When do you think Nvidia and/or AMD/ATi will change to 3 slot blower designs?

[KingFatty]

The big problem in my mind is I'm not sure there are enough people who would want to buy such a card.

So the companies would just throw money away making this card. I think you might be describing this 3-slot thing as desirable by a certain kind of customer, who is not the average, but another problem is that certain kind of customer will instead already have a water cooling setup that will do a better job, or he already bought an accelero big mama cooler, or whatever.

So those who want this 3-slot thing, they are the kind who already seeks out their own cooler. They don't want to spend extra on a card that already has one, because they just take it off an throw it away to use their own custom.

So if a company makes this OEM/stock video card with triple slot cooler, I cannot think of a rational customer who could rationally make the decision to buy it. Nobody would buy it, and sales would flop.

 

[24601]

The big problem in my mind is I'm not sure there are enough people who would want to buy such a card.

So the companies would just throw money away making this card. I think you might be describing this 3-slot thing as desirable by a certain kind of customer, who is not the average, but another problem is that certain kind of customer will instead already have a water cooling setup that will do a better job, or he already bought an accelero big mama cooler, or whatever.

So those who want this 3-slot thing, they are the kind who already seeks out their own cooler. They don't want to spend extra on a card that already has one, because they just take it off an throw it away to use their own custom.

So if a company makes this OEM/stock video card with triple slot cooler, I cannot think of a rational customer who could rationally make the decision to buy it. Nobody would buy it, and sales would flop.

The same was said of consumers before the Nvidia 8 series launched.

Most of the people weren't ok with more than 1-slot cards.

Just about overnight people stopped caring when the 8800gtx and subsequent 8800gts cards were released.

People aren't going to want it because if any other reason than that it will be sufficiently fast enough for the price they pay for them to want to purchase it.

Popular game X releases game that takes large graphical horsepower but is extremely popular with consumers. Current cards play the games borderline ok, but the new 3-slot cooler cards provide enough of a significant boost from the previous generation for the price for consumers to want it en masse.

The thing about higher TDP is that it's the cheapest way to make a faster CPU/GPU. It literally costs you nothing.

That's the reason why laptop cards are so much more expensive than desktop cards.
The laptop 780m is actually a GK104 chip, however it commands a premium since it delivers very high performance for watt in the configuration in laptops compared to competitors.
The laptop 8970m is actually a 7850 Pitcairn chip, it commands far less of a premium (even if optimus wasn't so much better than enduro) because it is lower performance per watt in the configuration in laptops.

 

[TridenT]

Never.

I'm tired of the wattage wars.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Makes more sense for a card vendor to bundle a water cooling solution rather than 3 slot.

 

[24601]

Makes more sense for a card vendor to bundle a water cooling solution rather than 3 slot.

A water cooling solution to cool a 300+w GPU is expensive as hell.

A 3 slot solution blower will cost the difference of the plastic for the injection molding and the aluminum for the heatsink. (basically nothing).

 

[lehtv]

No matter how many arguments you can think of in favor of 3 slot design, it won't happen. There's barely any market for 3 slot design.

 

[sushiwarrior]

Makes more sense for a card vendor to bundle a water cooling solution rather than 3 slot.

A water cooling solution to cool a 300+w GPU is expensive as hell.

A 3 slot solution blower will cost the difference of the plastic for the injection molding and the aluminum for the heatsink. (basically nothing).

Communism, Vesuvius begs to differ. Asetek cooler should be standard. Makes absolute sense for halo products like that.

 

[24601]

Communism, Vesuvius begs to differ. Asetek cooler should be standard. Makes absolute sense for halo products like that.

Intel's Asetek cooler is 100+ USD.

And that's just to cool a 150w CPU.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

A water cooling solution to cool a 300+w GPU is expensive as hell.

A 3 slot solution blower will cost the difference of the plastic for the injection molding and the aluminum for the heatsink. (basically nothing).

Hmmm. I strapped a $20.- after rebate coolermaster seidon to a high oc 7950. 7950 can pull alot of watts too. Doesn't seem so difficult and expensive to me. If I can do it so can the pros and probably alot nicer AND cheaper than my ugly setup.

 

[sushiwarrior]

Intel's Asetek cooler is 100+ USD.

And that's just to cool a 150w CPU.

And an iPhone costs $700, do you think Apple pays that much to much it? OEM costs are insanely low for OEM WC'ing.

A 120mm/240mm rad can handle a lot of heat.

 

[bystander36]

It took a few years when cards switch to 2 slots and motherboards started to consider the problems of SLI and Crossfire with their PCIe slots being only 2 slots a part. It wasn't until Sandy Bridge that motherboards started to spread out the PCIe slots so that two 2-slot cards could fit in them with a little breathing room. 3-slot cards prevent SLI and Crossfire from having any breathing room, and with the current designed 3-slot cards, they need space to function properly.

I sure hope 3-slot cards don't become the norm unless they work with motherboard companies ahead of time...but that also requires extra spaces on the back of enclosures, as most do not have the slots for this sort of setup.