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Nah, modern GPUs are already absolutely packed with buck converters, to convert 12v down to 2v or so. Look at the PCB of a 4090 GPU; you can find plenty of ima
by michaelt 2y ago
Nah, modern GPUs are already absolutely packed with buck converters, to convert 12v down to 2v or so.
Look at the PCB of a 4090 GPU; you can find plenty of images of people removing the heatsink to fit water blocks. They literally have 24 separate transistors and inductors, all with thermal pads so they can be cooled by the heatsink.
The industry could change to 48v if they wanted to - although with ATX3.0 and the 16-pin 12VHPWR cable being so recent, I'd be surprised if they wanted to.
- ta988 2y agoOf course there is, same on motherboards and to a smaller extent hard drives.
- BizarroLand 2y agoThey could make a new spec for graphics cards and have a 24v/48v rail for them on a new unique connector. I guess the problem is not only designing the cards to run on the higher voltages but also getting AMD and Intel on board because otherwise no manufacturer is going to make the new power supplies.
- nyrikki 2y agoIIRC the patchwork of laws, standards and regulations across the world for low voltage wiring is what restricted voltage in the 36 V – 52 V range. Some locations treating it as low, some as an intermediate and others treated it as high voltage. It may be marine market specific, but several manufacturers limit to 36v for even high amperage motors because of it. Obviously I=V/R will force this in the future though.
- masklinn 2y agoUSB PD can go up to 48V so I'd assume that's fine from a regulatory standpoint. Going from 12V to 48 means you can get 600W through an 8-pin with a 190% safety factor, as opposed to melting your 12VHPWR.
- BizarroLand 2y agoNot even to mention the fact that the SXM format Nvidia cards have been running on 48-52v power for a few years already.