New EU Energy Guidelines Could Cripple High-End Graphics Cards

[btarunr]

One of the biggest consumer electronics markets, EU strictly regulates materials, radio-emissions, and energy-efficiency of consumer electronics items eligible for sale in its member states. A new such energy-efficiency regulation is taking shape that specifically mandates integrated graphics cores and discrete graphics cards to live up to certain energy standards. This has GPU maker AMD worried that it could affect next-generation chips, as they could be barred from sales in the EU.

The EU classifies graphics cards on the basis of on-board memory bandwidth, which is a reliable means of segregating the various market segments. The various classes are tabled below. The top tier "G7" is classified as graphics cards with 128 GB/s or above memory bandwidth. EU wants to cap graphics cards from achieving bandwidths above 320 GB/s (possible with 6.67 GHz at 384-bit width, or 5.00 GHz at 512-bit width). The EU sees memory bandwidth as proportionate to power-consumption. It's possible that the EU sees today's hardware more than sufficiently fast to handle games, and every new generation that increases performance does so with increases in power-consumption. With the sheer size of the EU market, GPU makers could be deterred from making low-volume high-performance products for the rest of the world as well.



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[btarunr]

If true, this is bullshit. I don't know what else to say, but this is bullshit.

 

[HammerON]

^^^^Agree 100%
shadedshu:shadedshu

 

[Depth]

Workaround: Release solid cards underclocked, allowing end users to overclock past the cap.

 

[btarunr]

Workaround: Release solid cards underclocked, allowing end users to overclock past the cap.

http://uberhumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Untitled-1129.png

EU will ensure there are physical barriers to that (such as no more than two 6-pin power inputs, weak VRM, etc.).

 

[1d10t]

good,so we now that future AMD graphics cards could deliver 320 GB/s

OT,this is a joke.why EU limiting specific object in niche market such a high end graphics card?say 1 out of 10 people having this card,and that will depleted all energy resources in EU?great,now please banned all psu above 750W

or it's pushed by nVidia because they couldn't reach that high

 

[Depth]

EU will ensure there are physical barriers to that (such as no more than two 6-pin power inputs, weak VRM, etc.).

This means power-users will buy two cards instead to get what they want, making the entire cap completely useless.

What bright moron thought of this?

 

[cadaveca]

EU will ensure there are physical barriers to that (such as no more than two 6-pin power inputs, weak VRM, etc.).

document date:

2005.


today's date?


2012.



This idea:

 

[Peter1986C]

Zombie news.

 

[cdawall]

My only response to the EU nonsense

 

[cadaveca]

Zombie news.

No, it's not.


It is simply refering to updates to this same document, planned to be enacted in the near future, apprantly.

Forcing OEMs to stick within a specific power budget for specfic devices could potentially lead to greater innovation, and then lead to us getting better products.


However, that document needs some serious updates anyway, methinks.

 

[Batou1986]

I think it would be quite simple for any or all manufacturers to plead there case that memory bandwidth does not equate directly to power consumption therefor there regulatory standard is defunct.

In which case they would all agree to change the standard for measuring power consumption.

 

[SIGSEGV]

Forcing OEMs to stick within a specific power budget for specfic devices could potentially lead to greater innovation, and then lead to us getting better products.

exactly,
let's take the positive side of this news, make a better world for tomorrow


go green

 

[VulkanBros]

Bullshit.....there is always a workaround for things like that.....

I´ll simply buy my cards in the US or Australia ......

The only positive site could be, as stated in posts before, that it will lead to
better innovations...hopefully....

 

[Depth]

Bullshit.....there is always a workaround for things like that.....

I´ll simply buy my cards in the US or Australia ......

With the sheer size of the EU market, GPU makers could be deterred from making low-volume high-performance products for the rest of the world as well.

When one huge multinational/multicorporal establishment suffer, the rest will suffer as well. The collapse of the Euro will be the downfall of us all.

