Question New Mac Pro + Thunderbolt graphics card(for games)

It sounds like the only thing you need to make this work is a Thunderbolt connection port. As long as your computer has that, according to the article, you should be good to go. It doesn't say whether it is designed to only work with the Apple OS or if it will work with a Windows OS on Apple hardware though. My suggestion would be to email the manufacturer and ask them.

The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It is designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's content creation. It cannot accommodate a full size GPU, nor does it have the expansion room for one. That's why it's designed the way it was designed.

we know it cant house one thats why he posted the external gpu with thunderbolt

Even the GPUs that are available for the current generation Mac Pros aren't designed to play games on them, even though it may say it's a Radeon 7950, it's really more like a Fire Pro V5800.

The thing is, he's talking about an external enclosure, not a GPU. He can pick and choose whichever GPU he wants to put in the enclosure according to the article. So he could very well choose a Radeon 7950 off the shelf from a store that sells it and that's exactly what he'd have. It's not hardware that comes with the Mac that is being discussed.

thank you for realizing haha, idk what he is thinking about

Probably just didn't check out the link, although it is fairly important to the post over-all.

I also have my eye on the new Mac Pro, but I already have a number of Thunderbolt devices (and expensive cables), so I'll be waiting to see how compatible Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are; it also took Apple over a year to get the original Thunderbolt 1 stable (still occasional stability updates), don't want to go through that again!

That's a good question. I know with Windows computers, unless the cards are run in SLI, if you have an onboard graphics engine and a discrete graphics card, the discrete card will trump the on-board and the OS won't even use the on-board engine. I'm assuming that is how this device would work, but I can't say for sure.

There are thunderbolt PCIE expansion cases out there already (Sonnet echo, Magma express box etc) but their internal PSU is too weak to power a decent GPU. You can build yourself a eGPU or buy a ViDock 4 Plus (designed for graphics card expansion) but it's express card interface so you'll need an adapter for it to work with thunderbolt (sonnet echo adapter). The Vidock has been proven to work with the 2012 Macbook airs and Macbook Pros but I don't know how well it would work with the new Mac Pro.

A hackintosh on the other hand is a messy solution. I had one before and there are so many driver problems (audio, ethernet, usb 3.0) If you want OSX then you should get a Mac. Hope this helps

Silverstone ended up having to give up on their enclosure because Intel won't allow them to make it. Intel's goal is to make Thunderbolt eGPUs non-viable by making them as expensive and as difficult for users to implement. This is because they want people to have to buy a separate desktop instead of using the laptop they already own. They prevent this eGPU enclosures from coming to market by holding licensing and certification, thereby making Thunderbolt eGPUs financially non-viable solutions. Currently, the only Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures which are currently available cost over $400, which is unaffordable and impractical for just that one part of an eGPU system. Intel has prevented affordable enclosures from coming to market out of fear that affordable enclosures would halt sales of desktop computers which use Intel processors.

Of course, the keyword here is "Thunderbolt". There aren't any Thunderbolt graphics card enclosures. However, there are other options. For example, some people have used the Akitio Thunder2 with an externally connected Power Supply. A more portable option is a Vidock. It uses ExpressCard instead Thunderbolt, but you can get an adapter for that. Also, you might think that Expresscard wouldn't have sufficient bandwidth. If you take a look at the benchmarks on the Village Tronic website, you'll see that the ExpressCard interface doesn't limit the bandwidth much, if at all. Though, I suppose it could depend on the graphics card.

I'll be using a GT 740 because it's a low-cost bus-powered card which will serve my needs. I only need as much graphics processing power as the GT 740 provides and the $200 Vidock only supplies power through the PCIe slot instead of through a 6- or 8- pin power connector. I don't feel like spending an extra $40 on the one with a 6-pin power connector and the GT 740 will suit my needs more than adequately. The main reason I'm going to use an eGPU is to reduce processor wear on my MacBook Pro. The GT 740 will do that as well as provide much better performance than the built-in Intel 300 graphics. You can play StarCraft at Ultra settings on a GT 740, which is a slightly lower card, so GT 740 will be more than adequate for my needs. I'm mainly trying to keep the cost of this project around $400. Besides, the main reason for me getting a graphics card is to avoid either having to replace my MacBook Pro, which is a $1200 expense or the logic board, which is a $600 expense. So, I'm trying to keep the cost of the eGPU below the cost of a replacement logic board, while getting significantly better graphics performance. Though, a few years ago, my reasons for wanting an eGPU were reversed. I had used iMovie and saw how long it took to finalize and later export a movie that I could tell that a dedicated graphics card would do much better than the integrated Intel graphics.

One last thing: I should mention that regardless of whichever enclosure you choose, you'll still have to edit three kext files and install modified Nvidia web drivers to make a Thunderbolt eGPU work.