6 ms·

It's been a while since I've built a PC; when did graphics cards physically start looking like they were designed by a five year old?

rocqua 9y ago
That's been the case for at least the last few years, and it's been quite common the last 5 years. It's part of the 'gamer aesthetic'. If I could speculate, I'd suggest they might intentionally do this to push businesses away from consumer-level stuff.
- freeone3000 9y ago
  Businesses shove them in opaque chassis. Businesses don't care. The primary means of pushing businesses away from consumer-level stuff is SKU-ing out nvlink and putting the power connector parallel to the PCI slot instead of perpendicular (makes it a 3.5U server instead of a 3U)
opencl 9y ago
AMD's reference designs still don't look too weird at least. http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2016/06/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/rx480-16b.jpg http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2016/06/amd-radeon...
- gehwartzen 9y ago
  Nice clean design. I get that its largely subjective and comes down to personal preference but I remember being a teen and thinking a graphic card looked cool in their natural state (i.e seeing the PCB, chips and heatsinks/pipes)
  - potatolicious 9y ago
    Sadly this is no longer possible - the plastic shroud actually serves a cooling purpose by directing air out the back of the card rather than blower-style coolers that direct hot air into the rest of the case. But I agree with you, "gamer" hardware aesthetic is grating. It's as if a F-22 and a Nerf Gun decided to have a child together.
    - favorited 9y ago
      The Titan is a blower-style card. Open-air coolers, on the other hand, do result in higher ambient case temperatures but typically keep the graphics card itself cooler blower-style (at lower fan speeds, therefore more quietly as well). Bottom line is there are lots of factors, most significantly case design and cooling strategies for other components.
dasmoth 9y ago
I’d flip this around and ask when did we start expecting kit to be so drab? This thing doesn’t hit the level of having, say, an SGI Onyx beside my desk, but did make me smile. I’ll remember that next time I need GPUs.
muyuu 9y ago
Common for around 10 years, generalised for around 5 years.
croon 9y ago
Also something I've been annoyed with in high end consumer routers for the last 10 years. Most of them have looked like either a cyberpunk spider or a batmobile. Only recently can you avoid it with various manufacturers mesh routers or Ubiquiti units, albeit at low-end business prices.
falcolas 9y ago
It’s mostly a shroud around a few heat pipes, a fan, and a lot of heat sinks. It’s a necessary part since it directs airflow across all the heat sinks and pushes hot air out the back of the card and outside the case; how would you color it?
whywhywhywhy 9y ago
and funnily enough this range is one of the less ridiculous looking ones. The non-Founders Edition cards all look even more like glowing kids toys. Wish they'd ship the a version of the GTX line with the design language of the more boxy looking Quadro cards (M4000 etc).
- dehugger 9y ago
  MSI's Aero lineup looks quite good, very similar to the Quadro cards.There are some simple white lights on the logo, although those can be disabled if they bother you. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V4R81071&cm_re=aero_oc-_-9SIA85V4R81071-_-Product https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V4R81...
theandrewbailey 9y ago
A long time ago. I think these NVidia designs look good. 10 years ago, every card had some (usually) gamer-y character art on them. You'd put them in a case and almost never see them again.
jdietrich 9y ago
I think you have some kind of selective amnesia. Graphics cards have become far more tasteful over the past decade. Consider these gaudy monstrosities, which are entirely representative of the gamer aesthetic circa 2007: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6446_large_8800GT-512DDR3-AMP-P.jpg http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6446_large_8800GT-512DDR3... https://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/2900XT/2900xt.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/2900XT/2900xt... https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/14-102-768-02.jpg https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/14-102-... The gold shroud on the Titan V is a bit bling-bling, but at least the shroud design is part of a consistent design language from NVIDIA.
- madengr 9y ago
  My 9 YO is building a PC for Christmas, so these would be perfect. They just need RGB.

rocqua 9y ago

That's been the case for at least the last few years, and it's been quite common the last 5 years. It's part of the 'gamer aesthetic'. If I could speculate, I'd suggest they might intentionally do this to push businesses away from consumer-level stuff.

freeone3000 9y ago
Businesses shove them in opaque chassis. Businesses don't care. The primary means of pushing businesses away from consumer-level stuff is SKU-ing out nvlink and putting the power connector parallel to the PCI slot instead of perpendicular (makes it a 3.5U server instead of a 3U)

opencl 9y ago

AMD's reference designs still don't look too weird at least. http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2016/06/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/rx480-16b.jpg http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2016/06/amd-radeon...

gehwartzen 9y ago
Nice clean design. I get that its largely subjective and comes down to personal preference but I remember being a teen and thinking a graphic card looked cool in their natural state (i.e seeing the PCB, chips and heatsinks/pipes)
- potatolicious 9y ago
  Sadly this is no longer possible - the plastic shroud actually serves a cooling purpose by directing air out the back of the card rather than blower-style coolers that direct hot air into the rest of the case. But I agree with you, "gamer" hardware aesthetic is grating. It's as if a F-22 and a Nerf Gun decided to have a child together.
  - favorited 9y ago
    The Titan is a blower-style card. Open-air coolers, on the other hand, do result in higher ambient case temperatures but typically keep the graphics card itself cooler blower-style (at lower fan speeds, therefore more quietly as well). Bottom line is there are lots of factors, most significantly case design and cooling strategies for other components.

dasmoth 9y ago

I’d flip this around and ask when did we start expecting kit to be so drab? This thing doesn’t hit the level of having, say, an SGI Onyx beside my desk, but did make me smile. I’ll remember that next time I need GPUs.

muyuu 9y ago

Common for around 10 years, generalised for around 5 years.

croon 9y ago

Also something I've been annoyed with in high end consumer routers for the last 10 years. Most of them have looked like either a cyberpunk spider or a batmobile. Only recently can you avoid it with various manufacturers mesh routers or Ubiquiti units, albeit at low-end business prices.

falcolas 9y ago

It’s mostly a shroud around a few heat pipes, a fan, and a lot of heat sinks. It’s a necessary part since it directs airflow across all the heat sinks and pushes hot air out the back of the card and outside the case; how would you color it?

whywhywhywhy 9y ago

and funnily enough this range is one of the less ridiculous looking ones. The non-Founders Edition cards all look even more like glowing kids toys. Wish they'd ship the a version of the GTX line with the design language of the more boxy looking Quadro cards (M4000 etc).

dehugger 9y ago
MSI's Aero lineup looks quite good, very similar to the Quadro cards.There are some simple white lights on the logo, although those can be disabled if they bother you. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V4R81071&cm_re=aero_oc-_-9SIA85V4R81071-_-Product https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA85V4R81...

theandrewbailey 9y ago

A long time ago. I think these NVidia designs look good. 10 years ago, every card had some (usually) gamer-y character art on them. You'd put them in a case and almost never see them again.

jdietrich 9y ago

I think you have some kind of selective amnesia. Graphics cards have become far more tasteful over the past decade. Consider these gaudy monstrosities, which are entirely representative of the gamer aesthetic circa 2007: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6446_large_8800GT-512DDR3-AMP-P.jpg http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6446_large_8800GT-512DDR3... https://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/2900XT/2900xt.jpg https://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/2900XT/2900xt... https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/14-102-768-02.jpg https://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/14-102-... The gold shroud on the Titan V is a bit bling-bling, but at least the shroud design is part of a consistent design language from NVIDIA.

madengr 9y ago
My 9 YO is building a PC for Christmas, so these would be perfect. They just need RGB.