 

[Covert_Death]

thats just stupid. lets just regulate power efficiency instead... at least that would encourage innovation instead of this market crippling crap

thats like saying we are going to block all sales of CPU's that are clocked higher than 4Ghz cause dats gonna drain da power.... derp

im just failing to see how bandwidth relates to EFFICIENCY, i see how it relates to power draw but not efficiency

 

[R_1]

Well, 50 years from now or 50 years from 2050 EU will go thermonuclear , generating electricity in ITER type power stations. Till then fossils are bad for your health , so some restriction should be imposed otherwise our atmosphere and Earth climate will sustain irreversible damage from exponential growth of waste disposal.

 

[AphexDreamer]

So what if its more power? That doesn't mean stop using power or cut things that use a little to much it means find safer, smarter and better forms of alternative energy.

Banning the incandescent light bulb makes sense, but this is just odd. Perhaps intel is behind this.

 

[btarunr]

Banning the incandescent light bulb makes sense, but this is just odd. Perhaps intel is behind this.

Or console makers, but there's definitely a lobby behind this.

EU doesn't ban sportscars despite their low fuel-efficiency. There's no limit to how powerful a sportscar can get*, most of them are designed and made in the EU.

*there are emission standards but those don't pose a minimum limit for fuel-efficiency to be met.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

So long as the clueless EU "specialists" don't know about SLI/Crossfire, then we are saved by multislot

This also applies to "consumer" products. Nothing said about industrial boards

 

[RejZoR]

EU usually makes good decisions but what the fuck were they thinking here?! Has no one at whatever department this was, checked the power consumption graphs of the gfx cards from the last decade? Even though they can now pull 300W of power under full load, in idle, they use FAR less then any older gfx card ever did. Just look at new HD7000 with ZeroCore tech. When i bought HD5850 it was twice as fast as HD48770 that i had before. With exactly the same power consumption if not even a bit less. When i'm on desktop, i bet HD7950 that i have now uses less power than any other GFX card that i've used in the past. Despite the fact it's a 1,1GHz monstrosity with 3GB of 6GHz memory. When you increase output while decreasing consumtion is someting that i call improved efficiency. Also look at the portable devices. Everyone are so obssessed with low power consumption and they bring all of that tech to desktop and non portable devices as well.

So limiting gfx cards based on bandwidth (lol?) to make power consumption lower makes no sense.

 

[blibba]

The EU tends to "forget" decadent products with this kind of legislation. For example, you have car makers like Aston Martin looking at producing small, crap cars to reduce average emissions across their range.

But this seems especially poorly thought through, because it would effectively gimp technological progress without necessarily having much to do with efficiency. Hopefully it never sees the light of day, or can be campaigned against otherwise.

(Incidentally, I am overall pro-EU, in case I happen to give the opposite impression. The good stuff outweighs the occasional bureaucratic incompetence.)

So long as the clueless EU "specialists" don't know about SLI/Crossfire, then we are saved by multislot

Bandwidth will still present a bottleneck.

 

[mediasorcerer]

Is this true, or serious?

Meanwhile the buearocrats run mansions with 5000million lights on, heaters in every room, ten cars per family member, yachts, etc etc etc, what a joke.

 

[dirtysouth_boy]

I'm glad I don't live in the EU! Pretty soon they'll be telling you how much air you can breath in a single day over there.

 

[RejZoR]

The EU tends to "forget" decadent products with this kind of legislation. For example, you have car makers like Aston Martin looking at producing small, crap cars to reduce average emissions across their range.

But this seems especially poorly thought through, because it would effectively gimp technological progress without necessarily having much to do with efficiency. Hopefully it never sees the light of day, or can be campaigned against otherwise.

(Incidentally, I am overall pro-EU, in case I happen to give the opposite impression. The good stuff outweighs the occasional bureaucratic incompetence.)



Bandwidth will still present a bottleneck.

Whats even more funny is that Aston Martin makes what? 50.000 cars? les? More, doesn't really matter. Even if they are super thirsty, it's still less than bunch of regular hatchbacks in tens of millions numbers that sell from Ford, Toyota, Hyundai or VW...

Like James May said, they should just buy a bicycle company to lower the CO2 emissions lol...