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PCIe 4.0 and potentially ditching power cables

SKYMTL

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What wasn't discussed is how you actually GET 300W+ to the socket. You can't do that through standard on-board traces.
 

Sagath

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Theory is great. Application is another story.

300W to any device is a LOT. Most laptops draw ~60W just for a reference frame.

300W@12V is 25 amps. This is a massive amount of push. Think of volts as a pipe diameter. Think of amps as water throughput. With the size of traces (not even accounting for the engineering behind inductive and capacitive problems) on current motherboards I dont see it as possible. Look at the power circuitry designed to support a 6700k on any current motherboard. Its ~95W, with a lot of amps (lower voltage, higher amps, P=I*E).

I'm sure they can do it, but we're talking about massive infrastructure upgrades to a motherboard, not even accounting for the GPU changes that need to be made.
 

FreeKnight

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Theory is great. Application is another story.

300W to any device is a LOT. Most laptops draw ~60W just for a reference frame.

300W@12V is 25 amps. This is a massive amount of push. Think of volts as a pipe diameter. Think of amps as water throughput. With the size of traces (not even accounting for the engineering behind inductive and capacitive problems) on current motherboards I dont see it as possible. Look at the power circuitry designed to support a 6700k on any current motherboard. Its ~95W, with a lot of amps (lower voltage, higher amps, P=I*E).

I'm sure they can do it, but we're talking about massive infrastructure upgrades to a motherboard, not even accounting for the GPU changes that need to be made.

I don't doubt changes are needed. If I had to guess, I doubt any MB would support the max. I could see potential boards allowing up to a certain draw, not enough for a dualgpu on a single slot or something as power hungry as the 4XX series when it came out.

But a guy can hope :D
 

KaptCrunch

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25amps = 10 gauge (.102 inch) wee smaller than 1/8

if they build a MB with that then would make a thicker PCB and a lot heavier also the PCI-e socket contacts would be a lot beefier
 

Sagath

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Maybe if they built it out of gold instead of copper.

Well. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume this was meant tongue-in-cheek. :whistle:

If not: Resistance over the kinds of distances we're talking, with the volts and amp loads we're talking, has very little impact on the bottom line.

It is a similar argument to the audiophile market about 'gold plated' this, and that. The resistance difference is literally negligible.
 

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