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Apple-27-Thunderbolt

Apple's current 27-inch Thunderbolt monitor is over 5 years old and badly in need of an update. Even so stunning a 2560×1440 27-inch display might take been in 2011, information technology's not worth its $999 price tag today. New rumors suggest Apple tree is working on an updated 5K version of the monitor with Thunderbolt 3 support, and Apple may take included its ain onboard GPU to ensure the display is always driven past a compatible graphics menu. The console itself is reportedly very similar to the Retina panels Apple already uses with back up for the DCI P3 colour standard.

According to 9to5 Mac's sources, stock of the current Thunderbolt display is drying upward. That's typically a sign that Apple intends to launch an imminent product update, and that'due south where things get-go to get interesting. 1 of the problems with shipping an independent 5K brandish is that it's difficult to ensure that the majority of customers who might purchase such a brandish can really use it with their current hardware. This is specially true of laptop GPUs, which tend to be less powerful than their desktop counterparts. 1 of the problems with calling this college resolution "5K" is that information technology implies only a modest improvement over 4K. 4K was a dandy marketing term, because the new resolution happened to contain 4x the pixels of 1080p. 5K sounds like information technology'south just a 25% improvement over 4K, merely it actually contains 1.77x more pixels — and 14.75 megapixels is enough to bring some laptop GPUs to their knees, even on the desktop.

Apple-Retina-5K

Apple has managed to build an entire system around a 5K console, so presumably it tin can integrate just the GPU.

Apple'due south solution to this problem is obviously to equip an external GPU direct in the monitor. While that might seem unusual, it really makes a neat deal of sense. Apple already built itself a custom timing controller chip for its 2014 5K iMac, and it tin keep on using that chip with an integrated GPU.

At that place's one thing that makes this move a tad unusual. The bespeak is carried via Thunderbolt three, which means only future Macs with Thunderbolt 3 connectors would be able to utilise the hardware at 5K (the display would remain compatible with older Macs when used at a lower resolution). Then once again, Apple is known for positioning itself on the cutting border of applied science standards, even when those standards aren't attainable to well-nigh people.

Can Thunderbolt 3 bulldoze 5K?

There's no question that Apple tin drive 5K inside the display, since they've been doing it for years with the 5K Retina iMac. The bigger question is whether external Thunderbolt 3 has enough horsepower to handle the signal. While Thunderbolt 3'southward 40Gbps transfer rate is more than enough bandwidth for 5K, TB3 uses DisplayPort 1.2, not the newer DP 1.iii or 1.4 standards that explicitly let for 5K.

thunderbolt-3-displays

I suspect the reason Intel tin can support 5K over DisplayPort 1.2 is because Thunderbolt 3 implements upwards to viii lanes of DisplayPort 1.2 (at that place are four lanes in a typical DP1.ii configuration). This is admittedly speculation on my role, but it makes sense — if Intel can gang those lanes together it would have more than enough bandwidth to feed a 5K@60Hz stream.

We'll accept to wait and see what Apple tree announces earlier nosotros know how the visitor has pulled this off, but it'south interesting to see more companies adopting external graphics, even if this is the first time someone has shoved a GPU into a monitor. Intel collaborated with both AMD and Razer in developing their XConnect external GPU hardware, and while there may non be a directly link between Intel'due south piece of work on Thunderbolt iii'due south graphics certification and Apple'due south rumored 27-inch iMac, we'd be surprised if some of that piece of work didn't carry over into products like this. Supposedly OS Ten will be capable of hot-swapping betwixt the display's GPU and the integrated hardware on a laptop or Mac Pro, though there won't be whatsoever manner to use the two graphics cards together.