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Apple allows for the latest iMac (released late 2012) to be upgraded to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5 video card. Does this upgrade enable more than the standard two external monitors that have been allowed in previous Thunderbolt releases?
Non-iMac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 desktop cards have One Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPortStandard Display Connectors and can support up to 4 monitors. However, Apple exposes two thunderbolt connections - and all previous thunderbolt releases have been capped at 2 external monitors.
Does the latest iMac go beyond the two external monitor limit? What is the hardware configuration that allows this (e.g. 4 thunderbolt monitors - one per thunderbolt connection - with each supporting one daisy chained additional monitor?
I'm really interested in full-resolution options - preferably additional 27in monitors with at least 2560x1440 (not USB driven / magic adaptor driven alternatives).
Bonus if you have pictures of you running MORE than two thunderbolt / display port monitors from the late 2012 iMac.
Thanks for your information. :-)
Gabriel
Posted 2013-03-10T16:50:05.810
Reputation: 143
No, it doesn't. Each monitor gets one 10 GB channel on the thunderbolt connection. The other two are typically used by data devices, network, etc. – Everett – 2013-03-10T19:52:38.613
Thanks Everett. Your note is specific to Thunderbolt monitors, any word on Thunderbolt to hard drive to Display Port? In pervious releases, Thunderbolt to hard drive (or other non-Apple peripheral) allowed for a daisy chaining non-Thunderbolt displays (e.g. a 'normal' display port monitor). However, this still did not enable more than two monitors because Apple seems to have hard-coded a limit at two.
Asked a different way: Any word on intermixing Thunderbolt and non-thunderbolt monitors? – Gabriel – 2013-03-11T12:34:01.827