Strix Cards, a testiment to a loss of identity. Future of GPUs in power efficiency

[Chem1calWaste]

 

Made this post and it seems to be more controversial than I ever anticipated. Thus I wanted to seek for some more input of any kind here.

 

Some of my further main points:

Not change the entire design, but new shrouds, new rgb elements maybe etc (costly, but customizable)

 

To the question how we would put designs on a GPU crowded with fans:

How? Less fans or blower style GPUs. Not feasible with current GPUs but eventually AMD and NVIDIA will have to resort to power efficiency over raw power improvements from generation to generation and then maybe.

(Soon after)Let me rephrase it: Combine power efficiency (GOOD PERFORMANCE WITH LOW POWER USAGE) with aesthetics that are optional and not mandatory when buying a GPU. I never talked about intentionally crippling a card's performance to get what I want. Look at the newish M1 chips, crazy performance with little power draw. The same wont be achieved on SIMD, I know, but steps in that direction are the undeniable future of computing.

 

 

 

This is not a call to do anything about it, it is just a regurgitation of an often observed topic that is technically unnecessary.

[AnonymousGuy]

It used to be that way with cards having tons of anime designs and whatnot on them:

 

http://www.vgamuseum.info/media/k2/items/cache/8dd1b15b07ee959fff716f219ff43fb5_XL.jpg

 

Now I think they just want to make 1 cooler that fits on a ton of cards for cost savings and the whole thing is fans anyways so there's not much room for design either.  

 

Ultimately it's a tool that really doesn't matter what it looks like.  If you cared enough you could disassemble and spraypaint it to your heart content.

[Chem1calWaste]

2 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

It used to be that way with cards having tons of anime designs and whatnot on them:

 

http://www.vgamuseum.info/media/k2/items/cache/8dd1b15b07ee959fff716f219ff43fb5_XL.jpg

 

Now I think they just want to make 1 cooler that fits on a ton of cards for cost savings and the whole thing is fans anyways so there's not much room for design either.  

 

Ultimately it's a tool that really doesn't matter what it looks like.  If you cared enough you could disassemble and spraypaint it to your heart content.

Yeah, exactly what I get on Reddit aswell and I whole-heartedly agree but I still think that some return of uniqueness would be nice.

 

Also, a whole-house loop? damn

[Moonzy]

23 minutes ago, Chem1calWaste said:

eventually AMD and NVIDIA will have to resort to power efficiency over raw power improvements from generation to generation

That's only when there's no competition and they don't have to push the silicon to its limit

 

I'd rather they have competition and just undervolt stuffs myself

Think that would push progress faster

 

23 minutes ago, Chem1calWaste said:

GOOD PERFORMANCE WITH LOW POWER USAGE

I hope you know how the voltage/power and frequency curve works, then refer to point above

 

This isn't only affecting GPU, the CPU market is the same

Intel have to push their silicon to the limit to match or beat AMD, meaning adding 20%* more power for 5%* more performance or something similar

 

*Number or of my bum, just an example

 

As for the looks, I don't really care that much about unable to ID a card on glance

As long as it looks decent, I'm good

[dilpickle]

I'm old enough to remember when no one ever looked at the inside of a pc.

[Chem1calWaste]

Just now, dilpickle said:

I'm old enough to remember when no one ever looked at the inside of a pc.

Amn't quite that old, but I still remember admiring the first proper GPUs as we find them today. A breath of fresh air that we completely lost

[Chem1calWaste]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

That's only when there's no competition and they don't have to push the silicon to its limit

 

I'd rather they have competition and just undervolt stuffs myself

Think that would push progress faster

 

Eventually Bremermann's Limit will have to kick in. But even before that I think that the industry will swap to performance per Watt rather than pure performance improvements generation to generation like we see them today. Those will still happen, but I wish the focus to be elsewhere aswell so that more unique cards might return eventually.

[DeerDK]

My first GPU that i bought seperatly was the Strix 660, then the Strix 960 4gb. I agree that they have lost a good part of the old charm, but then again, who want their new GPU to have the aestetics of 10+ years old Gamer culture (okay, you got me, I really liked my 960).

That said, with the old owl style, i think Asus and Noctua really missed an opputunity to go ALL owl with theri co-lab, although the owl look was pretty nifty.
I just wish they would still be able to make 2-slot cards that are quiet. Right now it mosly seems like only Sapphire is going that route.

[Chem1calWaste]

9 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

who want their new GPU to have the aestetics of 10+ years old Gamer culture (okay, you got me, I really liked my 960).

Good point, I am very, very tainted by nostalgia. It would just be nice to see a return to uniqueness once again and go away from the corprate monotony we currently have

[jones177]

I have really never cared what a GPU looked like but I do know that my Strix 3080 White OC is the nicest looking card I have ever owned.

The most unique card this gen is the Gundam version. If one had come up I was willing to pay $200 more.

[da na]

I far prefer the looks of older GPUs. I have several old Quadro, Radeon HD, and GeForce series cards from the early-mid 2000s (and I still use a blower 980 in my main system). There's also a place for blower cards, in some styles of cases they work much better than your typical 4 slot 3 fan monstrosity, but a lot of modern GPUs just can't be cooled by blowers anymore unfortunately. GTX 480 for example. Not quite modern but it was a blower GPU that really pushed the limits of what a blower card could do with its ridiculous heat output and power consumption, so there isn't really a place for them on high end cards anymore now that they suck down like 350w.