I think the problem is that we've been throwing around the SFF moniker like it was a thing, when in fact, no one has created a definition for it. We just kind of accepted it with an arbitrary meaning. Now, Nvidia took the helm and bent the definition to make their gigantic beasts fit. My problem is that their definition is vastly different than mine. I will never accept anything longer than 20 cm and thicker than dual slot as SFF.
You missed the point completely. The question was, why do we need big cards to bear the SFF designation? Why can't big cards be big cards and SFF be SFF?
No matter how loudly Nvidia is shouting that the sky is green, it is still blue.
My guess is they want to normalize big cards as something normal, they've been pushing power limits and sizes upwards the last couple years, 250W max was standard for a long time until they pushed it to 350W (3080) and even 450W (3090ti) with 3000 series and reports are that the 600W they didn't have the courage to put forth with 4000 series is coming with 5000 series.
So they want to make 3 slots cards something normal, it's a stupid marketing exercise that doesn't convince anyone, 2.5 slots is compatible with most SFF cases and builds but it's not small at all
mmhh I get what you mean, but reading the SFF-ready page again, I feel like there's something that went over the head of most of us here, and we are getting too heated about something because we think that it's something that it's not: those GPUs aren't called "SFF sized" but "SFF-ready". Did you notice how there's no fancy "Nvidia SFF-ready" sticker to be seen anywhere? the whole thing is a lower deal than we assume this to be.
"SFF-Ready" is nothing more than a whitelist of RTX 4070 class and above GPUs and select popular SFF cases that are also whitelisted to be compatible with each other (even if that list also got a few giants in there like the z11, lmao). I feel like it's not stressed enough how RTX 4000 made building in a 15-liter case (!!!!) something tricky because GPUs have gotten so big in all dimensions, even a case like an A4 H2O with 3 PCI slot is not guaranteed to fit a modern 3 slots GPU without pulling out the Dremel. "SFF-ready" isn't a standard, it's just a recommendation. Their plan was never to make 6-liter builds with an RTX 4070 a reality, but merely to clean up the mess that AiB made by abusing oversized coolers that require a bigger clearance space than one could assume. Take a look at the SFF-ready case list, and you'll see that a lot of mainstream SFF cases aren't mentioned. It doesn't mean that they aren't SFF, just that they have requirements that are too strict/are too much of a niche.
Mainstream SFF cases development is following the GPU trends, even boutique brands like Dan, Ncase, and FormD who are getting community feedback. When was the last time that a strictly 2 slots, strictly half-height case meant to be mainstream was released? I've followed the development of a few boutique cases, and they would rather make a case bigger than have so many compromises that the case would have trouble finding a public with the current reality of the hardware. The OG Ncase m1 and Dan A4 have been retired for this very reason: the hardware had outgrown the cases.
I kid you not, 11liters SFF cases that could host an AiB 3090 were all of a sudden limited to a few select 4070s at best... when the 4090 use less power
At the very least we won't see the fractal tera suffering the same fate when the next-gen GPUs will be out.
A Strix 3090 in a 11 liters case. Something that you cannot do with a Strix 4090 because they got so oversized, even though the power req are virtually similar
