possibly a stupid question?

[tim68]

Hi all. i have never been in to pc gaming but im having a look now at possible components to use and looking at plenty of youtube videos about building your own computers (some better than others).

anyway as a total noob, i was just wondering why you cant make your own graphics card as u would with a motherboard and cpu, like picking your own board to house a gpu, adding your own memory and your own gpu cooling ?, or is there more to it than that.

Tim

 

[joelk2]

I don't know why exactly but I wouldn't worry about it. So many to choose from already from different companies.

 

[tim68]

I don't know why exactly but I wouldn't worry about it. So many to choose from already from different companies.

Hi. thanks for the reply but I think you may have misunderstood my question. Given the choice of making your own card or buying an off the shelf card, would you build your own ?. would there be any advantage in building your own card ?.

Tim

 

[Kwman]

Hi all. i have never been in to pc gaming but im having a look now at possible components to use and looking at plenty of youtube videos about building your own computers (some better than others).

anyway as a total noob, i was just wondering why you cant make your own graphics card as u would with a motherboard and cpu, like picking your own board to house a gpu, adding your own memory and your own gpu cooling ?, or is there more to it than that.

Tim

The only thing you can do with a graphics card is get your own aftermarket cooler for it. Choices are not as varied as CPU coolers, but you have choices of air or water. You wouldn't be able to choose your own memory modules or anything else.

 

[Sega Mega Dave]

Hi. thanks for the reply but I think you may have misunderstood my question. Given the choice of making your own card or buying an off the shelf card, would you build your own ?. would there be any advantage in building your own card ?.

Tim

I wouldn't say it's a stupid question, a question I've never seen asked but not stupid.

Ermm as to why I don't know, maybe the way they are doesn't lend well to customisation, maybe more complicated than a motherboard, maybe size plays a apart.

Advantage probably on some level but i'm more than happy let those in charge to keep robbing me of £450 every year

 

[Hooligaani]

anyway as a total noob, i was just wondering why you cant make your own graphics card as u would with a motherboard and cpu, like picking your own board to house a gpu, adding your own memory and your own gpu cooling ?, or is there more to it than that.

Tim

You don't really make your own motherboard though do you? You buy an off the shelf motherboard as you do a graphics card. I do see what you mean but GFX cards are manufactured to such tight specifications that picking your own GPU wouldn't work. I think there would be too much latency and also there would be too much room for error.

 

[Sega Mega Dave]

You don't really make your own motherboard though do you? You buy an off the shelf motherboard as you do a graphics card. I do see what you mean but GFX cards are manufactured to such tight specifications that picking your own GPU wouldn't work. I think there would be too much latency and also there would be too much room for error.

I think what he means is why cant you buy a gpu board then add your own memory and gpu. Granted it would never happen but it would be cool.

 

[Tall_Paul]

I would think adding a GPU socket to allow different gpus to be put on would very costly, make the gpu board much bigger, and lets not forget that gpu's are generally different sizes dependent on the model. i.e. a GK110 is very different to a GK104. Not forgetting that with motherboards and cpu's, you have a choice of 10-20 different cpus to install on your motherboard, with 2/4 cores, different speeds, etc etc. If you bought a gpu "motherboard" with a socket to fit GK107's, well you'd have a choice of 1 gpu. Whats the point?

As for RAM, well ignoring that it's completely different ram (GDDR vs DDR) and that the RAM on graphics cards is soldered on, lets try and find space for a couple of ram slots on your typical GPU PCB.... Hmmm. A lot of high end cards already have ram on the back side of the card because they're running out of space.

Then of course Nvidia/AMD would have to start producing gpu cores with pins/sockets which would completely change how they make the cores, and of course the only thing you'll really be able to change is the amount of VRAM (thats if they could make the dimm slots small enough and find somewhere to put them), so all that effort and cost would just allow you to add 2GB more VRAM. Cards would probably cost £600+ as well in total what with the extra cost of production & buying each part separately.

No thanks It would effectively be pointless.

 

[Hooligaani]

No thanks It would effectively be pointless.

That's what I was trying to say

 

[tim68]

Thanks guys. answered my questions.

I started reading a little about integrated graphics, mostly about intel HD4000 and the new haswell cpu's coming soon, from what i have read they wont be challenging the top end discrete cards but do you see them anytime soon being a viable option for the moderate gamer ?.

Tim

 

[Sniper Ash6]

I would think adding a GPU socket to allow different gpus to be put on would very costly, make the gpu board much bigger, and lets not forget that gpu's are generally different sizes dependent on the model. i.e. a GK110 is very different to a GK104. Not forgetting that with motherboards and cpu's, you have a choice of 10-20 different cpus to install on your motherboard, with 2/4 cores, different speeds, etc etc. If you bought a gpu "motherboard" with a socket to fit GK107's, well you'd have a choice of 1 gpu. Whats the point?

As for RAM, well ignoring that it's completely different ram (GDDR vs DDR) and that the RAM on graphics cards is soldered on, lets try and find space for a couple of ram slots on your typical GPU PCB.... Hmmm. A lot of high end cards already have ram on the back side of the card because they're running out of space.

Then of course Nvidia/AMD would have to start producing gpu cores with pins/sockets which would completely change how they make the cores, and of course the only thing you'll really be able to change is the amount of VRAM (thats if they could make the dimm slots small enough and find somewhere to put them), so all that effort and cost would just allow you to add 2GB more VRAM. Cards would probably cost £600+ as well in total what with the extra cost of production & buying each part separately.

No thanks It would effectively be pointless.

This. It would be more expensive and more awkward to.

When you look across the graphics card market you have the following variances:
Processing power
Power circuitry
Cooling capabilities
Outputs
Amount of memory
Memory bus width
Multi-GPU capabilities

By the time you have catered for all of these in a way you aren't getting 90% of the parts returned by those not doing it correctly the added costs will destroy your market.