will video cards get smaller?

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wpeng

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
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I was wondering if it were possible for video cards in the future to be smaller. It seems SFF machines are getting bigger just because of video cards, and as a SFF fan, I'm getting a little worried.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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Well technically they could ... but since current PC gaming is about 3D performance not creative ideas, things are getting bigger, more power hungry and louder, not smaller and more efficient as you would expect.

The alternatives are out there - affordable low power processors from VIA, extremely low power graphics chips from S3, ultraquiet harddisks from Samsung, etc. pp. It's all there, it's just that the average buyer neither knows nor cares.
 
nitromullet

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
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Probably so... The absolute top of the line cards will probably always be fairly large and power hungry, but if you look more towards the mid to mid-high end you can find great cards that aren't enormous. Look at the 7900GT or 7600GT for example, both are nice performers for their class, and not too big. I just don't think that if you want smaller cards, you can do the newest, highest performing card. I would say give it about a year or two before you will see a truly small card that performs as well as an 8800GTX.

As a side note, the biggest cards haven't really been getting bigger at the crazy rate that some might suggest. The 8800GTX and the 7950GX2 are the first cards to really expand on the size in a while. The 8800GS, 7900GTX, and X1950XTX are not really any bigger than a 6800 Ultra or a 5950 Ultra, both of which came out years ago. ATI made a big jump though, since the X800's were all a lot smaller than the 6-series, but the X1k cards aren't any bigger then a 5950 Ultra either.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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Oh yes they did. Just look at how the power requirements for top end cards have exploded. Once upon a time not too long ago, the cards could make do with what the AGP slot provided (25 watts), now even midrange cards can't do with the 75W (!) from the PCIE slot and need an extra power connector. Some top end cards even need two.

This expands even to the bottom end of the range. How many fanless PCIE cards can you even buy? On AGP, there had always been a good selection of fanless cards - now it's just a handful (not counting the silly solutions with heatpipes and huge sinks that occupy two or three slot widths).
 
nitromullet

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
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Originally posted by: Peter
Oh yes they did. Just look at how the power requirements for top end cards have exploded. Once upon a time not too long ago, the cards could make do with what the AGP slot provided (25 watts), now even midrange cards can't do with the 75W (!) from the PCIE slot and need an extra power connector. Some top end cards even need two.

This expands even to the bottom end of the range. How many fanless PCIE cards can you even buy? On AGP, there had always been a good selection of fanless cards - now it's just a handful (not counting the silly solutions with heatpipes and huge sinks that occupy two or three slot widths).
Click to expand...

Did i say anything about power draw and fans...? All I said is that the largest cards have not gotten much bigger over the last few years until recently... My FX 5900 wasn't any smaller then my 7900GTX. That being said, the FX 5900 is not exactly a small card either...
 
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Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: Peter
Oh yes they did. Just look at how the power requirements for top end cards have exploded. Once upon a time not too long ago, the cards could make do with what the AGP slot provided (25 watts), now even midrange cards can't do with the 75W (!) from the PCIE slot and need an extra power connector. Some top end cards even need two.

This expands even to the bottom end of the range. How many fanless PCIE cards can you even buy? On AGP, there had always been a good selection of fanless cards - now it's just a handful (not counting the silly solutions with heatpipes and huge sinks that occupy two or three slot widths).
Click to expand...

To be fair, the new cards are also a hell of a lot faster than the old ones. If performance goes *way* up, but performance/watt doesn't go *way* down, overall power usage is going to increase. There was a time when there were top-of-the-line CPUs that didn't require heatsinks, either, and nowadays even the slowest ones on the market need pretty substantial active cooling. Barring dramatic breakthroughs in transistor-level technology, power usage is going to keep scaling up with performance and transistor count.

You can still get some pretty decent fanless cards -- even with single-slot cooling. I'm pretty sure there are fanless single-slot GF7600s and X1600s, maybe even a 7900.

I do wish they'd do more to save power when not running in 3D modes or otherwise using most of the GPU's muscle -- better dynamic underclocking/volting and very aggressive clock gating would significantly reduce idle power usage. There's been somewhat more of a trend in that direction in terms of CPU power usage, so hopefully GPUs will eventually follow suit.
 
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TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
5,479
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I think that GPU's will eventually take the turn that CPU's have just made.

I think that in the world of CPU's things are now getting faster but they are also trying to cut down on power usage as well (C2D as an example).

May be in the world of GPU's the same thing will happen, but probably not for a while.
I took a look at the size of the IHS on my 8800GTS. On the IHS it seemed that you could see what looked like an outline of a core. It was fsck'n HUGE.

That being said, my MCW60 cools it very well :p
 
SonicIce

SonicIce

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
4,771
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well i dont think they will get any bigger than they already are. a new technology will come out sometime down the road that will enable manufacturers to make things much smaller. its only a matter of time
 
Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster

Diamond Member
May 7, 2005
5,161
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Its hard to say. Video card size in PCB length?

Its hard to say. Because the external memory interface is increasing which results in huge complexity of the PCB. Also more vRAM requires more space. These two can result in how "big" a video card will be physically. As 3d apps ask for more and more, ultimately the video cards will have to become faster and faster. I.e PCBs will ultimately get bigger and bigger but it will take much time (although some serious designing/tweaking could shorten PCBs, theres always a limit) before we start seeing vodoo size future video cards.

Then theres the coolers. I wouldnt want to see triple slot coolers in the near future with a PCB length of a 7900GX2. *shrugs*
 
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