News GPU's built-in gyro & accelerometer tell you if the card isn't level — ROG Astral GPU battles card sag with software-monitored feature

[Admin]

Asus activated the built-in gyro and accelerometer in its ROG Astral GPUs to warn you if its sagging.

GPU's built-in gyro & accelerometer tell you if the card isn't level — ROG Astral GPU battles card sag with software-monitored feature : Read more

 

[CelicaGT]

The slot PCIe interface, GPU mounting and power deliver need a rethink. Slot in cards, going back to the original IBM PC ('81) were meant to be mounted a horizontal motherboard, not vertical. Nor were 3kg 35cm+ 600W monstrosities foreseen when the tower form factor became the de facto enthusiast PC standard. Unfortunately there is over 40 years of momentum behind the slot in card form factor. It will take some bandaid ripping to abandon it.

(Edit: Words, meaning, coffee)

 

[Konomi]

Asus should implement these sensors in humans too, as sagging is a common occurrence as we age.

 

[CelicaGT]

Asus should implement these sensors in humans too, as sagging is a common occurrence as we age.

Don't I know it.

 

[drivinfast247]

Maybe they should implement a sensor that monitors if the GPU power cable is melting.

 

[CelicaGT]

As an aside, laptop GPU's have had this functionality for a while now. If moved, the GPU will preemptively clock down, reducing power consumption. The best explanation I got was to protect the system in case the mains power is suddenly disconnected. Most batteries cannot supply enough amperage to supply some dGPU's in full swing. It makes sense, but it's also annoying if you ever use a lap desk for gaming.

 

[usertests]

The slot PCIe interface, GPU mounting and power deliver need a rethink. Slot in cards, going back to the original IBM PC ('81) were meant to be mounted a horizontal motherboard, not vertical. Nor were 3kg 35cm+ 600W monstrosities foreseen when the tower form factor became the de facto enthusiast PC standard. Unfortunately there is over 40 years of momentum behind the slot in card form factor. It will take some bandaid ripping to abandon it.

"Easy" fixes include using motherboards horizontally, you can definitely find such cases on the market, mounting the card using a vertical bracket and riser cable, using APUs instead of discrete graphics, or using more modest graphics cards. As we progress through to 3D nodes in a decade or two, maybe power consumption will be forced back down. Maybe not.

Maybe there's something ready to displace PCIe that could be taken from enterprise products? But even CXL uses PCIe.

 

[thestryker]

Maybe they should implement a sensor that monitors if the GPU power cable is melting.

While I know this is just nvidia aimed snark, deservedly so, the Astral cards do have per pin power monitoring and will alert you if the amperage is beyond safe limits (software based and I believe hwinfo added the sensors as well if one didn't want to use Asus software).

 

[CelicaGT]

"Easy" fixes include using motherboards horizontally, you can definitely find such cases on the market, mounting the card using a vertical bracket and riser cable, using APUs instead of discrete graphics, or using more modest graphics cards. As we progress through to 3D nodes in a decade or two, maybe power consumption will be forced back down. Maybe not.

Maybe there's something ready to displace PCIe that could be taken from enterprise products? But even CXL uses PCIe.

Agreed on all fronts. In regards to creating a new "Universal Modular GPU" standard I believe it would be quite difficult and expensive, probably doing away with the slot mount altogether. The thermal solution would be the most difficult to deal with, slot mounting, for all its downsides, allows a lot of room for large heatsinks and fans. Even while they impede internal case airflow (easily dealt with).

I am a very deductive person (I am a professional diagnostician, I even get paid do do it) and not very creative generally (excluding sarcastic quips), thus I struggle to visualize completely what any proper solution might look like. Just some random ideas that solve specific problems whilst probably introducing several more hehe!

 

[edzieba]

The big problems you will run up against in changing the slot architecture for GPUs (or any other AIC) is cost. Card-edge connectors are extremely cheap (on the AIC side, almost free as you need a host PCB anyway). Connectors with sufficient bandwidth for PCIe have very much nonzero BoM cost, and you need to not just eat that cost yourself, but also convince every motherboard manufacturer to eat that cost too. It's the same reason we're stuck with 12V as the ATX standard rather than switching to 48VDC (as used on DC hardware) and cutting current to a quarter for the same power - you need to convince a lot of different involved parties to spend more money to produce the same result.

As for this 'sag detector': an IMU is a crude proxy, better would be to add strain gauges to the PCB itself and monitor board warp directly regardless of orientation. Might be cheaper, or at least a wash in terms of BoM cost (eliminate the IMU, might need to add a precision voltage meter if you do not have enough channels left on the chip already measuring supply voltages).

 

[jp7189]

SXM is already a thing and doesn't have a sagging problem. There are versions that can power and cool 700W. Will that eventually trickle down to us mere mortals? Only time will tell.