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

Gamers want performance. Games want performance. And then things really got crazy and graphics cards also started doing ray tracing, video decoding/encoding, AI stuff, and some productivity jobs.

Features and performance consume power. Lots of features and lots of performance consume lots of power. And the harder you push the hardware, the harder physics pushes back and you need to do things like increase the voltage to compensate and that’s just MORE power and heat!