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Graphic Cards Might Move Into Separate Cases Ati is the first ever to think the unthinkable	By Ionut Ciocirlie, Hardware Editor 18th of December 2006, 11:27 GMT Adjust text size:


In case you thought you read it wrong, let me repeat this for you: Ati is thinking of moving the graphics adapters outside the box. And in this statement, box means computer case. To put it simple, Ati is thinking of building an external case just for the graphics adapter. With the launch of every new generation of graphic cards, the power requirements and the cooling methods go up a bit. And it seems that the current generation of GPUs is almost at the level where it won't be possible for the manufacturers to develop a discrete desktop solution anymore. Multi chip graphic platforms could produce a solution, but it seems that the interconnections between the GPUs are a real bottleneck. Nvidia has succeeded in offering a discrete solution based on the G80 GPU but that wasn't easy. And Ati's R600 who will probably run at a higher clock rate is even harder to cool down, especially because the presence of 512-bit memory doesn't help. Add all these facts and you'll soon realize that discrete graphic cards may come to a quick end if the clock speeds will increase any further. AMD-Ati is indeed working on multi-GPU platforms but the engineers are also rumored to work on separate boxes that will contain dedicated cooling and PSUs for VGA cards. A special form of Hyper Transport link will act as a high-speed PCIE connector. Because DAAMIT has said nothing about this, I can only comment on the fact that such a device will translate into redesigning everything related to the inside of the case from the motherboard to the cooling system. I don't know if the project will actually take shape or not, but something should come out of this madness sooner or later.

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