Scaling up vs scaling down. The real scoop on power-efficient GPUs for laptops

By Imagination Technologies Group plc

May 26, 2022

If you’ve bought a laptop recently, the chances are that your system is architected differently now than it was even a couple of years ago and designs are continuing to evolve. Laptops, and even PCs, are moving away from the traditional model of discrete components, toward higher levels of integration; much like the SoCs that have been used for many years in mobile. This is becoming more important as usage models change (think more hybrid work scenarios), making the need for energy-efficient laptops that still deliver a high level of performance ever more important.

The traditional desktop component companies no longer have the PC space to themselves and companies with mobile expertise are moving into this area. These companies are also leveraging their expertise at keeping power consumption to a minimum whilst maximising performance. They are doing this by incorporating functionality such as graphics, neural network acceleration, security, and I/O, into a single SoC with a unified memory architecture. As such, the modern computer is moving away from just being a box containing a CPU, memory and plug-in graphics cards inside. Instead, many who might have opted for a traditional desktop will now consider a laptop featuring a single, highly integrated chip, with far fewer system-slowing PCI Express connections. In addition to being lower power and less bandwidth-hungry, such an architecture is easier and less expensive to make.

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