I just had a dream...

[VirtualLarry]

That Radio Shack was selling some keyboards on clearance, and the keyboards had dedicated video memory (essentially, was a video card too). The expensive one had 19.5GB of video memory ($699 list), and the cheaper one had 2.5GB of video memory (was on clearance for $50). The keyboard had a dedicated "queueing" key for MMORPGs.

Strange, but interesting. Do you think that they would ever merge video cards, with keyboards? It might provide more surface area for cooling.

 

[dust]

That Radio Shack was selling some keyboards on clearance, and the keyboards had dedicated video memory (essentially, was a video card too). The expensive one had 19.5GB of video memory ($699 list), and the cheaper one had 2.5GB of video memory (was on clearance for $50). The keyboard had a dedicated "queueing" key for MMORPGs.

Strange, but interesting. Do you think that they would ever merge video cards, with keyboards? It might provide more surface area for cooling.

Interesting idea. You could spill your coffee on your keyboard AND your video card at the same time. Or you could punish the GPU for not performing simply by hitting your keyboard against the table to get the cigarette ash out. Maybe it's just me who's doing that

 

[zebrax2]

I doubt the video card part will last because of the constant vibrations and the occasional bangs done to the keyboard. It will also require changing connectors to something much faster than say usb3

 

[NoQuarter]

Strange, but interesting. Do you think that they would ever merge video cards, with keyboards?

Heard they're called laptops.

 

[Dahak]

Heard they're called laptops.

I would say more a tablet as they would have a touch interface keyboard

 

[Arkadrel]

Do you think that they would ever merge video cards, with keyboards?

If the idea is to get the grafic card outsides the pc case for better cooling? yes that sounds reasonable..

However

1) the futher noise is from you, the less you hear it, GPUs are noisey buggers, dont want them where the keyboard is.

2) You would have a *hot* keyboard... not everyone might like this.

3) Your keyboard would be *thick* as hell... which means, you ll hurt your wrists, because you can lay your arms against the table as your useing the keyboard.

4) spill coffee... and its not just the keyboard youd have to worry about... also no roid rage + beating up your keyboard... that would be expensive.

5) " It will also require changing connectors to something much faster than say usb3"
The cable to and from pc/keyboard+gpu, would have to be something differnt than current USBs (so you dont bottle neck things).

6) "constant vibrations and the occasional bangs done to the keyboard" = not good for the grafics cards.

So Im gonna go with a NO... keyboards + videocards will never be one, pulling the GPU out of the pc and into the keyboard.

 

[Voo]

5) " It will also require changing connectors to something much faster than say usb3"
The cable to and from pc/keyboard+gpu, would have to be something differnt than current USBs (so you dont bottle neck things).

And not to forget you'd need pretty short and expensive cables (and obviously a completely different protocoll than USB) for the amount of bandwidth and latency we're talking about. Not practical

 

[Idontcare]

Heard they're called laptops.

Yep. And heat is the limiting issue in their design as well.

How many of us here would actually want our keyboards warmed up by a GTX580 or 6970? Would not want to touch

 

[Wreckage]

http://www.techchee.com/2010/05/26/msis-first-external-graphic-card-for-laptops/

Seems power is the limitation here.

 

[Voo]

Maybe I've got something wrong here, but according to wiki ExpressCard 2.0 supports 0.5GB/s bandwidth which would be equivalent to one PCIe 2 lane.

That may be enough for extremely low level GPUs (but then modern IGPs come extremely close to their performance anyhow), but it doesn't seem nowhere near enough for what a modern gaming GPU would need. Would love to see benchmarks for it though.

 

[Gloomy]

It's been done

see here :thumbsup:

 

[Voo]

It's been done

see here :thumbsup:

Interesting, thanks.

Also they've got some tests here where for low resolutions and not too demanding games the performance hit is actually rather reasonable. Would've thought that everything below x4 would deliver horrible performance.

 

[djnsmith7]

There would be too much vibration & heat from the more powerful cards. Strange dream indeed though.

 

[Castiel]

I'm jealous larry. All i ever dream about is naked women and cars

 

[Wreckage]

I'm jealous larry. All i ever dream about is naked women and cars

I don't even dream about cars.