What if in the future, all graphics cards are same hardware wise, but you would have to buy software to get certain level of performance?

[JJVGaming]

Do you see this maybe happening? If so, what would you think of it? 

 

For example, you would need to buy "gtx 1060" software to get gtx 1060 performance on the card.

[rn8686]

Then people would crack it or find other ways to harness the full power. 

 

Edit: It wouldn't be all that economically viable for manufacturers either due to the fact that it still costs more to produce better chips (Binning and such). 

[Linksys120n]

The pirates would have allot of fun with that!

[ARikozuM]

So, the 480 with the 580 BIOS? /s #sortof

 

I wouldn't go for it unless the idea is competitively priced. I wouldn't pay 20% more for just 20% extra power. 

[TetraSky]

If it's a software lock, it will be unlocked sooner or later by pirates.

[Blackhole890]

its the worst idea ever imo

 

so basically you buy a gtx 1060 and its just a paperweight until you waste another 100$ on software? are you okay? Anyways, they will be cracked on few weeks

[Shiv78]

7 minutes ago, JJVGaming said:

Do you see this maybe happening? If so, what would you think of it? 

 

For example, you would need to buy "gtx 1060" software to get gtx 1060 performance on the card.

Well no but what I do see is more services like Geforce Now where you can rent different tiered 'gaming PCs' that are really just cloud-linked chunks of huge amounts of servers filled with 1060s and 1080s (IIRC).

[yian88]

Just now, JJVGaming said:

Do you see this maybe happening? If so, what would you think of it? 

 

For example, you would need to buy "gtx 1060" software to get gtx 1060 performance on the card.

If you by "buying software to get 1060 perf"  you mean buying drivers cause there is no other software, we already have to buy windows or use linux free with open source drivers, its not going to happen unless there is only one company left in the market and driver development becomes 10 times more expensive then yeah they might make us pay for the software aswell if no competition, as long as we already have 2 companies with their own graphics IP (nvidia and amd) this will not happen even if AMD goes bankrupt their GPU IP will remain and they can either license it or sell it or give it for free, if they release it for free heh, lots of new GPU companies will emerge(not neceseraly successfull companies)

[MorganO]

What ever you've been smoking can I have some please

[Godlygamer23]

This would be dumb for multiple reasons, but one of them is straight up cost. When you take a high end GPU and scale it down, you are still producing that GPU, and your costs will be high with crappy yields, and therefore the consumer would ultimately have to pay more somehow.

[JJVGaming]

1 minute ago, JayKay3000 said:

I'm not sure this would even work. They'd have to make one really powerful card and loose money if people brought the basic version.

 

A more realistic approach with current manufacturing would be to have the same card layout and fan design and buy and plug in extra chips (memory or processing) to increase the performance, a sort of modular graphics card. Not that I can see a way for this to work for real.

 

The software performance unlock is nearly impossible to implement without being cracked, even if there was a self destruct tamper proof method people would get around it because if the performance is on the card, people are going to find a way to get to it. Possibly some form of inbuilt internet connection in the card, that sends some unique numbers to a secure server somewhere, similar to the way Microsoft licenses windows 10. This would also lock the card to that machine and need a complicated system of unlicensing whenever you wanted to upgrade or move the card.

 

You've also got another issue of the number of display ports on the card. Not everyone wants five display ports. Is this future a standardised world where we only use HDMI and are forced to throw our older monitors away every time a new card is released which contains the newest technology. Revisions every two years. Size of the board, not everyone wants a certain size and sound. Every card would have to be silent because no one wants a hair dryer pc.

 

Ultimately the concept fails before it even starts and I can imagine graphics card makers have poured resources into this idea to streamline product inventory and increase profits.

So Sort of like GPUs become basically how CPUs and motherboards work, where you can replace chips and add certain amounts of memory?

[elis]

1 hour ago, JJVGaming said:

Do you see this maybe happening? If so, what would you think of it? 

 

For example, you would need to buy "gtx 1060" software to get gtx 1060 performance on the card.

That will never happen, unless you don't get the hardware in the first place. That is, instead of having a PC you have a small streaming box, and you can stream from a virtual machine for a price. 

 

52 minutes ago, JayKay3000 said:

Modular graphics cards.

I would really love to see socket GPUs and DRAM. That would offer higher transfer speeds I think, because of the more contacts, even though a technician could explain this better (I may be totally wrong  ). Even if that isn't true, at least the GPU would be locked better, there would be a better way to water-cool a whole system, there would be space for better thinner PCs and also better heatsinks could be placed on top of them. And when it comes to outputs, there could be a few PCIe x 1 slots for each GPU chip, placed right on the mobo edge (to remove cables). That way each person can put the proper output he needs. 

As for DRAM, being that it doesn't produce too much heat compared to CPU an GPU, it can be possible to stack some on top of some others (at least in theory), offering a way to increase the total number of DRAM sticks/chips possible to put in a machine.

[elkenrod]

And you always had to be online for it to work.... ?

[Ertman]

Most I can see is unlocking GPUs to Ti versions and such.

 

It doesn't really seem feasible. Iintel did this with some budget CPU years ago, but there is probably a reason why they stopped. 

[Vapare]

It does bring up an interesting topic along the lines of DLC in games, where the DLC itself is already there and you pay to unlock that particular feature. However, I know I wouldn't want that. Pirates would have a hay day with that.