What happened to Modular GPUs?

[SpriteAlpha]

I remember in 2006, reports were saying that the Nvidia 8 series were gonna be the last of the big GPU, and that the new Radeons (the R700) were gonna be modular, composed of many small chips rather than one big one. Does anyone know whatever happened to this? I think I read that the next Radeon cards are just gonna be one big GPU too. Just wondering if anyone knows if there is actually anything to future GPUs being modular..

 

[reflux]

Well, the ATi GPUs basically are modular now; they develop a single GPU (HD4870) and then spin derivatives off that, with the high-end card being a dual processor solution.

Regarding multi-core graphics, modern cards are extremely parellel anyway, so a many-core graphics card would be a bit of a waste of time.

 

[Happy]

OT but - There was an external graphics card for laptops that you used to be able to buy. I assume as these aren't around now it wasn't very popular?

I think it was a 7600 or a 7900 series.

Edit: Maybe a bit more popular than I first thought, the first one was the one I was thinking of.

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/6123/7147/asus-releases-external-graphics-card.phtml

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/602703/ati_announces_xgp_external_graphics_for_laptops.html

 

[Orangey]

OP, you might be thinking of Larrabee.