1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,520 There's nothing like unboxing a shiny new graphics card, but they're just so bulky. 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:10,760 Why is it that we can't just buy the GPU by itself and slot it directly onto our motherboard, 3 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:16,480 like we do for CPUs? It turns out there are a lot of reasons that it's just not that simple, and a big one 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:23,160 is power. You see, a mid-to-high-end discrete GPU draws lots of power to the point where it's typically 5 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,680 the single most power-hungry component in your system. 6 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:31,320 And you can see this if you look at a graphics card with the cooler removed. 7 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:35,340 Many of those little components that you see all over the board are dedicated to power 8 00:00:35,340 --> 00:00:40,160 delivery and voltage regulation, which is part of the reason that graphics cards tend 9 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:46,800 to be quite large. Putting these components onto the motherboard would not only make it larger, but also significantly 10 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,800 more expensive. But that's far from the only logistical concern. 11 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:58,440 Another big one is memory. You see, although integrated graphics can share your system's standard DDR RAM, and 12 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:04,280 some lower-end discrete GPUs actually use dedicated but still run-of-the-mill DDR, mid 13 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:10,640 and higher-range options use special video RAM called GDDR, with the G being for graphics. 14 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:16,240 GDDR is higher bandwidth because it's designed to handle large chunks of data, such as the 15 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,960 visual assets and textures that your GPU is continually asking for. 16 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:26,440 By contrast, normal DDR is better at handling smaller pieces of data, so it doesn't have 17 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,920 as much bandwidth, but its latency is lower. 18 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:34,960 This means that if you were to put a relatively powerful GPU directly onto a motherboard, 19 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:40,520 you would also need to build in dedicated GDDR memory, which would, you guessed it, 20 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,840 make the motherboard even bigger and even more expensive. 21 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,840 Now, hypothetically, you could design this video memory or VRAM to be slotted in rather 22 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:54,160 than soldered directly to the graphics card, but this actually has the possibility of increasing 23 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:59,040 the rate of data errors, which is a big part of the reason that all modern graphics cards 24 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:06,080 use soldered-on VRAM. Another huge hurdle to having a GPU socket on your motherboard is the socket itself. 25 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:11,040 You know how AMD and Intel CPUs use completely different socket designs? 26 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,200 And even within AMD or within Intel, you end up having to upgrade your motherboard ever 27 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,360 so often when they decide to change the pin layout? 28 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:24,920 Well, you would have the same problem with a GPU socket, but arguably worse, as there 29 00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:31,400 are now three discrete GPU manufacturers with Intel entering the fray, and GPU architectures 30 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:36,600 tend to be updated more frequently and more dramatically than on the CPU side, meaning 31 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,760 that motherboards would go out of date much more quickly, not to mention that you'd be 32 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:47,000 locked into one CPU vendor and one GPU vendor every time you bought a new one. 33 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,240 None of this even mentions that all those different GPUs would necessitate different 34 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,360 amounts of power delivery and VRAM. 35 00:02:55,360 --> 00:03:00,320 So you'd either have the problem where you'd need a stupidly huge lineup of different motherboards 36 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:04,760 from every manufacturer to accommodate all these different variations, or you'd have 37 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,800 to over-engineer every motherboard with enough power and memory to support the entire GPU 38 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:14,080 stack, which might put you in a position where you'd have to consider selling organs for 39 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:19,680 a motherboard. Finally, there's the reality that although graphics cards are hot commodities with gamers, 40 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:24,400 there are many more people out there that don't need a powerful GPU, meaning that motherboards 41 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,880 with GPU sockets on them would be relegated to a very niche market due to how expensive 42 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,880 they'd be, giving manufacturers even less of an incentive to make them. 43 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:36,520 So for the time being, if you want a GPU on your motherboard, it's probably only going 44 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,820 to happen in a laptop or other specialized device. 45 00:03:39,820 --> 00:03:43,760 On the desktop, it's just so much cheaper and easier for them to continue doing what 46 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:49,440 they've been doing, slotting them into universally compatible, inexpensive PCI Express slots. 47 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,960 And besides, do you really want to strap another cooler to your motherboard? 48 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,960 What you really want to do is subscribe. Yes, the video's over. 49 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:57,460 Bye-bye.