The Wolfe: Supercharge Your Laptop!

Mike Lucey · 30 Aug 2016, 18:24

The Wolfe: Supercharge Your Laptop!

I've backed The Wolfe campaign on Kickstarter as I'd like to beef up the graphics on my MacBook Pro Retina and get a further year or so out of the machine.

I imagine the Wolfe will also help with running the two Packed Pixels I have hanging out of it. The current graphics chips are struggling a bit I feel at high resolution.

The Wolfe come with a GTX 950 ($449) and the Wolfe Pro comes with a GTX 970 ($599). I looked up pricing on the Net for these bare bones graphics cards and they appear to be on average, $180 for the GTX 950 and $320 for the GTX 970. So the deal looks good value to me.

They appear to work with any laptop that has thunderbolt connection. Anyone thats interested in beefing up their laptop might be interested in checking out the campaign here, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thewolfe/the-wolfe-supercharge-your-laptop

Also here is a good article on the Wolfe,

Kickstarter campaign pitching external GPU for MacBook Pro, promising up to 10x performance increase
https://9to5mac.com/2016/08/24/macbook-pro-external-gpu-kickstarter-wolfe/

I backed a similar campaign last year on Kickstarter, External graphics card for MacBook (Canceled) by bull.box
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bullbox/external-graphics-card-for-macbook?ref=profile_created_last but it did not reach the required funding figure. The Wolfe reached its funding target on day one and now have a multiple of 5 times their target figure with a further 26 days to run. I imagine they will hit at least the $1.5M level.

Mike

ntxdave · 30 Aug 2016, 20:25

This sure looks interesting. Would be interesting to see how it really works with SketchUp and/or a rendering engine.

Thanks for sharing. It will be interesting to see how this progresses.

Mike Lucey · 30 Aug 2016, 22:48

Yeah Dave, it will be like attaching a small rocket.

This site gives comparisons,

UserBenchmark: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M vs GTX 970

Based on 846,970 user benchmarks for the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M and the GTX 970, we rank them both on effective speed and value for money against the best 723 GPUs.

(gpu.userbenchmark.com)

ntxdave · 31 Aug 2016, 00:59

Maybe this would be the answer to the lag some of have seen with SketchUp.

juju · 31 Aug 2016, 07:44

Beast Laptop External Independent Video Card Dock currently US $60

If you are just a little bit handy this could be built into an enclosure without any trouble.

Mike Lucey · 31 Aug 2016, 10:43

Interesting option juju but I'd imagine by the time the graphics card was purchased plus other bits a pieces the price would be comparable to the Wolfe option.

From what I read about the Beast Laptop External Independent Video Card Dock for Macs, its required to start and operate via Windows. Fine for Windows users but would not meet the requirements of most Mac users.

Pixero · 31 Aug 2016, 13:15

Interesting.
I wonder if anyone know of a external GPU case with power and size to fit the latest 12 GB Titan card? It have to work with both Windows and Mac.
(I have a Macbook pro that I also run Windows on through Bootcamp.)

Mike Lucey · 31 Aug 2016, 13:57

Pixero,

If your in the market for one there's a reconditioned unit on Amazon for $1,800

I'll be sticking with the GTX 970

Pixero · 31 Aug 2016, 14:16

That's the old Titan card. But thanks anyway.

It's actually the enclosure I'm looking for at the moment.
BizonBox2 has one but its so short they have to open up one side for it to fit a Titan card. Doesn't look like a stable solution to take with you...