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pci express version 2 (1 lane like those expansion cards) is 500MB/sec per lane

so roughly equivalent to USB 3
so I suppose it could have the bandwidth...but realize that any time you are using a 1 lane pcie....you are basically only getting usb3 speeds transfer rate

I would suspect a modern video card would suffer a pretty good performance hit anything less then 4 lanes of bandwidth

pcie 3 is double that....so 1 lane would be 1000MB/or thunderbolt speeds

In addition to that, I've read that an USB3.0 solution would require custom drivers to even work. So unfortunately it's out of the question.

so.. the thunderbolt is supposed to be that system by Intel, that Apple adopted early on (http://www.apple.com/displays/) - good for apple users?

supposed to be a combination of Displayport and PCIE with a maximum bandwidth 10Gb/s, which is more than twice that usb3.0 has (a good question to USB developer - why the phuck don't you develop stuff like this, a faster loading usb stick or disk isn't much of a revolution, and now we are going to battle it out the same way with firewire eventually, it will be USB 3.0 vs thunderbolt - and everyone is going to opt for USB again)

here's a first site concerning thunderbolt and pciE that poped out on google http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt/

if this means we can attach as many gpus as we like, it's going to end troubles with pcie expanisons.. and easy to carry around from work to home and connect to laptop..
I'm looking at a review of asus p8z77-v pro thunderbolt - that one is equipped, price around 300 eur

I am continuously interested in pcie expansion, and hope this could be the answer - so of anyone gets a hold of that newly equipped motherboard with thunderbolt tech onboard, and if he gets a hold of a pcie thunderbolt expander - please share the info, it will be much valued..

Or if you are an apple user with a thunderbolt pcie external box - does it work?