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Graphics Card is HUGE!

$hadow

$hadow

$hadow

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Joined
28 Feb 2007
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21
Omg, i recieved my Evga 8800gtx KO edition .... :eek: Im absolutly shocked at the size of the thing, it wouldnt go in the first PCI slot at all and only just barely (and by barely i mean my hard drive storage place in the case had to squeezed into place) fit into the second one. When did graphics cards get so damn huge, i initially thought that i had just wasted £85 for my case and would have to shell out for another.

I think its ridiculous to be totally honest, maybe these companies need to start looking at ways to shrink the cards components rather than just making them perform better. Unbelievable i tell you ....
 
Tell me about it. :rolleyes:

I have a stack of cash waiting... for the first cool running, quick, reasonably sized and quiet card that either nVidia or ATi can produce.

Preferably single slot, but i'm not too fussy about that.

Something along the lines of the X1950 Pro, but next-gen would be absolutely PERFECT. :D :)
 
I'm currently saving for a new 8800GTX, but it won't fit in my case, so i'll have to get a new case aswell... Bah... :mad:
 
get ** self a GTS and Overclock it! 8800GTS 640mb is good sized, takes 1 PCIE power connector and OC very well which can beat a Stock GTX with ease :D
 
That's why i've had a E-ATX case for about 5 years (well actually its because its easier to get at stuff in bigger cases and also means you can be a lot neater).

Even with a GTS clocked to around 650/2000, the stock GTX will in general be around 10-20% faster (with aa, af)
 
The GTS is still quite big you know.
It has a big dual slot cooler and is the same length as an X1950 XTX

I too am waiting for a nice slim, cool and fast DX10 card....
As the other guy said, an X1950 PRO with DX10 would be just lovely
 
After having the 8800GTS placed next to my 9800pro I just can't understand in this time of miniturisation, like mobile phones getting small and yet more feature packed, what went wrong with video cards.

I remember when they introduced MMX extensions for the Pentium and how that was helping to push multimedia capabilities further. But now it seems that a gaming PC is built around one component, almost exclusively, and that is will your case fit the huge monster that is the graphics card :eek:

Take me back to the days of 3DFX and click click as the card kicked in :D
 
Really at this point maybe nVidia should start looking into reducing the size of the gfx card. At this point an 8800 graphics card can run probably anything maxed out with ease (talking about the games already out there) so maybe they should hold off their new cards are prehaps start thinking of ways to reduce the technology. That way we get less people complaining that they just brought this card and already there is a new on out.

A good solid few months refining and i think they could reduce the size by at least knocking a quarter of it. Maybe thats wishful thinking though ...
 
In fairness to NVidia they did shrink the die, just the number of transistors is having to go up almost exponentially to deliver the performance benefits people want.

Case manufacturers are going to have to make sure that nothing sits along from the primary PCI-E slot!
 
aye it is mahoosive.

measured in about 27cm long. lucky i bought a large case years ago to house everything. Although i did remove the bottom hdd cage in my XaserIII a while ago which has given me more room.

but... i do like the saying... Bigger is Better. For this card it does work :p
 
Vimes said:
After having the 8800GTS placed next to my 9800pro I just can't understand in this time of miniturisation, like mobile phones getting small and yet more feature packed, what went wrong with video cards.

I remember when they introduced MMX extensions for the Pentium and how that was helping to push multimedia capabilities further. But now it seems that a gaming PC is built around one component, almost exclusively, and that is will your case fit the huge monster that is the graphics card :eek:

Take me back to the days of 3DFX and click click as the card kicked in :D
Click to expand...


You obviously missed the 3G boom.
My Sony ericson v800 was somewhat bigger than my nokia 8310, as in brick.
And it was a very expensive phone, it was beautiful though. Hell, my d600 is bigger than the 8310 i think.

The 8800s are new technology, plus theyv got more ram chips on, so dont moan! Size is the only drawback to them, otherwise there is none!

Oh, and nvidia are switching to a smaller manufacturing process i do beleive for the next gen of cards, sure i read that somewhere, as they are moving towards multi-cored cards :)
 
gfx cards are getting more complex, as more features are added more size is needed. increased bus width = higher pin out = more route tracing. as you get more route tracing you have to increase pcb size otherwise it simply would not work.

on a motherboard you have memory, cpu and power with lots of space for all the trace routes. the gpu has all the same components and is gradually increasing in size. why do you care. a well design small case can fit them in, a badly designed small case can't. is your gfx card bigger than the room you are in? no, bigger than the case itself? no, bigger than the motherboard? no. the other option is hugely hugely more expensive pcb's with more layers. routing is much much harder to design and work the kinks out of than a larger pcb with less layers. a pcb with more layers also cost a hell of a lot more to produce. so same card, smaller pcb(maybe) would in theory cost a lot more. but, have you looked at the cards lately. there isn't lots of spare space, there are resistors, caps and other stuff all over the place. you could maybe reduce size and put more stuff on the back side, but would be extremely difficult.

more power = bigger, always has done always will be. new stuff is hard to shrink, the stuff in phones are so not powerful, so pitifully slow compared to current pc tech, its taken years, a half decade or more to get stuff that small but sure, nvidia can reduce the size by a quarter if they give it 3 months.

you can get a c2d for £100, 1gig mem for £50, mobo for £80, a 8800gtx has more transistors, requires more power, does more work and costs more, but we complain that they are getting bigger?
 
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Give it time and things will start reducing in size.

If you think how competitive the graphics card market is, then you can see why manufacturers are concentrating on getting the best performance out of their components. Also, it is often the case that the first manufacturer to release the next generation of technology will benefit substantially until their rival releases their competing technology.

With the market geared towards releasing the most powerful technology, as quickly as possible, it's no surprise to me why these cards are so big.

If nvidia didn't release their 8 series card when they did, and concentrated on making it smaller, then theres no guarantee that a competitor wouldn't have released a dx10 card first and profitted significantly.
I beleive that more people are interested in performance figures more than the size of their cards.

Nvidia did the most obvious thing. They released the most powerful card on the market first, and I'm sure their sales/profits have gone through the roof. Give it time, and I'm sure you will see components shrink in size as the products become more refined
 
I'm currently saving for a new 8800GTX, but it won't fit in my case, so i'll have to get a new case aswell... Bah
Click to expand...
make sure u get big eought,so Ati R600 can fit in aswell :)
 
you could always just get a plank of wood and fix an old cases' motherboard tray into it, hey presto, a big enough case :D
 
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