Gigabyte’s use of two Thunderbolt connectors on upcoming mobos allows for 4K UltraHD video streams on four standard displays. 

As Apple’s restrictions ease on Intel’s Thunderbolt technology, more and more PC component manufacturers are integrating it into their designs.  The latest is Gigabyte but they’ve added a bit of a twist to their implementation and have looked beyond Thunderbolt’s high end file transport capabilities.

By utilizing the ability of Ivy Bridge’s HD4000 graphics engine, and Intel’s recently introduced Collage technology a pair of Thunderbolt ports can be split and have their data stream used to feed four 1920 x1 200 monitors.  The result is a single image with a resolution of 3840 x 2400.  This may not be all that different from the ability of AMD’s Eyefinity in a 4×2 configuration (which can arguably display even higher resolutions if four 2560 x 1600 monitors were used) but it is interesting to see 4K output being achieved through integrated graphics.

Gigabyte’s full press release is below.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced support for 4k display resolutions using multiple standard 1080p displays with Intel® Collage display technology. The new collage feature is available from an Intel® graphics driver update that needs to be individually implemented by motherboard companies before it is available to the user.

Using only the Intel® HD4000 Graphics of any 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 processor, GIGABYTE dual Thunderbolt™ motherboards with the new 4K Collage Graphics driver can power an Ultra HD 4k resolution video stream across four regular displays. Intel® Collage display technology is simple to setup, using dual Thunderbolt™ ports that can be split into a total of four digital streams giving an incredible combined Ultra HD resolution of 3840 x 2400 pixels.

“Our implementation of Intel’s new Collage display technology means that GIGABYTE’s exclusive dual Thunderbolt™ motherboards are first to power the very latest Ultra HD resolutions across four of today’s standard displays”, commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. ”Offering a wealth of possibilities in commercial markets that include digital signage, surveillance, medical and more, we’re also excited to offer PC DIY customers the opportunity to enjoy 4K resolution support with a simple driver update on their existing hardware, and without a VGA card!”

“We are excited about our collage display feature in our Intel platforms with 3rd generation Core i5 and Core i7 processors using Intel HD Graphics”, said Zane Ball, Intel’s General Manager for Desktop platform. “GIGABYTE’s implementation of two Thunderbolt ports enable consumers to connect four monitors via splitters to a single system and experience UltraHD resolution and is a great example of the innovation enabled on these GIGABYTE Z77 motherboards with Thunderbolt.”

Intel® Collage Technology
Vertical Collage Mode Setup using a total resolution of 3840*2400

Monitor1: 1920*1200 and vertically a crossed two displays (1920*1200)*2=>3840*2400

Two DisplayPort to Dual-DisplayPort adaptors were used in GIGABYTE’s testing and implementation of the Intel® Collage Display feature.

The new graphics driver is expected to be available for download from the GIGABYTE website by the end of January, 2013. You can find more detailed information including a setup guide and component compatibility list on the GIGABYTE website here: http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/323/4k.html.

You can also find a short video introducing GIGABYTE 4K display support and Intel Collage display technology here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdTMDfh0Hnk

GIGABYTE Motherboard’s Dual Thunderbolt™ Ports

As the first motherboards to be certified by Intel® featuring dual Thunderbolt™ ports, GIGABYTE’s ‘TH’ models offer up to 10Gbps data transfer speeds from each port; this means you can transfer industry-leading HD graphics and data simultaneously. Each Thunderbolt™ port complies with the Display Port 1.1 standard (with support for 2K resolutions from each port), and therefore provide a combined throughput of up to 4K for the ultimate in display future-proofing.

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5 TH

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4 TH