Do you ever wish that they made upgradable video cards?

[PingSpike]

That way if you wanted to run high res, you could just put more video ram in (you used to be able to do this with old cards I remember) and maybe replace the gpu with a better one...possibly without having to pay for the video ram all over again?

I know there was some talk about nvidia looking into socket based gpus...I wonder if something like this isn't already in the works?

 

[natto fire]

It probably would not reduce costs any. They would pass the cost of R&D, and the sockets themselves on to the consumer. Considering the large variety of cards that are already out there, I don't see how this would help much.

 

[letdown427]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
That way if you wanted to run high res, you could just put more video ram in (you used to be able to do this with old cards I remember) and maybe replace the gpu with a better one...possibly without having to pay for the video ram all over again?

I know there was some talk about nvidia looking into socket based gpus...I wonder if something like this isn't already in the works?

"I'd buy that for a dollar"

 

[SynthDude2001]

Yeah...cool idea but they'd just think of a reason to charge even more for that (and the upgrade chips).

 

[RussianSensation]

I'd gladly upgrade 6800GPU to 7800GT gpu for $100. 1200 memory increases over 1000 mhz memory wouldnt severe the performance too much if the price is right. The problem is getting the gpu to work since the PCB must be changed all the time. Also, from ATI/nvidia's perspective they make higher profit margins on selling full boards. So I am not so sure that this would be more beneficial for them.

 

[xtknight]

They used to have upgradeable RAM...

 

[justlnluck]

I prefer it the way it is now. If I need to upgrade, I will either sell, trade, or donate my card to family. If they made video cards with upgradeable components, then you would most likely get stuck with various video chips and RAM sticks lying around the house that no one can use because they are missing so and so component.

 

[Keysplayr]

I'm sure Nvidia wouldn't mind it. They don't make and sell retail boards anyways. They just sell their chips to OEMs. ATI makes their own boards, (well, sapphire makes them for ATI) and probably would mind making that move. The ones who would really have canaries would be all the board partners, because, well, all they manufacture ARE the boards and buy GPU's and Memory from Nvidia/ATi and various memory manufacturers. So, the board partners would not like this idea. Not in the least.

 

[beggerking]

Originally posted by: xtknight
They used to have upgradeable RAM...

true. Trident cards used to have empty memory banks... the problem was those ram chips were difficult to find.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: xtknight
They used to have upgradeable RAM...

Yeah G200 anyone ...Good times, good times!

-Kevin

 

[Regs]

Nvidia wanted to do this, but may have reconsidered due to logistics.

Doesn't make much sense to me. The only possible way I can conceive for them to do this is by offering a core upgrade for the same family of video card. Meaning you can upgrade from a 6600GT to a 6800GT just not a 6800GT to a 7800GT. I also guess that the bios would be located on the socket some how that get's replaced. I wouldn't think an upgrade like going from a 6800GT to a 7800GT would be possible. Considering there are a lot more variables involved including voltage controls , memory paths, or the memory controller on the wafer or card itself.

 

[bdww00]

yeah we got plenty of those matroxs mgas here just put idk 1gb of sodimm in there lol!!! w00t oh look at my 1gb 2mhz card!

 

[Unkno]

if this was done, it seems it'll just give companys another excuse to delay the release and make longer releases...

 

[justlnluck]

I agree. I rather the companies focus on making faster cards.

 

[jayanath]

not a bad idea but it will never happen. the cost will be even higher

 

[Cooler]

It would be great to get exta 512 GDDR3 for ~$100 more on x1900xt

 

[1EZduzit]

It's be nice if they made their high-end cards with extra memory sockets, but it would probably not be worth the time/trouble.

 

[Peter]

The high frequencies we're seeing today are impossible to maintain across a connector, particularly on the RAM. That, and the fact that nobody actually BOUGHT these RAM upgrades even back when they existed, lead to the demise of this idea.

 

[djnsmith7]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
That way if you wanted to run high res, you could just put more video ram in (you used to be able to do this with old cards I remember) and maybe replace the gpu with a better one...possibly without having to pay for the video ram all over again?

I know there was some talk about nvidia looking into socket based gpus...I wonder if something like this isn't already in the works?

