Published in Graphics

Bolt Graphics reckons its Zeus GPU will smite current-gen rivals

by on05 August 2025


10 times the rendering clout of an RTX 5090

Bolt Graphics lobbed a surprise lightning bolt into the GPU market with its upcoming Zeus card, promising outlandish specs that make the likes of NVIDIA and AMD look like they're standing still.

If their claims pan out, this could be the first current-generation graphics card to offer expandable memory. The Zeus GPU isn't expected until 2027, but Bolt says it will blow past existing performance limits and let users swap out memory like it was a stick of RAM.

Rather than using the typical soldered-on GDDR modules, Bolt is shoving in DDR5 SO-DIMM slots like laptops. Depending on your configuration, you'll get two or four slots, which the company says can handle a staggering 384 GB of memory. That could be revolutionary or just incredibly optimistic.

What's particularly curious is Bolt's claim that the whole thing will only need a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, drawing just 120W. For a card loaded with PCIe Gen5, HDMI, DisplayPort, DDR5 and 400GbE support, this power figure smells a bit fishy. Either Bolt Graphics has discovered a magic wand or someone in marketing has had a few too many.

On paper, the firm is touting up to ten times the rendering performance of NVIDIA's upcoming RTX 5090 in 4K path-traced workloads. These so-called "pre-silicon benchmarks" are the usual fantasy numbers vendors love to push out long before anything is actually tested.

Bolt Graphics co-founder Maxwell Heller said: "Our modular GPU architecture removes memory bottlenecks and paves the way for unprecedented visual computing performance."

Heller also claimed, "We believe the Zeus GPU can fundamentally shift expectations around workstation graphics, simulation and AI performance."

The fact it has a RJ45 port onboard adds to the mystery, unless there's a secret networking function or someone's ran out of ideas.

Last modified on 05 August 2025
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