ELI5- Why are Graphics cards getting so big & power hungry when other electronics are getting smaller and use less power?

Question

In the past we put graphics cards in a PC now we put a PC in a space heater

In: 14

Answer 1

The root of the problem is the death of Moores Law. For the last few decades you could get big jumps in performance simply by shrinking the processes node. Now we’ve reached a point if diminishing returns. However, gamers still expect that big jump in performance each iteration so the only way to achieve it is by making more power hungry and expensive cards.