“There have been rumors about Apple working on an updated Thunderbolt display since the iMac got its new, sleeker redesign in 2012,” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “There were rumors of 4K versions that never shipped. Rumors of Retina 5K versions and DCI-P3 color space versions following the iMac updates in 2014 and 2015. Rumors that all Apple was waiting on was next-generation DisplayPort 1.3 support from Thunderbolt and Intel. So far, though, that’s all we’ve gotten: rumors.”
“Now, as WWDC 2016 approaches, we’re getting rumors again,” Ritchie writes. “But with Thunderbolt 3 and Intel punting on DisplayPort 1.3, it’s unclear how or even if Apple could connect such a display.”
Thunderbolt and Intel have had their chances. Generations of chances,” Ritchie writes. “They’re starting to lose a step. Meanwhile Apple is uniquely positioned to charge ahead.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wouldn’t a modern high res Apple display be a nice present for the pros at WWDC?! Almost as nice as an updated Mac Pro!
All we need then is support for uncrippled GPU’s like the rest of the world. Here’s hoping.
Myself, I am putting an NVidia GTX 1070 into my hackintosh.. drives 8K just fine… apple is too slow.
Yeah, it would be nice if Apple would make a consumer-level Mac that could take a regular desktop GPU. Or even if they just went back to the old Mac Pro form factor.
LOL…..like any stock Mac today has video cards that good.
Get real, this is the Tim Cook era folks.
Yeah, that’s the problem. While Tim Cook is running the company, legitimate Macs won’t have PCIe slots. The iMac can drive a 5K display, but it can only drive its own, not its own plus an external 5K display.
USB-C as a conector with Thunderbolt 3 as link. It is the way to go.
as for GPU, new chips for laptops can do that, Desktops need an update in size to accept some upgrade, of GPU.
via thunderbolt is too expensive since cable, power and a box for PCI card are just part of the overhead.
Isn’t Apple using internal Thunderbolt to drive the 5K display on the iMac?
Okay, I did a little research.
From what I can tell, this issue has NOTHING to do with available GPUs. Apple has plenty of GPUs which can drive 5K displays.
The issue here is that you need TWO thunderbolt cables to drive a 5K display. DisplayPort 1.3 was going to “fix” this issue and make it possible to only use one cable, but now Intel has postponed implementing the DisplayPort 1.3 standard in it’s hardware.
So, if Apple wants to introduce a 5K display, they can still do so, but you will need two Thunderbolt cables to drive it at full resolution. Daring Fireball suggested they might use a single cable which splits at the end to have at least a semi-elegant solution.
You’re assuming that Apple has to wait until Intel supports DP 1.3/1.4 in either its CPUs or support chips. This just isn’t so. Apple could support GPUs that support these standards and have chips in the displays that support these standards.
Apple really has no excuse not to do so (other than it just does not want to do so).
But, you’re right, even in the ridiculous, worst case scenario, Apple could support 5K monitors with two DP 1.2 cables per monitor. Apple even states on its site that the current Mac Pro can support up to three 5K monitors (using two DP cables each).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I freekin’ LOVE my new iMac 27″ 5K.