Apple’s new monitor is also a graphics card!

Pumping enough pixels to fill up a 5K display — which has nearly 15 million of them — requires a little extra graphical muscle. That might be why Apple is putting a discrete GPU inside their new one!

Apparently Apple is getting ready to launch a replacement for their 27-inch Thunderbolt Display. The monitor has been around for quite a while now, and its 2560 x 1440 panel is due for a refresh.

Apple’s replacement will ship with a 5120 x 2880 panel, and it will likely feature a similarly expansive array of ports on the back like the current Thunderbolt Display. The other big change is the addition of the integrated GPU.

Why stuff a GPU inside a display? Because it then becomes much more than a high-resolution monitor. It’s also an external graphics card — one that’s cleverly hidden on your desk instead of taking up precious space in a clunky dedicated enclosure, no less.

The extra muscle will allow all of Apple’s laptops and desktops to take advantage of the 5K display, including the lower-end MacBook Air and Mac Mini. You never know, someone who only spent about R7500 on a computer may still want a big, gorgeous display to hook up to it… And Apple seems to be making sure theirs won’t disappoint even if that computer is a little underpowered.

As for when you’ll be able to buy Apple’s new high-end display and how much it’ll cost, you may find out very soon!

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