Any mainboards with a GPU socket? [like the CPU one]

[ArisVer]

I have been looking at video cards recently and noticed that the cooling became bigger, the fans I mean.

This question came in my mind and figured that a GPU socket, similar to the CPU sockets that exist in the mainboards today, is a simple solution and quite possibly can be done since it is done for the processor. This will be a big advantage for the users since they will be able to upgrade the GPU to a better one the way it is one with CPUs. And there are heatsink and fan, cooling advantages as well.

Most of the people only use one or two other extra PCI/PCIE slots and most of these extras are usually found on a good mainboard. Therefore for an ATX size board space shouldn't be a problem. And add the possibility for twin sockets for people that want some kind of SLI.

Are there are mainboards like this out there?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

No, there are not.

1) Good luck getting AMD and nVidia to agree on a unified socket design that doesn't change every 6 months.
2) Memory speed will suffer because of the (presumably also socketed) VRAM.
3) GPU coolers got bigger because GPUs consume 2-3x the power of most CPUs.
4) Power delivery to the motherboard would have to be reworked and expanded. Again.
5) GPU still presumably connecting over PCI-E bus internally.
6) GPUs are already upgradable via swapping PCI-E cards.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Seeing that all modern mb's have a pcie slot for graphics or whatever expansion card you want to install in it why would they want a proprietary socket?

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Good luck Steve Jobs!

 

[Rakehellion]

Every motherboard has one. They look like this:

 

[Rakehellion]

Good luck Steve Jobs!

I remember about 20 years ago some Macs had upgradeable VRAM. You could buy a chip to give it an extra 2MB to run higher resolutions or whatever. It worked real well for the Nintendo 64 too!

 

[ArisVer]

@ Rakehellion. In case you do not understand the difference between a socket and a slot you may have to do some reading. And I also had a PCI video card with 2 extra RAM sockets (1 MB each, plus 2 MB soldered for a total of 4 MB VRAM) that I filled. Edit. And it was not a Mac; it was an AMD 386DX40. /Edit.


Anyway, I know that what I have described has a drawback. No 3 or 4 GPU setups. The vast majority stay with one or two video cards. What I want though, is for you to compare a CPU and a GPU. If slots were better, then after the Pentium II the CPU manufacturers wouldn't turn to sockets.

Besides, there are different sockets for AMD and Intel CPUs, why not for GPU makers? Adding a better GPU (just like changing a card as you said), adding a better cooler and adding more RAM are clear benefits that are working today for a CPU, which is what everyone has in their desktops.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Anyway, I know that what I have described has a drawback. No 3 or 4 GPU setups. The vast majority stay with one or two video cards. What I want though, is for you to compare a CPU and a GPU. If slots were better, then after the Pentium II the CPU manufacturers wouldn't turn to sockets.

The primary reason for sockets, slots, soldered CPUs, etc., is getting data between the CPU and the RAM as fast and reliably as possible.

The more "stuff" (slots, sockets, traces on a motherboard, etc.) you have in between CPU and RAM, the worse. RAM on a motherboard, with the CPU and RAM in sockets, is hard pressed to move data at more than 30GB/sec. Going faster means more memory controllers, more pins, more sockets.

A high end graphics card is moving data at 5-10x that speed. Stick it on a board in a socket with DIMMs for VRAM and your performance will nosedive.

Besides, there are different sockets for AMD and Intel CPUs, why not for GPU makers?

Twice as many motherboard models. Much more expensive R&D. This is bad.

Adding a better GPU (just like changing a card as you said), adding a better cooler and adding more RAM are clear benefits that are working today for a CPU, which is what everyone has in their desktops.

It's already pretty easy to swap on a better GPU cooler. Adding more ram means ram slots, which means much, much slower ram. So... bad. No. Stop. Bad dog.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Actually lap top main board have GPU sockets.

 

[Shmee]

Actually lap top main board have GPU sockets.

Yes this! Some higher end laptops are user upgrade-able too.

 

[Smoblikat]

Actually lap top main board have GPU sockets.

Some of them do, like the Dell M6600.

 

[Z15CAM]

Yah! Slot 1 MB's with AGP socket - LOL

 

[biostud]

Most motherbords do, it shares the socket with the cpu (igp/apu).

 

[DrMrLordX]

Most motherbords do, it shares the socket with the cpu (igp/apu).

Yeah, that. Seriously, OP, you can run out and get a 7850K right now and stick it in an FM2+ board, and bam, there you have your socketed GPU. Overclock the snot out of it and run DDR3-2666 on a Crossblade Ranger and . . . well it still won't be all that fast graphics-wise, but hey you wanted it in a socket so . . .