Are single slot gfx cards dead?

[Paramount]

As the question really. Now gfx cards are draining more and more power and requiring bigger and bigger heatsinks to keep them cool, are all releases faster than the 1950Pro/7950GT going to have fat heatsinks and be dual slot only?

 

[Tute]

I think silent cooling solutions may well be dead, however, I think there will be single slot coolers for some time yet.

I reckon anything 8600GTX/X2600XT and slower will be fine with a single slot cooler. Also don't forget that as technology evolves, something else may come along that cools well enough to fit in a single slot.

 

[MadMatty]

the x1950pro has a single slot version, so i think theres some chance that there will be more as gpus move onto a smaller process with more heat/power control. usually have to wait for refreshes for those features though.

 

[HangTime]

Nah, I doubt it. In a few years we'll likely have mainstream parts which are faster than the x1950pro/7950gt and they will almost certainly be single slot cards (relatively low power consumption / heat production). I'd imagine there'd be a die shrink at some stage.

 

[locutus12]

As the question really. Now gfx cards are draining more and more power and requiring bigger and bigger heatsinks to keep them cool, are all releases faster than the 1950Pro/7950GT going to have fat heatsinks and be dual slot only?

if R700 rumours are true then they should make quite a good come back with ATi, apparently they are doing away with the big honking fiery GPU in favour of a cell formation of small GPU`s, easier to manufacture, easier to dissipate heat from, hugely powerful, scalable (i.e. 16 GPU`s for top end, 12 and 8 for mid range, 4 for low end)

of course the info is from the inquirer so pinch of salt is required.

 

[gurusan]

lol sounds like some kind of sequential turbine setup

 

[GraemePaul]

I imagine that Single Slot solutions will be back with us in a few years. PC users have become more aware of the huge amounts of Power their systems consume and the costs in electricity bills and the environment. Processer Designers from Intel have already done this with the Core 2 Processors and I would not be surprised if both Nvidia and AMD/ATi follow suit a couple of years down the line.

Also Graphics are starting to reach a level now where there is less and less Wow factor with new generations as levels of detail increase to photo realisim and beyond.

I guess Graphics will stop going for the roughly double performace each generation and go for smaller increases but with far greater efficency this lowering power consumption and the size of the GPU coolers.