Mac Graphics Amplifier

[Nathaniel Pysklo]

I saw Alienwares graphic amplifier, and I was wondering if there was an easy way to make/buy one for Mac use?

Alienware's Graphics Amplifier:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-graphics-amplifier?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=452-BBRG

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

There's no easy or cheap to get one, no. If your Mac has a Thunderbolt port, you can try to look for a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion enclosure, or something akin to that. These devices are usually geared to professionals or servers, though, so they cost a pretty penny, and getting one with the space and power supply for a gaming card could be interesting. This is without even considering whether OS X would accept such a card, since OS X is somewhat more restrictive in hardware than other OS's.

 

[Nathaniel Pysklo]

So even if i found something to that nature, would my Boot camp partition drivers allow it?

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

I can't find any official confirmation of that. It seems that Windows should be able to pick up any PCIe device connected through Thunderbolt as though it was connected through PCIe, but I can't find confirmation of that. So I can't verify for sure whether it would work on Windows.

And finding a PCIe expansion box that will support the cards is even more complicated. I just happened to be looking at similar devices when you posted this question. Most of the expansion boxes that are "reasonably" priced (around $500) only supply about 25W through PCIe, which will not be enough for practically any graphics card worth using. There are higher end boxes that to deliver much more power, and can even connect multiple graphics cards, but then we're talking about devices where you have to contact the manufacturer to even get a pricing estimate.

Tom's Hardware does happen to have a review for one device that might work, though. You can find it here. That particular model is discontinued, though: this is the newest version I could find. It costs $500, and it can only power cards that use 80W. Again, I can't guarantee it will work, but if you have money to burn in one of these and get a discrete card like the 750 Ti, then I'd be really interested in seeing the results.