Just wanted to post something for pure discussion, and see what others think.
This past week, I installed a water block on my GTX480 (Microcenter had it on clearance). While doing so, I was reflecting back on some of my past video cards. Back to the days when the cooling solution for a card was probably a 2"x2" heatsink with a 40mm fan stuck on it. We'd pop off the weenie heatsink and strap on a Blue-Orb, or whatever we could find that was bigger and better. It took almost no time or effort.
Ever since the 8800 series GPU's came out, we've been given pretty much full-encompasing cooling solutions from the factory. While us overclockers may not hold modern stock cooling in the highest regard, you have to admit, it's a far sight more advanced than what you'd find on legacy hardware. I have to imagine, a substantial part of the price we pay in buying a new video card is the material and R/D that went into the stock HSF.
As well, video cards of the past usually came with one or two D-SUB vga ports, and maybe a TV-Out. that was it. Now, we have HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, as well as external adapters for D-SUB vga, and active DP adapter dongles. It's a bit of a mess.
All this got me thinking....every time I buy a graphics card, I'm paying for a cooling solution I don't want. As well, I'm paying for connectors and RAMDAC's that I may or may not have a use for. Seems to me, there's a substantial recurring cost we are penalized with, every time we buy a new video card.
What if it was more common for new graphics cads to come to us customization-ready? No prepackaged cooling solution. We'd have to source one ourselves. And we would have to purchase, for a one-time cost, a separate nVidia/AMD made I/O board that has all the connectivity we want. Have an in-case dongle that connects the I/O board to the graphics card, and away you go. Seems to me, these ideas would reduce the cost of any video card substantially.
Code:
TL:DR
The TL;DR question would be....
What if you could buy a GFX card void of a pre-supplied cooling solution and I/O ports?
Just a pure stripped down graphics processor board with:
-No manufacture applied cooling solution
-No preinstalled I/O Ports, except for one to communicate with a dedicated I/O board
This past week, I installed a water block on my GTX480 (Microcenter had it on clearance). While doing so, I was reflecting back on some of my past video cards. Back to the days when the cooling solution for a card was probably a 2"x2" heatsink with a 40mm fan stuck on it. We'd pop off the weenie heatsink and strap on a Blue-Orb, or whatever we could find that was bigger and better. It took almost no time or effort.
Ever since the 8800 series GPU's came out, we've been given pretty much full-encompasing cooling solutions from the factory. While us overclockers may not hold modern stock cooling in the highest regard, you have to admit, it's a far sight more advanced than what you'd find on legacy hardware. I have to imagine, a substantial part of the price we pay in buying a new video card is the material and R/D that went into the stock HSF.
As well, video cards of the past usually came with one or two D-SUB vga ports, and maybe a TV-Out. that was it. Now, we have HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, as well as external adapters for D-SUB vga, and active DP adapter dongles. It's a bit of a mess.
All this got me thinking....every time I buy a graphics card, I'm paying for a cooling solution I don't want. As well, I'm paying for connectors and RAMDAC's that I may or may not have a use for. Seems to me, there's a substantial recurring cost we are penalized with, every time we buy a new video card.
What if it was more common for new graphics cads to come to us customization-ready? No prepackaged cooling solution. We'd have to source one ourselves. And we would have to purchase, for a one-time cost, a separate nVidia/AMD made I/O board that has all the connectivity we want. Have an in-case dongle that connects the I/O board to the graphics card, and away you go. Seems to me, these ideas would reduce the cost of any video card substantially.