Why can't I find a recent GPU that doesn't take up half my case? Do the GPU manufacturers not care about people who want more than onboard graphics but don't need the most powerful gaming GPU?
You can? Both the RTX 3050 and RX 6400 come in single fan form factors not much longer than a PCIE slot. Anything weaker than that is getting beaten by AGUs.
For reference, there used to be low profile cards available barely longer than an AGP slot. For example, here's a low profile Nvidia Gefore4 MX440 (I used to have one of these):
> Anything weaker than that is getting beaten by AGUs.
Is AGU the GPU on the CPU thing? Is it not possible (or maybe not profitable) to put something a little more performant than an AGU but doesn't need such a massive fan on a full size multiple slot card?
Barely longer than the PCI-E slot and only needs a single slot.
The Radeon RX 6400 is basically AMD's high end integrated GPU on a card being very similar to the Radeon 680M in Ryzen 6000 chips. But I think the dedicated memory offers an improvement over the APU solution.
APU*, for accelerated processing unit. Essentially a CPU with integrated graphics, but the graphics cores can also be used for traditional CPU computing if it's not being used for graphics.
They can't put anything bigger because they run into heat, power, and memory limits.
Simple: GPU manufacturers would much rather sell you a flagship at $1000+ than multiple basic cards at $150. Duopoly in the market and no competition, why would they reduce their margins?
> flagship at $1000+ than multiple basic cards at $150
Those aren't even the same market segment.
The type of person buying a flagship card would not even be considering a basic card and vice-versa.
Also, a part of me used to get frustrated at the existence of the "basic" cards, like the GT 1030. I've seen more than one person wanting to build a gaming PC and see a budget card like that and think they're getting a current-gen card without knowing that the budget cards are horrendously underpowered. For example, the GT 1030 is about the speed of a GTX 470, a mid-grade card from 7 years before it.
Maybe some people are fine getting that weak of a card, but if that's all you need, I'd question if you even need a discrete GPU.
