• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Shrink desktop GPUs, can it be done & still perform the same?

Edward78

Edward78

Edward78

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
5,780
I wonder if a desktop GPU could be the same size as a Laptop GPU & specs be the same? A APU is it tied is with a cpu, so seems not so hard.
 
Problem is you need a lot of space for a high performance GPU for power regulation, RAM chips and to make contact with a cooler.

APUs and laptop GPUs are lower performance so need less power regulation circuitry, APUs use system RAM and the SOC VRM so you can pack them onto the CPU package.
 
Is this small enough?
amd@28nm@gcn-3th-gen@fiji@radeon-r9-nano@spmrc-rea0356a-1539-215-0862120-RD747M.jpg


images
 
Edward78 said:
Yes, that is a good size, if no performance hit. Not sure why, just one day, Istarted wanting to beable to make the smallest case, that will accept a normal size gpu & a psu.
Click to expand...

The biggest thing about GPUs is no longer the PCB but the cooler. Unless you can substantially cut power consumption this will be the main issue.
 
Edward78 said:
I wonder if a desktop GPU could be the same size as a Laptop GPU & specs be the same? A APU is it tied is with a cpu, so seems not so hard.
Click to expand...
There pretty small when you consider what your getting is a powerful self contained computer - Motherboard/PCB, Processor/GPU and Ram/Vram
 
APUs and laptop GPUs are lower performance so need less power regulation circuitry, APUs use system RAM and the SOC VRM so you can pack them onto the CPU package.
Click to expand...

Hmmm,ya. The chips on a video card are GPU & ram chips right? Plus a ram chips seem a little bit far spaced from the GPU, just wondering if the motherboard had a GPU socket & we put ram in just like for a cpu, if it would work? Anywhere have a complete pic & pointing out the chips?
 
Yes it just takes time;)

The modern intel integrated gpu’s are massively more powerful than the discrete gpu’s I started off buying years ago!
 
Reducing lithography, maybe, but every time that happens, the next chip normally gets frequency boost or increase on transistor's numbers. Sometimes, power consumption improvement. So, not likely, as demands for GPU power will always be higher than actual generation.
The only scenario where it may happens is for platforms like videogames, as even after few years, and advances on lithography, the performance required still the same, so a chip produced, let's say, 14nm, can be produced at 7nm, delivery the same performance, as won't make sense increase transistor's numbers (unless a pro version is required) or increase performance (same, if a pro version is required). So going for a smaller chip would allow cost reduction and power consumption improvement (if the chip performance and transistor's numbers still the same).
 
Mauller said:
Performance is still limited though.
Click to expand...

Amusingly, the performance on that card is limited mostly by the cooler. I had one and when under water so cooled sufficiently, it had no issues maintaining nominal Fury X clocks and could actually overclock beyond such numbers.

Edward78 said:
Yes, that is a good size, if no performance hit. Not sure why, just one day, Istarted wanting to beable to make the smallest case, that will accept a normal size gpu & a psu.
Click to expand...

You can get some mid range cards that come in fairly small packages. My post here in response to a 1660 question: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/33090828/ shows how a small ZOTAC Card not much longer then the PCIe slot actually keeps the 1660 cool and quiet. At that point the Power Circuitry does not need to be massive so all fits within a small package. As you go up, then sure power circuitry gets more fleshed out, expected really with way VRM's are all compared, and the coolers become bigger to maintain higher boost clock speeds with the way boost 3.0 operates.

So yeah, I suspect that to an extent, while the power circuitry of a 2070 Super could be shoehorned into a R9 Nano sized GPU, no one seems to care or there seems to be a need to. Bigger VRM's and beefier cooler's to an extent seem to get peoples attention / allow more marketing points and as mentioned, most cases these days, even ITX ones can usually take Founder Edition sized GPU's.
 
MXM modules, about as small as it can be done just add the output connectors and power connector.

mxm.jpg
 
bru said:
MXM modules, about as small as it can be done just add the output connectors and power connector.

mxm.jpg
Click to expand...

So, that is the GPU with ram chips right? Seems that should do accept the connectors & outputs. Plus, in desktops they can have heatsinks & a fan. If the cooling holds the performance down in laptops, there is no reason in a desktop cool it/let it use more power.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom