Earlier quoted context omitted.
The GPU should be the motherboard, and everything sticks onto it.
So how would multi-GPU setups work?
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We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
111–120 of 362 posts
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#1121. While I agree we're beginning to reach absurd proportions, lets really analyze the situation and think about it. 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? 3. GPUs are already 2-wide by default, and some are 3-wide. 4-wide GPUs will have more support from the chassis. This seems like the simpler solution, especially since most people rarely have a 2nd add in card at a…
In reality, there is no reason GPUs should be add-ons. Just star designing motherboards with integrated GPUs of sufficient size. Case closed.
The GPU is the most expensive component in gaming PCs these days, thus it makes the least sense for it to be the hard-wired component as there is the most price diversity in options. I have definitely upgraded GPUs on several computers over the past decade and I'm very thankful I didn't have to rip out the entire motherboard (and detach/reattach everything) to do so.
It's only the cheap components without a wide variety of options that make sense to build in, like WiFi, USB, and Ethernet.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#113It's the IBM PC legacy. The won and we've lived with that form-factor now for 40 years. A new PC looks very much like that of 1982. Back in '82 when I started in robotics tech, we mostly used VME. A super-robust interconnect platform. There is no "motherboard" with VME and similar bus architectures. There is a backplane. Why can't we have the benefits of a physical platform like VME but with the electrical form-facto…
An important reason why you cannot have that is that the VME is a shared bus, while PCIe is a very high-frequency LVDS point-to-point system that you absolutely cannot implement on a shared bus.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#1141. While I agree we're beginning to reach absurd proportions, lets really analyze the situation and think about it. 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? 3. GPUs are already 2-wide by default, and some are 3-wide. 4-wide GPUs will have more support from the chassis. This seems like the simpler solution, especially since most people rarely have a 2nd add in card at a…
> Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot?
It's quite common to suffer damage from movement, especially in shipping, to the point where integrated PC manufacturers have to go to great lengths to protect the GPU in transit.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#1151. While I agree we're beginning to reach absurd proportions, lets really analyze the situation and think about it. 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? 3. GPUs are already 2-wide by default, and some are 3-wide. 4-wide GPUs will have more support from the chassis. This seems like the simpler solution, especially since most people rarely have a 2nd add in card at a…
2. We crossed that point generations ago. High end GPU owners are advised to remove GPUs from their system before transporting it and PC communities get posts often enough of people who had consequences from not doing so. Over a longer term even a lighter card can deform motherboards - I had a 290x which did so to an old Z87 motherboard over 5 years with the result the motherboard was no longer flat enough to mount the backplate of a replacement cpu cooler to.
4. Don't forget high end GPUs are also getting longer, not just thicker. So increasing sizes both give and take away weight advantages
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
RE 2: We were shipping a system with a 980ti and it ripped the PCIE slot off the board despite being propped with foam.
... maybe don't ship a built system then? Those boxes get dropped
That's not a reasonable answer. Many people want to buy assembled systems, and lack the skills/inclination to do it themselves. Pre-built systems is a huge $1B+ market, and "kill the market entirely" is not an acceptable answer.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#117It's the IBM PC legacy. The won and we've lived with that form-factor now for 40 years. A new PC looks very much like that of 1982. Back in '82 when I started in robotics tech, we mostly used VME. A super-robust interconnect platform. There is no "motherboard" with VME and similar bus architectures. There is a backplane. Why can't we have the benefits of a physical platform like VME but with the electrical form-facto…
An important reason why you cannot have that is that the VME is a shared bus, while PCIe is a very high-frequency LVDS point-to-point system that you absolutely cannot implement on a shared bus.
There are fabric backplane solutions such as fibre channel and microtca (leverages pcie or ethernet).
There's no reason you can't get benefits from a fabric over point-to-point today, it's just big and expensive.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
There sorta is a cap in place given that most residential circuits in the US are 15 or 20 amps. We're already not far off of that being a serious concern even on non-crazy builds. Edit: ok maybe crazy builds but still it's not that far fetched on current trajectories.
> We're already not far off of that being a serious concern even on non-crazy builds. Show me an example of a “non-crazy” build that’s over 1,200W, let alone over 1,500W. I’m genuinely curious.
I said near, we still have some breathing room. But as noted elsewhere, 15 A is a max for short periods, the practical limit for continuous use is more like 1200-1400 W which definitely seems like it might be plausible soon.
Plus other things on the circuit. Fancy ultra bright HDR monitors use a decent chunk of power, and anything else.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#1191. While I agree we're beginning to reach absurd proportions, lets really analyze the situation and think about it. 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? 3. GPUs are already 2-wide by default, and some are 3-wide. 4-wide GPUs will have more support from the chassis. This seems like the simpler solution, especially since most people rarely have a 2nd add in card at a…
> 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? I have a MSI RTX 3070 2 fan model. It hasn't damaged my PCI-E slot (I think), but it's weight and sag causes some bending that now makes it so that my fan bearing makes a loud noise if spun up high. My solution has been to turn my PC case so the motherboard is parallel to the ground and the GPU sticks straight up, eliminating…
I have an EVGA 3070 and also had the sag issue. My case came with a part to support the GPU though, but I didn't realize until I solved it another way: I just doubled up those plates that you screw the GPU into so there was no way it could pivot and sag.
Re: We Need New Motherboards Before GPUs Collapse Under Their Own Gravity
#1201. While I agree we're beginning to reach absurd proportions, lets really analyze the situation and think about it. 2. Are there any GPUs that actually have performed physical damage on a motherboard slot? 3. GPUs are already 2-wide by default, and some are 3-wide. 4-wide GPUs will have more support from the chassis. This seems like the simpler solution, especially since most people rarely have a 2nd add in card at a…
In reality, there is no reason GPUs should be add-ons. Just star designing motherboards with integrated GPUs of sufficient size. Case closed.
This is already happening (as was noted in other comments on this article).
One of the most prominent examples is the entire Apple Silicon lineup, which has the GPU integrated as part of the SoC, and is powerful enough to drive relatively recent games. (No idea just what its limits are, but I'm quite happy with the games my M1 Max can play.)