Innodisk releases a 4K capable M.2 graphics card

[HEXUS]

This 2280 card is based upon the Silicon Motion SM768 GPU and supports up 4K@30Hz.

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[afiretruck]

It would be great if this kind of technology came to laptops, but I doubt it would actually happen.

[darcotech]

OK, here we go:

But can it run Crysis? No.

[PC-LAD]

Cool, but we have been using x1 in laptops for external cards for a long time now. so if they start using x4 gen4 pcie through m.2 for graphics that should be the equivernant to "X8, eww" based on predicted transfer numbers from PLDA. So theoreticaly we could have cards other than mxm (Full X16) that are dead.

[Usernamist]

It would be great if this kind of technology came to laptops, but I doubt it would actually happen.

Why is that? Laptops and tablets seem like the other perfect application of this

[Glyce]

It would be great if this kind of technology came to laptops, but I doubt it would actually happen.

Why is that? Laptops and tablets seem like the other perfect application of this

Not unless they really up their game. But... how would the cooling be done? Laptop gfx cards have eatpipes running through them, a M.2 is a movable part and it wouldn't be possible for the eatpipes to properly connect to it.

So short answer is no, this is not a realistic upgrade for a PC, they will always be low power, low profile, mini gfx cards used only to boot up a system replacing a very low end PCI card.

Any laptop should have a gfx card better than this. If it doesn't, them its not likely worth the "upgrade" either.

[EvilCycle]

I wouldn't rubbish this off just yet, they will become more powerful and useful for more and more applications as the tech is refined. We are not going to see a gaming card, or any real consumer card for that matter like this soon, but automated systems (as per the article) and very basic office laptops/tablets that don't require any 3d rendering could benefit from the smaller form factor definitely.

[wazzickle]

Not unless they really up their game. But... how would the cooling be done? Laptop gfx cards have eatpipes running through them, a M.2 is a movable part and it wouldn't be possible for the eatpipes to properly connect to it.

So short answer is no, this is not a realistic upgrade for a PC, they will always be low power, low profile, mini gfx cards used only to boot up a system replacing a very low end PCI card.

Any laptop should have a gfx card better than this. If it doesn't, them its not likely worth the "upgrade" either.

Mechanically this is not a particularly difficult fix - the modularity and the ability to dissipate heat are not incompatible. The question is going to be how much heat - m.2 ssds typically run the hottest out of most components in a system (unless you're OCing) so I do wonder how hot an M.2 GPU is going to run.

[plexabit]

Mechanically this is not a particularly difficult fix - the modularity and the ability to dissipate heat are not incompatible. The question is going to be how much heat - m.2 ssds typically run the hottest out of most components in a system (unless you're OCing) so I do wonder how hot an M.2 GPU is going to run.

I don't see why some small active cooling (with external power, probably) couldn't be applied to an m.2 card.

[EvilCycle]

There are already cooling solutions for M.2 out there, but that would then negate the point of the smaller form factor, I get the impression from the article that they are designing systems with M.2 cards running hot in mind.

[3dcandy]

Newer embedded SoC's have great gfx engines. Wouldn't be too hard to cool them with 7nm coming on stream now. I reckon AMD would be good to get in on this

[Nifl]

Don't see this getting out of its niche market. Too many restricting factors and you have to route the cables somewhere. Easier to just use an external GPU or a different device whenever you need something more powerful.

[3dcandy]

Don't see this getting out of its niche market. Too many restricting factors and you have to route the cables somewhere. Easier to just use an external GPU or a different device whenever you need something more powerful.

I can see plenty of useages. ITX systems that support multi monitors/displays?

[wickedn]

this would be good for gpu computing on laptops

[Seeven]

imho is useless, why i would want to replace my intel graphics with this? they are both gaming incacpable, and kinda useless. If you have to use on of this, any kind of graphics is good for you

[876HX]

I think other manufacturers will do similar things and make things like m.2 based sound cards, capture cards for small PCs.