Why cant graphics cards be more like motherboards

[alanwest09872]

What i mean is with interchangeable memory and gpus. Totally customizable like a motherboards. With at least 3 different choices of different gpus and different choices of ram. If they did it for motherboards it should be easy to do for gpus. then you could get different cooling units and easily install them. instead of them being a pain in the ass. Is this going to be the next big leap in gpu technology or is it something they wont ever be doing.

 

[Elixer]

This was tried in the past, you could actually purchase some RAM and stick it in the socket slot. It failed, since there really is no good way to keep up with the pace of advancement, and the cost was just not worth it to either the card makers, or the end-user.

It isn't done with motherboards anymore either, you can't stick in a AMD CPU in a intel board, or a intel CPU in a AMD board. Both AMD and intel pretty much require you to get a new motherboard when they come out with a new CPU design.

For laptops, attempts of having swappable parts for the GPU were tried, didn't get very far from what I have read.

 

[nanaki333]

This was tried in the past, you could actually purchase some RAM and stick it in the socket slot. It failed, since there really is no good way to keep up with the pace of advancement, and the cost was just not worth it to either the card makers, or the end-user.

It isn't done with motherboards anymore either, you can't stick in a AMD CPU in a intel board, or a intel CPU in a AMD board. Both AMD and intel pretty much require you to get a new motherboard when they come out with a new CPU design.

For laptops, attempts of having swappable parts for the GPU were tried, didn't get very far from what I have read.

yeah. much cheaper for intel/amd and such to create a new platform rather than spend more time and money on squeezing as much out of an older socket with small incremental upgrades.

 

[alanwest09872]

well that just sucks for us high end users. I like having the ability to buy best of the best. and building stuff working with my hands is always enjoyable. I figured with a graphics card being upgradeable it would just be more i can tinker with.

 

[bryanW1995]

You can always try to rig up your own custom water setup from paper clips, rubber bands, super glue, etc that you find lying around the house.

 

[taltamir]

Interchangable ram:
This would take too much space, those things are cramped enough as it is.
This will also result in lower performance since factory clocking (even of non OC reference cards) is way beyond the normal for ram chips. RAM speed actually matters a lot in GPUs, unlike in general computing. So this is an issue.

Interchangeable GPU:
This suggests the seperating of the videocard into GPU and video board... the board itself however is very cheap, there will be no money in selling it by itself... or the price will skyrocket. The boards are highly customized, a replacable socket will be too costly, and the board will require its own additional controller chips (similar to northbridge/southbridge)... It makes no sense to do that in terms of performance, power, or cost... the GPU already integrates its bus and memory controller. In effect, the GPU is a SoC.

replaceable HSF:
Many companies have varied HSF schemes for the same card as well as watercooling blocks, and some companies allow you to change out the HSF as you see fit without voiding the warranty.

 

[sandorski]

One day this might be possible/standard, but as pointed out there's too much change in the technology at this time. That said, even Motherboards change a lot and don't really work that way yet, they just have some of that functionality.

 

[QuantumPion]

What would be cool would be making a dual-socket motherboard where one of the sockets is for the GPU.

 

[Dravic]

What would be cool would be making a dual-socket motherboard where one of the sockets is for the GPU.

Thins idea has been banded about a few times, most recently/seriously with AMD's HT links.

Even with the lower latency access to the memory subsystems, GPU bandwidth demands at the mid and high end are just too much to ask for. Intel and AMD are happy prodding along DDR3 speeds. This is also why you will never see an APU really infringe on the mid range discreet card market, other then power draw and heat.

 

[wahdangun]

What would be cool would be making a dual-socket motherboard where one of the sockets is for the GPU.

why you need two socket when you just need one with fusion chip