AMD have announced, what i believe the most powerful gaming pc in a console form and they call it Project Quantum. What's your thoughts? Is it really possible?
I Run a 780GTX in a box about the same size as that with a mini-ITX X99, have been running similar pc's for years. This is nothing new. No big deal. Move along.
Barely use its full capabilities any more, find it easier to just use steam/nvidia streaming from my big PC. Honestly don't see the point in these console sized PC's, very excited about Valve and Nvidia's stand alone TV streaming solutions. Upgrading multiple PC's every few years sucks hard.
The fact that people responsible for the popularization of them pimped out PC cases, with the windows that they have and flashing trinkets that they sport, haven't yet been judged by an independent tribunal and hanged from telephone poles is undoubtedly the first big tragedy of the XXI century.
Quantum looks borderline acceptable, I'll consider it if it performs no slower than 75% of an equally priced traditional PC. If it fail to do that, I'll build a PC using a Silverstone SUGO of some kind by the end of 2016.
It's just a PC using proprietary hardware in order for it to fit in a small case. The two separate enclosures is a nifty idea; the bottom has all the computing hardware while the top is basically a radiator + fan. If they end up selling this product it will come with a hefty pricetag. It's meant to be used for VR (e.g. it has powerful hardware) and it's using custom PC parts. Building a similarly specced PC will be cheaper.
Building a powerful PC that is close to the size of a console isn't hard. ITX motherboards, SFX power supplies, and short PCB graphics cards with low TDP are widely available. The issue is that few PC case manufacturers are making cases in the console formfactor. The only companies that I can think of that are making such cases are Silverstone (RVZ01, RVZ02, and FTZ01) and Fractal Design (Node 202). These cases are still kinda big though; they are slightly to significantly larger than an Xbox One.This is because variances in GPU size and heat output lead these manufacturers to create cases big enough to fit a wide array of graphics cards. It's hard to sell any case that limits customers when buying PC components to put in it.
That's why a lot of small form factor PC builders look to its own community to build cases themselves. The biggest instance of this happening was two guys from the Hard Forum making the NCASE M1. I think to date it's still the smallest case that can accommodate a 240mm radiator. There are other people in that same forum that are trying to crowdsource other cases. The one a lot of people are checking out right now is the Dan A4-SFX. The one I'm keeping track of - due to it being very similar in dimensions to an actual console - is this one (it doesn't have a name yet; still being prototyped).
@andorski: Wow, thanks for clearing everything up. So this is what the upper part is for, i actually thought that they are using some sort of patient to implement a design like that. I have never liked mini-itx cases since they're not small enough while at the same time they limit my gpu choices. That's why i never follow them but i'll keep an eye on Dan 4A because if it can take a gtx 980 then it can take everything! It will be my plan B if Quantum is not satisfactory.
The problem with project quantum is that you are stuck with AMD parts and this is going to be more expensive than steam machines.
This is going to be too expensive for anyone but those fools who might be thinking of picking up a $2000+ gaming laptop because they move around a lot. The video cards that they are using are being sold for $600 USD individually, so this is going to cost AT A MINIMUM $1200; my guess is that the machine costs $1600+, $2000+ if you live anywhere but the US.
Crossfire is a joke, compared to Nvidia's SLI tech, because it doesn't scale as well (adding a second AMD card brings you under 50% performance gain), it increases frame-lag and introduces a lot of micro-stutter (making your 60+fps game feel less smooth than a single card running at 30fps).
AMD has been terrible at keeping crossfire drivers up to date, so this machine becomes useless unless you like playing your games, up to, three months after they come out.
Theres probably a niche market of rich folks who dont like having PC towers around, or want to plug it into a TV and dont like SteamOS, but like the steam boxes from alienware, it's probably priced far too high for any sort of market appeal. The gaming laptop crowd usually move around a ton, and prefer the compact aspect (not having to cart around a screen/keyboard).
Personally, while not against spending for that kinda power, the nitty gritty of PC building is a hobby, and building my own is part of the fun for me - There are small form factor cases out there, so even little boxes like this can be home built without too much trouble.
Isn't the whole point of having one of these boxes to keep everything as simple as possible? Having to deal with constantly maintaining your Crossfire drivers, and possibly having to purge/refill your liquid cooling system, doesn't seem like the most consumer friendly device on the market.
I'll be interested to see how the new cards run when they're actually released though. Hopefully it kicks Nvidia into gear on moving past 28mm architecture, because I'm really not a big fan of ATi's ridiculoussssssss TPD numbers.
@monetarydread: I mostly agree, apart from the fact that I don't think it's going to be two cards connected via Crossfire, but rather a single dual-GPU card that they mentioned during the same presentation.
@qrdl: Those are still dual GPU's connected through crossfire; the only difference is that both chipsets are crammed onto the same printed circuit board instead of separate boards.
@monetarydread: Has it always been like that with dual-GPU cards? LIke the 295X2 or the nVidia and ATI ones from the past? Does it mean that unless a profile has been issued for a particular game, they act as if there was only one chip one the PCB? I'm genuinly interested, though only slightly because I've never even remotely considered buying any of them.
@qrdl: If a multi GPU card is nothing but another form of crossfire or SLI then both companies are really stupid for releasing it, especially when multi GPU cards are more expensive than two fully packaged cards of the same gpu. The only problem with multi gpu cards is that they need extensive support from the maker and this is why most pc builders choose to ignore it.
Yes, those are two examples of separate chips stuffed onto a single PCB. In both instances there was a slight reduction in VRAM and clock speed because of the thermal limits of the card.
Yes, unless a crossfire / SLI profile has been created the card will operate like the single-GPU version of the card.
Their original purpose was to accommodate the people who had a motherboard with a single AGP slot (back in the day you had to buy an expensive NVIDIA brand motherboard for dual AGP slots), yet still wanted to get the performance of SLI / Crossfire.
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