gpu/cpu on one chip.

[sargatanas]

I was just having a chat on msn about this with a friend of mine. When this comes into reality it seems like it will either cause a lot of confusion with many many different product types, or railroad you into what you can buy.

Say for example a server, they would need a high end cpu but a very basic gpu, so would they cater for this? would they offer all sorts of cpu/gpus, to cater for all these needs? Or do they make you if you want a good cpu you need a good gpu with it and have to spend more money?

If they make dozens of different types available it could confuse the average consumer and potentially leave them with something they didnt want, and railroading could cost the consumer much more for something they didn't want in the first place.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[weescott]

What do we know of these specific future product lines and thier marketing direction? We can't give meaningful opinions on speculation or assumption.

 

[jaykay]

Well CPU/GPU on one chip will only go into production for mass market PC, in offices as such and maybe some really slow Dells etc.
They wouldn't work in Servers as normally you have the GPU in the north bridge and the CPU in its skt making it easier to upgrade.

Plus i would guess they would only have one type of GPU as its hard to fit a bigger or better one on. While for CPU you just crank up the clock speed.

 

[Lightnix]

These'll only be basic integrated solutions, nothing fancy. It's not like they have the ability to package 256MB of GDDR3 on the CPU unless they plan on making CPU sockets a damn sight larger. Really these are just being aimed at low power and performance consumers, the same people who'd be fine with an Intel GMA chip and a celeron.

 

[sargatanas]

Just more of a query really, i'm not trying to assume or expect anything, but if its going out to the mass market, I can only see it going in one of these directions really. Obviously I am no expert , just my view on it.

 

[crazyDAJT]

I was under the impression that this sort of thing would be targeted at laptop usage for lowered power consumption and decreased space requirements

 

[sargatanas]

Maybe i read it wrong then, I was under the assumption they wanted to eliminate external GPUs completely in time.

 

[Sinny]

Onboard graphics?

problem solved, or do you mean dual core graphics cards?

 

[sargatanas]

I'm not talking about onboard at all, im talking about cpu's and gpu's on one chip.

 

[mame]

I'm sure i read somewhere that both ATI and nvidia said that gaming PC's as we know them won't be around that many more years and this kind of thing will take over. Don't forget that a lot of people spend a lot of money on high-end PC's just to play games. I already think PC gaming is slowley moving towards consoles IE 'one click install', games for windows, xbox 360 pad compatability (i think to get a 'games for windows' casing they have to have this), The vista system rating - will my PC run this?. And consoles are moving towards PC with game patches (i think), gfx settings, hard-drives, on-line gaming, demo downloads etc. I wonder where the two will meet in the middle.

I also read that sony and MS said that if there had been a way they could have had a GFX card updgrade for the PS2 and XBOX, then this would have been the way forward and may well be the way they go at the end of PS3 and XBOX 360 to benefit both users and themselves.

 

[Munkeh]

Why have them both on the same chip though? Surely you could just have 2 sockets on the motherboard, 1 CPU, 1 GPU and you have an instant modular design!

 

[mame]

Why have them both on the same chip though? Surely you could just have 2 sockets on the motherboard, 1 CPU, 1 GPU and you have an instant modular design!

Who knows. It doesn't seem that long ago i had to have a 2D card for windows and a 3D card for games. I HAD to have a sound card to have anything other than beeps. Maybe the amiga was the way forward!

 

[jaykay]

Why have them both on the same chip though? Surely you could just have 2 sockets on the motherboard, 1 CPU, 1 GPU and you have an instant modular design!

Technically that's what we have now. I doubt we could fit a high end GPU and CPU together. Think about it a G92 core stuck to a Intel core 2 Quad 45nm. It would be huge.
Though it is true that PC are turning into consoles or the other way round. Wont be soon to find out who wins.

 

[Munkeh]

Oh yes, never thought about it like that. Personally I'm not convinced of the benefit or the perceived benefit anyways. General PC's unlike consoles perform a large variety of tasks, I think gaming PCs are a whole other kettle of fish and should be considered seperately.