4k60 over Thunderbolt 1?

Question

I own a 2011 MacBook Pro which has Thunderbolt Gen 1 (MacBook Pro 8,2). I know that TBolt1 is capable of 10Gbps, and the bitrate of 4k60 video is about ~5.7Gpbs. Is it possible to drive a 4k monitor at 60hz with my MBP?

Model Name:                 MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:           MacBookPro8,2
Processor Name:             Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:            2.2 GHz
Number of Processors:       1
Total Number of Cores:      4
L2 Cache (per Core):        256 KB
L3 Cache:                   6 MB
Memory:                     8 GB

So TL;DR can I do 4k60 with my MBP?

Answer 1

Your MacBook Pro model came with either an AMD Radeon HD 6490M or 6750M and Intel HD Graphics 3000 as its graphics card options.

While your MBP does support up to two Thunderbolt displays in the following modes: dual display extended and video mirroring, it's only capable of an external resolution of up to 2560x1600 pixels.

Unfortunately, this resolution output falls below 4K resolution which is basically in the order of 4000x2000 pixels.

However, the maximum resolution of your 15.4" built in display is 1680x1050 pixels, so while you can't output 4K resolution to an external display, the 2560x1600 pixels you can output is still an improvement.