[News] Wolfe Thunderbolt eGPU, aimed at MacBooks, hits Kickstarter

[StyM]

http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/...s-kickstarter/

A new Kickstarter project aimed specifically at Apple MacBook users who would appreciate beefed-up 3D graphics acceleration has been launched. The Wolfe is an external, Thunderbolt attached, metal box that hosts an Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 (or GTX 970 in the Wolfe Pro) to facilitate "high-performance gaming, virtual reality, graphic design, and video-editing for laptops". We are just two days into the Kickstarter project but it is already a resounding success having raised over $200,000 with 28 days to go. The original funding target for the month-long Kickstarter campaign was just $50,000.

The Wolfe makers reckon that many MacBook users suffer from slow performance when they want to indulge in "tasks like gaming, VR, and high-speed rendering," due to the range's "weak mobile graphics processor". Thus it has sought to bring an affordable 3D solution to the laptop you already own, offering up to 10X the 3D graphical rendering power of your standard MacBook - depending upon the original computer hardware and the testing application.

Getting down to the specs of the Wolfe products; the Wolfe is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 950, and the Wolfe Pro is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970. The Pro model will "likely" be made available with a GTX 1060 post-campaign. These external GPUs are compatible with Thunderbolt 1, 2 and 3 connections but post-Kickstarter Wolfe will only be selling Thunderbolt 3 versions of the box. The wide compatibility of the Kickstarter product means a lot of MacBooks (and other Macs) are supported:

• MacBook Air 11-inch, Mid 2011?2015
• MacBook Air 13-inch, Mid 2011?2015
• MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012?2015
• MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012?2015
• MacBook Pro 13-inch, Early 2011?2015
• MacBook Pro 15-inch, Early 2011?2015
• Mac mini, Mid 2011?2015
• iMac, Mid 2011?2015
• Mac Pro, Late 2013-2015

[drmrlordx]

One wonders if PCI-e 4.0's OCuLink will render Thunderbolt graphics obsolete.

[zanzabar]

90% this wont work with OSX since there is no driver.

One wonders if PCI-e 4.0's OCuLink will render Thunderbolt graphics obsolete.

that wont come out for a while, and type-c does pci-e over TB and that is the same thing.

[drmrlordx]

Heh. I didn't even want to bring up the driver issue but that is a good point.

I know Thunderbolt is versatile enough to do PCI-e (which is why Thunderbolt graphics work in the first place), it just seems like PCI-SIG has borrowed the concept for themselves making things more complicated for future mobo OEMs. Which port, if any, do we support etc etc. If you were a board OEM in . . . 2019 or whenever PCIe 4.0 is finally ready for implementation on consumer-level products, which would you support? Thunderbolt 3, PCIe 4.0 OCuLink, both, neither?

[zanzabar]

the new standard looks more like esata to me than TB since i see it as an external u.2 connector. it has lots of pins/wires and i would bet that it has a very short cable length for copper. i think it is more targeting data centers and other racks to more efficiently link a full 2u+ rack directly without a san.

[kromosto]

IMO you all miss the main point. Main question must be "How many "supported products" customers will going to buy this?". It may work well but if nobody buys it, it will be failure

[drmrlordx]

the new standard looks more like esata to me than TB since i see it as an external u.2 connector. it has lots of pins/wires and i would bet that it has a very short cable length for copper. i think it is more targeting data centers and other racks to more efficiently link a full 2u+ rack directly without a san.

Yeah I can see that as a possibility. Since SATA is taking a back seat to m.2/u.2 it makes sense to replace eSATA as well.

IMO you all miss the main point. Main question must be "How many "supported products" customers will going to buy this?". It may work well but if nobody buys it, it will be failure

Um well, there are a lot of MacBook fanatics out there, but I'm not sure how many of them want better graphics than what they can get within the MacBook chassis. Graphics over Thunderbolt has been a topic for awhile now, it's just a question of which market is ready to adopt it. If Wolfe has done their market research and found that MacBook users want something with a little more punch for when they are docked/plugged in, then maybe their Thunderbolt GPU product is what the doctor ordered.

[alpha0ne]

With the obscene profits apple make I wonder why they dont do this themselves.......................ohhh wait, that would cost $$ and be for the benefit of the sheeple........as opposed to apples bottom line !

[drmrlordx]

Apple is obsessed with form over function. Anything as bulky as a plug-in GPU solution doesn't really fit their "digital lifestyle" image very well.

[zanzabar]

Apple is obsessed with form over function. Anything as bulky as a plug-in GPU solution doesn't really fit their "digital lifestyle" image very well.

they did have a monitor with a gpu over TB, i dont know if it went to retail but they did have one.

[drmrlordx]

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to look into that. That's the sort of package I would expect them to want to use, though . . . integrating the GPU into the monitor and connecting it via Thunderbolt seems less clunky and more elegant than the Wolfe solution.

[zanzabar]

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to look into that. That's the sort of package I would expect them to want to use, though . . . integrating the GPU into the monitor and connecting it via Thunderbolt seems less clunky and more elegant than the Wolfe solution.

it was the same gpu that the imac has, they did it so the non pro parts could power a 5k screen.