A Quick Look at NVIDIA SFF-Ready Graphics Cards and Cases

[btarunr]

At NVIDIA's Computex 2024 booth, we got a quick look at the enthusiast-segment GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards and third-party PC cases that qualify for the company's new SFF-Ready market, which aims to incentivize building smaller enthusiast-segment graphics cards for the SFF crowd, and to try and arrest the runaway growth in the sizes of custom-design graphics cards. To qualify, a graphics card must be no larger than 304 mm x 151 mm x 50 mm (length x height x thickness), and for an SFF case to support such a card. Most of these cards and cases are already launched, and we're sure the standard will have some influence on the graphics card partners and case designers as NVIDIA heads towards its future GeForce RTX "Blackwell" generation.



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[Fungi]

Has SFF always applied to mATX size cases? Feels like nVidia is barging in on a loosely defined enthusiast term and expanding it to fit their marketing needs.

 

[Onasi]

Has SFF always applied to mATX size cases? Feels like nVidia is barging in on a loosely defined enthusiast term and expanding it to fit their marketing needs.

Yesn’t. It IS a loosely defined term, but for a while the main definition was based by the community on “what’s the volume of the case” and quite a lot of mATX cases did become popular in the SFF community, like the Asus AP201 or Jonsbo D30/31.

 

[Ruru]

SFF? Thought that cards like RTX 2000 fit that criteria, not those full-sized behemoths.

 

[Vayra86]

Yesn’t. It IS a loosely defined term, but for a while the main definition was based by the community on “what’s the volume of the case” and quite a lot of mATX cases did become popular in the SFF community, like the Asus AP201 or Jonsbo D30/31.

Well, in my mind its not loose at all. SFF is anything below mATX. Certainly not mATX. That's just a regular case. Nothing special and def not 'small'.

SFF generally means ITX and a small enclosure, or HTPC flatness. But yeah there are oddly shaped cases these days, hard to designate what those are.

 

[Cheeseball]

Well, in my mind its not loose at all. SFF is anything below mATX. Certainly not mATX. That's just a regular case. Nothing special and def not 'small'.

SFF generally means ITX and a small enclosure.

I consider microATX and below SFF, with an example of the largest chassis being... probably the size of the ASUS AP201 (33L). Basically, anything smaller than standard ATX. There is no real "standard" aside from the motherboard/PSU Intel one.

But yeah, if a GPU fits in a Fractal Terra or Ridge (which all the examples in the photos above can), I'll consider it SFF-compatible.

I still think this is cute:

 

[Onasi]

I still think this is cute:

View attachment 349785

Ironically, not even a specifically SFF model, just something that actually adheres to the PCI-E AIB spec. Crazy how with modern GPUs it’s considered something exotic.

 

[londiste]

The most common/accepted SFF GPU measures have been 2 slots or less and 17cm in length - the width of an ITX motherboard.
There has been a number of cards that match this marketed as SFF or ITX cards.

30cm length and 50mm thickness (roughly 2 slots) used to be the limits to a standard PCIe card, no?
Edit: A full length PCIe card should be max 111.15 × 312.00 × 20.32 mm. This is obviously 1 slot and GPUs have been thicker than that for a while.

 

[Onasi]

30cm length and 50mm thickness (roughly 2 slots) used to be the limits to a standard PCIe card, no?

The spec is 312 mm length maximum with a recommended length of no more than 241 mm. The full height is 111 mm. Thickness is 35 mm for dual slot cards, which is the recommended one. 55 for triple slot, which is considered the maximum. Anything beyond is out of spec.

 

[Cheeseball]

Ironically, not even a specifically SFF model, just something that actually adheres to the PCI-E AIB spec. Crazy how with modern GPUs it’s considered something exotic.

Yeah, the MBA RX 7600 is not called SFF by any means, but it is very SFF-compatible due to it being short, length-wise (~8 inches). This makes it shorter than the single-slot 8800 GT's (which were 9 inches long) from years ago.

