Graphics Remember this? Mobile graphics in desktop

http://www.dvhardware.net/article9642.html

Something like this for the latest generation of mobile graphics cards could be interesting for a low-power, low noise gaming rig. What do you think?

 

Low power gaming rig?

 

errr... yes, mobile GPUs do seem to use a lot less power than ordinary desktop. Never going to be ultimate high end, but that's not the point is it? Saving electricity is good.

 

Yes, because saving 1$ per year is totally worth it.

 

Tbh, I think the reverse makes more sense - external desktop gpu for a laptop.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

 

Agreed, I still like the idea of this!

 

Wasn't there an Asus mobo that let you use Pentium M CPUs with an adapter? Reminds me of that.

EDIT: Found it, not exactly what I thought it was.. But still crazy!

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=mBAPSWAkvMBp6tue

 

Exactly.

It would amount to quite a good bit more than that actually.
Typically a mobile GPU these days consume about 45W, which means for two cards in SLI that figure would total to 90W. Compare that to two desktop high-end cards in SLI which can consume upwards of 300W each. Now imagine we combine that mobile GPU desktop card with a mobile CPU, a small form-factor motherboard and an SSD and we've got a very energy efficient rig capable of gaming on an acceptable level. At least potentially.

How much would this save us in electricity each year? Anyone care to calculate this?

 

Yes, and you would have the performance of a ~3-5 year old computer at best (this is with an SLI setup with mobile chips)
Beside Alienware laptops comes with 240W power supply. Usually PSU match very closely to what the system consumes under load. Yes it's still less than a desktop, but again, performance is not even close to a computer today.

 

That's a saving of 210 watt - which pr. day after 6 hours of gaming will be:

8 * 210 = 1680 Wh.

Let's say you game 250 days a year - it would be 1680*250 = 420 kWh's pr. year.

 

210 watts compared to what exactly? Why are you comparing a pair of neutered laptop GPUs to two(!) GTX480s? You don't even get 10% of the performance (statistic pulled out of my arse)

 

Yes, mobile GPUs namely consume less power - partly because they aren't as fast as the desktop versions of the "same" cards. Just pop a lower spec model in the PC instead and you're golden. No need to mess around with any of these oddball creatures.

 

That is interesting.
I see numerous laptops being touted as "gaming laptops", but I've never had the opportunity to mess around with one so I am not sure as to what the performance is like. I did not, of course, expect performance with two mobile GTX285s to be on par with my gaming desktop with 285 SLI, but I did sort of expect it to be close. I did not know mobile GPUs were that neutered, which brings up another issue; how then, does the performance of mobile CPUs compare to the desktop models of the same spec? I have never seen laptops as a viable alternative - true - but stumbling onto that particular "oddball creature" got me thinking. I would not swap my current setup for something like that, but for some energy efficient, low noise rig sitting in the living room? That's a different matter.

Oh, and I like messing around with oddball creatures.

 

How can I calculate the power consumption of my laptop? The power brick says 19V and 3.42A, does that mean it consumes 65W? I don't know anything about electricity.. Forgot that stuff after high school physics.

 

A pair of laptop GPUs with tiny whiny fans on each of them would hardly be low-noise i'd think.

 

Look above ^^

 

That didn't answer my question at all. It's easy to have a lower power consumption when you're doing nowhere near the ammount of work. Then why not save 100% of the power by not having a computer at all?

 

Whilst on the face of it this idea seems feasible we do need to consider the relative performance of these mobile parts compared to their desktop equivilants.

The HD6970m, which has a TDP of 75w (GPU only - AMD don't divulge the total power draw of the MXM module unlike Nvidia) is basically a downclocked HD6850 desktop card. Whilst gaming the HD6850 only draws ~ 150w anyway so the saving when gaming is not going to be as great as, say, comparing the HD6970m to a desktop running dual GTX480's in SLI.

On the Nvidia side we have the GTX485m with a TDP of 100w (full MXM module), this is a downclocked GTX560TI yet performs in the same ballpark as the HD6970m. As with the HD6970m this GPU's desktop equivilant only draws around 200w when gaming.

Idle power draw will obviously be lower on the mobile parts but the desktop parts are hardly muching power in this instance either.

Finally we come onto cost. The mobile GPU's available on seperate MXM modules are extremely expensive - circa £300+ for a HD6970m - this would nulify any potential energy savings you would see by running the mobile parts instead of their desktop equivilants.

To sum up (sounds like a report of some kind...), whilst the idea is sound, the practical application hits massive hurdles right out of the gate.

 

You'd save the energy itself, just not money.

 

Same story.
Example, in term of real world performance, my laptop which feature Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (last Core 2 Duo generation), a 2.2GHz processor. The performance is a bit faster than my 2005 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Socket 939 2.2GHz (don't be fooled, it's a really fast CPU at the time, and massacre by far any Intel offering until they released the Core 2 Duo series high end model). My laptop is 2 over years old.

So, the gap is really big.