Ivy Bridge to Bring Triple Display Support to MacBook Air

Earlier today, we highlighted a leaked roadmap from VR-Zone detailing Intel's plans for its mobile Ivy Bridge processors set to debut in April and May of next year.

macbook air thunderbolt display
One detail of the report that bears special attention is the fact that the Ivy Bridge platform, both mobile and desktop, will support up to three independent displays, with one of those displays being an internal one.

While we're talking about graphics, as with the desktop Ivy Bridge processors, the mobile processors also support up to three independent displays, although one of these will be the built in display in the notebook, but hopefully we'll see notebooks with a DisplayPort connector as standard come next year.

The current Sandy Bridge platform is only capable of supporting two independent displays, limiting the MacBook Air to one external display. Similarly, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can only drive two external displays by turning off its internal display.

More powerful machines such as the larger MacBook Pro models can currently drive two external displays in addition to the internal one due to their inclusion of discrete graphics chips paired with the Sandy Bridge platform. But with Ivy Bridge opening the door to direct support for up to three displays via the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, even owners of smaller machines like the MacBook Air will have the option of significantly expanding their screen real estate by connecting to two external displays.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forum: MacBook Air

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Top Rated Comments

ciociosan Avatar
175 months ago
finally! i've been waiting for something to do with the stack of thunderbolt enabled displays i've got laying about the flat!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nielsenius Avatar
175 months ago
Damnit! I was hoping for support for this...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GenesisST Avatar
175 months ago
Screw it, we're doing 5 screens!

(http://onion.com/bWBRid)
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gmon750 Avatar
175 months ago
Honestly the air barely manages to drive a TB display, I don't even want to imagine two of them... What a torture.

"Torture"?? Really? By what basis have you concluded this? Personal experience?

My MBA is works great with my 27" Thunderbolt display. On top of that, It's running Windows7 via VMware on a second MissionControl desktop.

It's running great on my machine. Please, enlighten all of us on the EXACT setup you are using to come to such a conclusion. I suspect you have none of it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adcx64 Avatar
175 months ago
Pics or it didn't happen.

It didn't happen yet. How are you expecting pics?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayhawk11 Avatar
175 months ago
Can't wait to see the FPS on this setup :rolleyes:
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)