 

[SL2]

The most common/accepted SFF GPU measures have been 2 slots or less and 17cm in length - the width of an ITX motherboard.

I wonder if the height will change. For traditional ITX cases you might not want it, but for cases with a riser and the card sandwiched with the motherboard the size might as well get closer to the size of a mini ITX board, 17 x 17 cm.

 

[Onasi]

Yeah, the MBA RX 7600 is not called SFF by any means, but it is very SFF-compatible due to it being short, length-wise (~8 inches). This makes it shorter than the single-slot 8800 GT's (which were 9 inches long) from years ago.

Yeah, the reference models still are… trying to keep in spec. Sorta. Barely. Even the 4090 is in spec length and thickness-wise. It’s higher than specified and significantly heavier. Last I checked the maximum was 1.5 kilos and that thing is, like, 30% heavier.
Needless to say, when you look at partner boards all of that goes out the window immediately, those are out of spec on every single point.

 

[Chomiq]

Are they even on the list? I'm pretty sure 4080 Super ProArt isn't on the "SFF-Ready" list.

 

[Cheeseball]

View attachment 349787

Are they even on the list? I'm pretty sure 4080 Super ProArt isn't on the "SFF-Ready" list.

All the ASUS ProArt cards use the same HSF I believe:

 

[SL2]

Are they even on the list? I'm pretty sure 4080 Super ProArt isn't on the "SFF-Ready" list.

 

[Onasi]

Are they even on the list? I'm pretty sure 4080 Super ProArt isn't on the "SFF-Ready" list.

It is on the list.

 

[rattlehead99]

The most common/accepted SFF GPU measures have been 2 slots or less and 17cm in length - the width of an ITX motherboard.
There has been a number of cards that match this marketed as SFF or ITX cards.

30cm length and 50mm thickness (roughly 2 slots) used to be the limits to a standard PCIe card, no?
Edit: A full length PCIe card should be max 111.15 × 312.00 × 20.32 mm. This is obviously 1 slot and GPUs have been thicker than that for a while.

No it's 244mm(24.4cm), but there are motherboards up to 267mm(26.7cm) which is NOT ATX standard. E-ATX is 30.5cm(305mm). And the thickness is 19mm or 1.9cm per slot.
So the biggest dual slot ATX GPU should be 111.15 x 244 x 38mm

 

[londiste]

No it's 244mm(24.4cm), but there are motherboards up to 267mm(26.7cm) which is NOT ATX standard. E-ATX is 30.5cm(305mm). And the thickness is 19mm or 1.9cm per slot.
So the biggest dual slot ATX GPU should be 111.15 x 244 x 38mm

SFF is more ITX than ATX or even microATX
Technically the full name is Mini-ITX, I think.

 

[Onasi]

SFF is more ITX than ATX or even microATX
Technically the full name is Mini-ITX, I think.

No, saying just ITX is probably more technically correct. Mini-ITX is only one of ITX specs, the largest one at that. Though other ones didn’t really take off in the DIY space, truth be told.
And again, there isn’t really a strict definition for SFF. Some purists will scoff at anything bigger than a cola can (figuratively), but the Master Case list by SFF community (which I consider a definitive one) includes a lot of cases below 20 liters that support mATX, and even more so in the up to 35 litre bracket, so the definitions are blurred as hell.

 

[Chomiq]

It is on the list.

I guess my brain nulled the "ProArt" before GeForce.

 

[Yashyyyk]

When ITX GPU?

I want an ITX / low length/single fan RTX 4070 with 16GB VRAM. (Or rather something like the 1080Ti mini for the 4070Ti (Super/16GB VRAM)) It's ~200W just like the numerous ITX 1080/2070(S)/3060Ti, all ~1 "Liter" in size, so ~200 "Watt per Liter" We should be getting better/more...

www.techpowerup.com

I doubt most of these will even be as space-power efficient as GPUs were 7yrs ago