Damn, the things used to be these thin little, well, cards. Nowadays they are reaching the size of entire consoles and can more accurately be called graphics bricks. Is the tech so stagnant that they won't be getting smaller again in the future?

The high end ones are so huge, power hungry, and fucking expensive that I'm starting to think they might as well just come with an integrated CPU and system RAM (in addition to the VRAM) on the same board.

What is the general industry expectation of what GPUs are going to be like in the mid term future, maybe 20 to 30 years from now? I expect if AI continues to grow in scope and ubiquity, then a previously unprecedented amount of effort and funding is going to be thrown at R&D for these PC components that were once primarily relegated to being toys for gamers.

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
    hexbear
    21
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    i don't think its getting much bigger than 4090. even 4090 has sagging issues. sure, there are brackets and vertical mounting but vertical mounts on most cases have three slots.

    there are ways to get more gpu power, just have more GPUs. obviously not suitable for gaming (microstutters and all the issues SLI/Crossfires had) but for AI itll work just fine and is exactly whats going on

    PC components that were once primarily relegated to being toys for gamers.

    i've to disagree, GPUs always had uses other than gaming like video rendering and shit. Gamers were just the most marketed to.

    • supafuzz [comrade/them]
      hexbear
      10
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      My guess is we're going to start seeing case and motherboard designs that privilege GPUs and relegate regular CPU function to a small system on a chip.

      GPUs can get bigger if you build the system around them instead of plugging them in as an accessory.

    • Bloobish [comrade/them]
      hexbear
      8
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      My RX 7900xtx came with it's own bracket to reduce sag, it's honestly insane the heft some new cards have to them.