Modular GPU's - Dumb Question?

[Yud2006]

So - I was wondering - if we look at graphic cards today, they are basically consist of a board ram an the gpu itself.

so why aren't graphic cards modular - I mean, a point can be made that you can have a socket for replacing the gpu's and ram - you can even update firmware to support this no? 

this way I can buy a high end pcb with proper cooling, and as much ram as I want and replace the main gpu with more computing units periodically 

 

so what do you think - how dumb of an idea this is? 

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Yud2006 said:

so what do you think - how dumb of an idea this is?

But GFX companies wouldn't be able to sell you brand new cards for all the money, if they made their existing ones modular.

Nice idea in theory, never happen in reality.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Software is already hard to optimise due to the large variety of hardware that could be installed. Making GPUs and other parts modular further would make this worse exponentially. 

 

That, as well as general compatibility, driver support and such from various manufacturers. 

[Yud2006]

Just now, Oshino Shinobu said:

Software is already hard to optimise due to the large variety of hardware that could be installed. Making GPUs and other parts modular further would make this worse exponentially. 

 

That, as well as general compatibility, driver support and such from various manufacturers. 

Good point - but isn't that almost the same as bios/board/cpu  combos? 

If you introduce a new architecture and a compatibility layer  it's totally doable without putting the burden (more than now) on the software side to optimize (not more than today)  

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, Yud2006 said:

Good point - but isn't that almost the same as bios/board/cpu  combos? 

If you introduce a new architecture and a compatibility layer  it's totally doable without putting the burden (more than now) on the software side to optimize (not more than today)  

Basically, yeah. Instead of optimising combinations of motherboard/RAM/CPU with a series of GPU, you have to match them up with the same number of combinations for each series of GPUs. 

 

They'd also probably be stupidly expensive. 

[Yud2006]

6 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Basically, yeah. Instead of optimising combinations of motherboard/RAM/CPU with a series of GPU, you have to match them up with the same number of combinations for each series of GPUs. 

 

They'd also probably be stupidly expensive. 

I see how using sockets can make it more expensive than soldering the parts on 
But would it be more expensive across 2 gen upgrade? 
Buying a card with 4GB then adding 4GB more 
or replacing the GPU (assuming you'll be able to buy and sell 2nd handed part just like you do with cards) 

 

I mean - if you're a content creator vs gamer - you'd have more flexibility to solve your bottleneck based on your workflow/task-load 

Thanks for answering - Really good points!