Would this help compensate for the slower gpu in the mini? (vs. a monitor with another type of connection to the mini)

The interface will not speed up any computational task in the graphics department, meaning Thunderbolt will not make your integrated graphics processor (IGP) faster, if that is what you ask.

 

[nphc]

that's what I was asking, and it makes sense now.

not sure what I was thinking....
Thanks.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It's a valid question, and theoretically Apple could have designed the ATD with its own internal GPU (e.g. like having an external Thunderbolt expansion case with a mini-PCI graphics card in it, but built into the Thunderbolt display). They implemented it as just a display, however. IMO the biggest benefit of the ATD is you can run two of them; there's no other really practical way to get two high-resolution (>3MP) monitors to run from a Mini.