3D display

I apologize if this is a dumb question. I was wondering, so if the right cpu and monitor were selected for the build. Is using a 3D ready monitor and using its 3d "vision" fuction possible ?

 

cpu? you mean gpu?
yes it would be possible. not a problem. would work like it does on a desktop.

 

witha gtx680 egpu, do you think id be able to have a PLP setup 2 x 2D in Portrait 19'' with a 27'' 3D in the middle?

Dont know if it matters, but I barely play games. and wouldnt mind just using the single 27'' for 3d gaming/movies, while the 2 P (2d monitors) are off if thats the determining factor.

 

don't known for sure if it works. but if it works for a desktop setup it will work for an egpu.
the thing is current egpu technology has an huge bottleneck so performance will be a lot less. but other then that, it's just like a desktop.

 

thanks for the reply. things are much clearer to me now. and my last question is, even with the eGPU's bottle-necked performance, do you think a sony z2/3 pared witha gtx680 egpu can handle 3D gaming on a single 27'' 3d monitor?

I guess I should of mentioned, I have not messed with technology nor build a computer, laptop or have played games with I've built my last ssf that consisted of amd64 3200 and a ati 9800, you can imagine how long ago that was. So 3d display is a complete new thing to me... I actually dont even know what Input it has.

 

I think you should wait for a thunderbolt solution that will have at least twice as more performance then current egpu solutions due to much higher throughtput.
expected performances depends on the application. some intensive graphic applications suffer a lot from the lack of bandwith. some not so intensive don't suffer so much.
but imo you could expect like 50% performance drop compared to a desktop. this is, with the same specifications as the notebook.

 

the model of the laptop doesnt suppport thunderbolt? or does it?

 

and again, thanks for the reply!

 

No, Sony's current generation of the vaio z with power media dock does NOT support thunderbolt. Unless you are an experienced hardware hacker, a z is not the right notebook for hooking up an egpu. Check out the egpu experiences thread and/or wait for thunderbolt egpus and suitable tb laptops hit the market (prob. q3/q4 2012).

 

pyr0, thanks for the reply!

I believe a member here just managed to achieve 1.2opt on a z2?

Are you saying that the sony z's aren't the most optimal notebook to hook up to a egpu due to the hardware/ modding experience it would require?

or are you saying that becasue of how "trumped" the performance outcome would be?

 

as of today there's no thunderbolt egpu solution yet.
so right now you are limited to other very crippled solutions that use mini pci-e with a very low bandwith. vaio z isn't great for that kind of solution.

 

Agree on 1 point. Sony Z using a mPCIe solution is not as convenient as an expresscard solution. Can decide for yourself if are prepared to live with swapping out the wifi card to host the eGPU. See how it's done at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/619904-vpc-z2x-convenient-egpu-setup.html, noting that thread hasn't been revised to include the latest x1.2Opt results using a PE4L-PM060A 2.1.

Other point about 'very crippled solutions', is inaccurate. Thunderbolt is a x4 2.0 link. We can get x1.2Opt using Series-6/Series-7 expresscard or mPCIe. The "Opt" component gives us pci-e compression so approximates x2 2.0, or half of Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt does however have other benefits that make it superior to x1.2Opt mPCIe/expresscard.

1. you don't need to ensure your system has an iGPU ("Opt" requires an Intel iGPU)

2. you are not tied exclusively to NVidia solutions for max performance. AMD can be used at x4 2.0.

3. Thunderbolt *might* route the display traffic back to the internal LCD without incurring bandwidth penalty. This is a big if as the Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure needs to route displayport traffic back via Thunderbolt to the notebook and the notebook needs to have a mux as used in hardware switchable graphics to display that traffic. Needs careful coordination between vendors to make that whole system work.

4. Series-7 chipsets are capable of x4 3.0. Whether the Thunderbolt controller is specced to transmit at that speed is yet to be seen. I've only seen x4 2.0 mentioned thus far. x4 3.0 is the same bandwidth as x16 1.0, so is truly desktop class level.

Problem till date is there is a paltry selection of Thunderbolt-port equipped systems to choose from (see thin-and-light link in my sig) with only Apple's MBPR giving us a i7-quad system that's relatively light and thin (MBPr). Looks like the vendors want at least one more round of guaranteed system upgrades due to redundant dGPUs in 2yrs time.

 

yeah right. keep dreaming. imvho that won't happen.

 

You may have a point. First BPlus TH05 release is set to do x2 2.0 without routing the mini DP traffic back via TB. It will give very similar performance to current x1.2Opt mPCIe/expresscard implementations. Only benefit will be AMD cards will get a performance boost since they'll have twice the bandwidth. See Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 and PCIe 2.0 eGPU update for the full story.