GPU's - Isn't it about time they shipped bare?

[Agent]

This is the kind of thing the EU loves to meddle in surely? Standardised, one-size fits all heatsink interfaces will be on their way as soon as brussels installs a gamer into office

Ha!

To be honest most standardisation over the years has been good. Thank goodness phone chargers are fairly sane now.

[minicale]

Hmm. The cynic in me surfaces, here. Is it about warranty invalidation?

That would probably be a factor but some like EVGA allow you to change the cooler I think that another big part is that because they wouldn't be able to test the card and try and factory overclock it without a cooler installed and they don't want to have to put a cooler on to test it to then take it back off.

[watercooled]

That isn't necessary anyway - look at CPUs.

[Noxvayl]

Great OP Agent, agree with you completely. I water cool my system and would love the cost saving of paying for a waterblock once and then using it for the rest of its life which is longer than 10 years if you take care of it. I plan on getting a block, that is currently universal, which cools only the GPU and use mini heatsinks on the RAM. That way I get to pay for a good GPU cooler once and use it multiple times because of good design and forward thinking. If that were the norm then I would be overjoyed, however, I suspect that companies would charge a similar amount for a bare SKU as they do for one with a heatsink because they would need to make up the cost of losing sales when the specification changes, very slightly.

Being a cycnic at the age of 26 is depressing, but here we go:

I figure that the change in specification through different generations allows board partners to "add value" by selling you something that doesn't actually add value but rather changes things slightly. This works for heatsink sellers like Arctic Cooling, waterblock sellers like EK and all sorts of redundant third parties riding the gravy train that might not exist if common sense prevailed and things were standardised. Second hand water cooling kits is the best way to go because it offers great value for money and often, with graphics cards especially, you get the waterblock included with the card about 30% less than the card cost new (usually 1-2 years old). To me that is a bargain but it would never exist with standardisation. That one GPU block that was universal would cost hundreds of pounds rather than less than £100 if it were to be used for multiple generations, or even and infinite amount of generations.

Getting even more cynical I could imagine waterblocks degrading in quality because they currently last too long and don't break in time for the purchaser to buy a new one in time for the company to turn a profit. Perhaps a stretch but if standardisation were to come in and you transplanted stuff easily then manufacturers would loose business quickly with people not buying something after every generation.

Going back to normal mode:

I think it would be much better to have both SKUs without a heatsink and 3 year turn around time for new GPU generations. That way each new generation will be a proper new leap forward rather than the incremental steps we currently get and you would have a healthier second hand market with people buying things on the cheap 1 generation behind most other users happy to spend money on their machine once every 3 years. I tend to skip generations which fits in nicely with a 3 year cycle, and it means I can maintain top end equipment at a fraction of the cost. I do it not because it is better but because it is more monetarily economical for me to maintain the level of performance I want with my computer. 3 years happens to be Microsoft's choice for new operating systems as well, so it could tie in with that and generate massive sales once every 3 years.

[mrham4321]

I would be surprised if this was ever implemented for varying reasons, not least that waterblock compatibility is for a minority of users.

[Agent]

I would be surprised if this was ever implemented for varying reasons, not least that waterblock compatibility is for a minority of users.

This really has nothing to do with waterblocks. In the same way as a CPU not including a HSF has nothing to do with them.

[jim]

It really would be the death of the manufacturers, wouldn't it?

I can't think of a particularly good reason why this shouldn't be possible, but I imagine that it would be very difficult for AMD/nVidia to push through.

Firstly, I suspect EVGA/Gigabyte/ASUS etc would be fuming.

But also, the more I think about it - would consumers actually go for it? I mean, right now, it's perfectly possible to buy reference cards and fit a third-party cooler - and it's, what, say 1% of the market? If nVidia offered a reference card, minus the cooler, by how much would it actually drop the price?

My gut feeling is that the price difference would wind up being so small that people would still end up buying the pre-fitted models, whether they be reference or custom.

[mrham4321]

This really has nothing to do with waterblocks. In the same way as a CPU not including a HSF has nothing to do with them.

I dunno, I feel manufacturers always come under pressure to provide compatibility. If a GPU manufacturer came out with an un-water-block-able PCB design, they'd be slated and people would tell others not to buy it, even though it's fine.