Apple is reportedly preparing to launch a new version of its Thunderbolt Display, one that will feature 5K resolution like its most recent iMacs. In order to drive all of those pixels, the new display will reportedly feature its own dedicated GPU, supposedly for compatibility with future Macs.
From 9to5Mac:
At first, the idea of Apple including a GPU in the external display may sound crazy. Our sources explain that the reason for it is primarily for compatibility with as many future Macs as possible. Due to the immense graphics needs required to push 5K worth of pixels, normal super high-resolution displays require connected computers to include significantly powerful GPUs.
Macs connected to the display will reportedly automatically decide whether or not to use their own graphics processor or the one in the display. The other graphics processor will reportedly become inactive if it's not chosen.
There is no information just yet on how this display is supposed to connect to your Mac. While its seems unlikely that Thunderbolt 3 would be sufficient to power such a display, perhaps Apple could unveil another solution.
Reader comments
Apple reportedly preparing 5K external display with its own graphics processor
I personally don't need 4K or even 5k and I have always found Thunderbolt displays to be a bit pricy, especially for my needs but I can't wait to see how and if Apple solves this.
This is the season for throwing out as many rumours as possible in the hope that some of them might be true. We've got some cars, monitors, laptops with led strips, Siri speakers and doubtless plenty of others I've been too bored to read about. I think we should mourn the passing of quality journalism and accept trolling for page hits is the future. I'm off to make space in my kitchen for my upcoming Apple voice controlled dishwasher
And by "sources" you of course mean @SFoskett's tweet to @Gruber. Stephen was dead on with the Gold Apple Watch pricing, but a guess is a guess. It's a **** good guess, but try not to make it out for more than what it is.