Yes, I've been saying for years that I wish you could upgrade the RAM on video cards...Would be nice if you could somehow just slap another gig of RAM on the card...with a 4 GB max...I've always wondered why the manufacturers can't find a way to do this...It makes sense that the capability should be there...Apparently the technology or manufacturing capability is not...Would be nice to have a video card w/ 4 GB of RAM...

 

[imported_Crusader]

I think its a bad idea considering the fast cycle of GPUs these days.
You'd need to upgrade more than JUST the GPU+RAM.

But I do think there is some truth to your idea.. the way to do this is to sell for example 7800GTXs with 256MB ram or maybe 128MB ram standard.. and put a RAM upgrade slot on it like the olden days.

I dont know what the base ram could be, but I'm sure NV could make it very low to sell the cards.. integrate TurboCache on high end models and put a slot on to add more high end memory.

Maybe so you can boost any NV card from 256MB to 512.. or 128 to either 256 or 512?
It would cut down on maintaining a million models.

Either you run a Geforce8 or a Radeon20K.. pick your model based on memory content 32/64/128/256/512, and enjoy. Esp since core speeds need to be high if they are goign to start worrying about decoding every video standard that flys by night.

I know its not the best idea, but could be used to some degree like the olden days.
It'd been nice to have a slot for an additional 256MB of memory on the 7800GTXs! And esp on the X800s considering they cant go high res without additional memory.

Adding a small mem slot would have cured this BF2 ill-

KNOWN ISSUE
ATI CROSSFIRE CARDS
- Crossfire cards with 256 Megs of memory, running in CrossFire mode will run
out of memory at very high resolution settings.
On very high resolutions, such as 1920x1440 with 6x antialiasing. In CrossFire
mode the ATI drivers are more restrictive
about where resources are allocated, and as a result run out of memory sooner
than with a single board. This running out of memory causes
the device context creation to fail. The result is that the game just sits in a
loop with a black screen. If you experience a context creation failure
change your resolution to a lower setting (e.g. 1024x768 or even lower).

You can PM me for my address to pay me ATI and Nvidia. Thanks.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: djnsmith7

Originally posted by: PingSpike
That way if you wanted to run high res, you could just put more video ram in (you used to be able to do this with old cards I remember) and maybe replace the gpu with a better one...possibly without having to pay for the video ram all over again?

I know there was some talk about nvidia looking into socket based gpus...I wonder if something like this isn't already in the works?

Yes, I've been saying for years that I wish you could upgrade the RAM on video cards...Would be nice if you could somehow just slap another gig of RAM on the card...with a 4 GB max...I've always wondered why the manufacturers can't find a way to do this...It makes sense that the capability should be there...Apparently the technology or manufacturing capability is not...Would be nice to have a video card w/ 4 GB of RAM...

In a 64-bit system perhaps. In a 32-bit system the video card alone would eat up all the address space Problem is, graphics RAM ain't cheap.

 

[shortylickens]

Well, the reason they made 3D accelerators was the CPU couldnt handle all the rendering fast enough.
Your computer is upgradable by being able to swap out one video card for another. I honestly think thats good enough.
If we were gonna go with your suggestion, it would be easier to put the display output on the motherboard and just upgrade chips from there. Then the GPU would be closer to the bus.

(Actually, I wish they had taken that route to begin with. But life is silly sometimes.)

 

[imported_Crusader]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Well, the reason they made 3D accelerators was the CPU couldnt handle all the rendering fast enough.
Your computer is upgradable by being able to swap out one video card for another. I honestly think thats good enough.
If we were gonna go with your suggestion, it would be easier to put the display output on the motherboard and just upgrade chips from there. Then the GPU would be closer to the bus.

(Actually, I wish they had taken that route to begin with. But life is silly sometimes.)

I agree with this, and Nvidia might be thinking just that with the Nforce.
Too bad there wasnt a way dual channel system RAM couldnt give sufficient bandwidth for video. Maybe as DDR2 or 3 comes around?

Just offering a RAM upgrade slot would be great.. on the 512MB cards allow a socket for another 512.. why not. 256->512.. 128->256.. it makes sense to me and NV could be the middleman selling the chips (or ATI).