Why does CPU power go down while GPU power go up?

[jchen012]

It seems like with every new generation of hardware, CPU power consumption goes down. We saw a huge drop from the Pentium Ds to Conroe. And now with 45nm coming soon, it should go down as well. But how come GPU consumption just keeps going up and up? Why aren't the GPU chips along the same lines as CPU chips? I mean, GPU chips have been getting smaller in nm, yet their power consumption just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I just got used to using the 6 pin PCI Express plug and now there is an 8 pin? And the new 2900xt is going to require 200 watts? What's going on?

 

[Sinister Crayon]

It's the same thing that happened with the Pentium series. It was one giant GHz race and power/heat/efficiency wasn't really that important. They just turned that around with the Core 2 duo.

Eventually, nVidia and ATi might get the big picture as well.

 

[Joga]

GPU performance is growing at a much faster pace than CPU performance is. Intel and AMD can afford to take a more leisurely pace towards increasing CPU performance (and can take the time to increase efficiency while they're at it), whereas ATI and Nvidia are hurtling at breakneck speeds towards faster and more powerful GPU's because there is much money to be made if they can capture the enthusiast market.

Despite their high power usage, modern video cards are actually extremely well engineered and power efficient. An 8800GTX is almost twice as powerful as a 7900GTX, but it certainly doesn't use twice as much electricity.

 

[Odin75]

And also besides getting more power hungry,they get BIGGER. I mean, the 8800GTX size is just ridiculous. Is it ever going to stop.

 

[leSLIe]

CMOS chips are very inefficient devices less than 10%, the rest is dissipated as heat

 

[dot_Zen]

Moore's Law. Accelerated.