Originally Posted by SRT SIX
Chipsets are going to be a thing of the past, nVidea is already out selling off their old stuff. Both Intel and AMD are putting more into the processors. Our new Sandy Bridge stuff has the graphics as part of the CPU. The only thing left outside the processor is the I/O links.
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That's not cool! You won't see my cry over the integration of chipsets. They're a needless complication in my opinion.
But:
Graphics embedded into the CPU sounds like a bad idea from the consumer perspective. It's a lot more expensive to upgrade a CPU that it is to put in a new video card. Gamers won't like that much. I suppose if you don't have to buy the video card at all, then you save some. But in the gaming side of things, consumers upgrade graphics semi-annually. I'm a cheap s.o.b, and even I get a new graphics card every other year. But I can maintain the same motherboard/CPU combo for several years. If it's all on one die, that could put a crimp in the gaming industry that seems to drive a lot of the consumer PC upgrades/sales.
I'm sure there's some advantages, such as increased speed between CPU and GPU because of a completely integrated bus. But I'm still leery of any integrated graphics.