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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

An AMD Motherboard supporting Thunderbolt 3 add-in Cards

Yes, but the X99 Deluxe 2 is not an AMD motherboard. ASUS and Gigabyte already have a couple Intel based TB3 boards... This Gigabyte motherboard linked above is not only a first for TB3 on an AMD board, its a first for Thunderbolt of any flavor on AMD. Mostly due to Intel’s new licensing system and increased demand from consumers. ASUS will be bringing TB3 to AMD boards as well, I don’t have specifics just yet.
 
Some rumours Apple may go to AMD for the new MacPro, this would make it totally feasible
 
Yep, but I don't know if it's good news.

Even the intel boards don't have thunderbolt on the high-end motherboards(X299).

It looks like Thunderbolt is the new FireWire.
 
Yep, but I don't know if it's good news.

Even the intel boards don't have thunderbolt on the high-end motherboards(X299).

It looks like Thunderbolt is the new FireWire.


I've got several x299 systems with TB3.
 
Which x299 boards have native TB3?
Since it's the best interface ever it should be on all, but I can't find them.

Found on Gigabyte X299 Designare EX
 
Computex will have some combo USB-C/Thunderbolt products, but the industry focus is going to be on USB 3.X/USB-C for the foreseeable future, because it's everywhere and USB-C is the new connector of choice for phones and tablets. The product announcements for Computex are starting to roll in and thus far, Thunderbolt's latest is not making any real headway in the market compared to USB-C's adoption growth in currently shipping and soon to be shipping products. We'll see where things are in a month, when the show rolls around and the product announcements are done.
 
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-10#ov
probably just needs a bios update to work on the amd board.

Still an add-in card and a pretty old chip L6540 Alpine Ridge(2015).

Maybe they are still waiting for the L7440 Titan Ridge with support for DP 1.4 and USB-C.
Upto now it is a bit like FireWire, support for Apple is good and support for PC is declining.

Maybe a lesson for future developments, support it good and wide-spread (USB, Ethernet, PCIe) and become the de-facto standard or give companies exclusivity (FireWire) and it will die sooner than you hoped.
 
There's a newer version: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-20#ov

We might see a larger proliferation of Thunderbolt now that Thunderbolt is royalty-free. But I doubt manufacturers will add it to existing chipset motherboards. So whatever the next chipset AMD uses, and then Intel Z390 and X399... so hopefully later this year.
 
Still an add-in card and a pretty old chip L6540 Alpine Ridge(2015).

Maybe they are still waiting for the L7440 Titan Ridge with support for DP 1.4 and USB-C.
Upto now it is a bit like FireWire, support for Apple is good and support for PC is declining.

Maybe a lesson for future developments, support it good and wide-spread (USB, Ethernet, PCIe) and become the de-facto standard or give companies exclusivity (FireWire) and it will die sooner than you hoped.


Misha, just because you do not use it doesn't mean support is declining.

Asus, Gigabyte, AsRock, Supermicro all offer Thunderbolt on a number of their boards.

Dell and HP offer it on their workstation lines of desktops and laptops and probably their consumer ones too, but i don't keep track of those.

And of course Apple supports it on all or nearly all their machines.
 
Yeah, I got the Designare AMD board, because of the TB announcement.
Looks like they ditched the plans for the add on card though.

Frank, you should buy the Gigabyte GC-ALPINE RIDGE (rev. 2.0) card and try that. If the motherboard has Thunderbolt support it should work. If it doesn't, just return the card. But please report back here either way.
 
Misha, just because you do not use it doesn't mean support is declining.

Asus, Gigabyte, AsRock, Supermicro all offer Thunderbolt on a number of their boards.

Dell and HP offer it on their workstation lines of desktops and laptops and probably their consumer ones too, but i don't keep track of those.

And of course Apple supports it on all or nearly all their machines.

The reason we are still not using TB is not a technical on. Whenever possible we use open standards for our product because we don't want to be held hostage by a single manufacturer.

They all offer it as an add-in board, on some of their high-end mobo's and there is only 1 I could find that has it natively on an X299 board or higher-end chipset.


Apple also had excellent support for FireWire (also a very nice interface) we know how that ended.

It's the current chipset that's actually available. Nothing actually exists yet on the market (available for purchase and that you can get your hands on) with any Titan Ridge chipset in it.

Looks like nobody wants to buy the new titan ridge chips (makes you wonder!!!).
 
I guess i don't get the logical comparison to Firewire. Firewire never took the non-mac world by storm but it served its purpose well for a number of years, just as any other interface does prior to being replaced. Personally i enjoyed it quite a lot as it was a huge upgrade over USB and USB2 for data transfer on external drives etc.

Thunderbolt is similar - it is not as popular on desktops because it solves a problem that doesnt exist there to the same degree as it does on laptops.

There is no perfect interface forever and all time. Never will be. They all suck in their own way.
 
The reason we are still not using TB is not a technical on. Whenever possible we use open standards for our product because we don't want to be held hostage by a single manufacturer.

They all offer it as an add-in board, on some of their high-end mobo's and there is only 1 I could find that has it natively on an X299 board or higher-end chipset.

That is because the royalties were still in play when X299 was released. Motherboard manufactures would have needed to pay royalties on every motherboard with integrated TB. instead, they opted to offer it as an add-in card option so they only had to pay royalties on the add-in cards, which would not have as many sales as the motherboards themselves. I suspect this may have had a little bit to do with the decision to make Thunderbolt royalty-free. The manufacturers basically put their foot down.


Apple also had excellent support for FireWire (also a very nice interface) we know how that ended.
Yes, it was replaced by a better interface with more bandwidth and smaller footprint on the hardware. I don't see how you can compare Thunderbolt to Firewire. Firewire stuck around for a very long time, but was replaced with something better and faster, as happens with every interface type eventually. One day Thunderbolt will be replaced with something better and faster too.


Looks like nobody wants to buy the new titan ridge chips (makes you wonder!!!).
It takes time. The chips were only released in the last couple months. It takes time for manufacturers to make and release new products. HP already announced Z-Books with it. they just aren't available yet.

There are plenty of Thunderbolt products in the wild. Not everyone needs it or wants it. That doesn't mean it's a failure. If it was a failure then new Thunderbolt products wouldn't keep getting announced and released, and there's been plenty of that recently.
 
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