As part of its “SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card” initiative, NVIDIA has unveiled new guidelines that should usher in a new era of compact PC builds.
NVIDIA SFF-Ready GeForce Cards for GeForce Enthusiasts Designed to Build Compact PCs, New Guidelines to Help Vendors Choose the Best Components for Gaming PCs
A few months ago, we exclusively reported that NVIDIA was working on a new ecosystem that would allow SFF and compact PCs to be built. NVIDIA is finally pulling back the curtains on its SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Cards guidelines today to help AIB partners, component manufacturers, and gamers looking to build compact PCs.
Enthusiasts around the world are choosing the Small Form Factor chassis for their dream rigs.
However, when building modern GPU enthusiasts, it can be difficult to find the best components for a SFF (Small Form Factor) build.
NVIDIA has developed form factor guidelines to help gamers choose the best GeForce RTX GPUs and components for their SFF builds.
These guidelines provide dimensions and clearances between enthusiast graphics cards and SFF chassis, creating a standard for AIC and chassis manufacturers to help make SFF gaming PCs a great experience.
NVIDIA at WCCFtech
We found that NVIDIA works with its partners, which include not only AIC (graphics card manufacturers), but also chassis, PSU, manufacturers, etc., to put together components that are ideal for SFF builds. Why this is so important is because SFF builds are generally more limited when compared to traditional builds. It is about spatial limitations, air flow and the right choice of power source.
So, as part of its guidelines for the SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card ecosystem, NVIDIA specified 304 x 155 x 50 mm dimensions for the graphics card to comply with the new standard. These cards shouldn’t exceed 2.5 slots, which is the sweet spot for smaller PC builds, but most vendors will try to go the two-slot route.
NVIDIA AIB partners offering these designs include ASUS, GALAX, Gigabyte, Inno3D, MSI, PALIT, PNY & ZOTAC. Additionally, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Founders Edition cards such as the 4070 and 4070 FE will meet these guidelines. It looks like the main focus is on the RTX 4080 SUPER & RTX 4070 series cards as they fall into the “enthusiast” category of graphics cards. The RTX 4060 series is the more common variant.
Graphics cards are just one side of this initiative. The other main part is the chassis, and NVIDIA has worked with several leading computer case manufacturers, including ASUS, Cooler Master, Corsair, Fractal Design, InWin, Lian Li, MSI, NZXT, Phanteks, Silverstone, SUGER and Thermaltake to make sure. that their current and upcoming Mini-ITX and SFF cases provide these guidelines for GeForce Enthusiast SFF-Ready cards.
The guidelines set for PC cases are that they should offer at least 312 x 154.5 x 50 mm (2.5 slots) of clearance for an NVIDIA SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce card.
Now you must be wondering if this will open up space for another Mini-ITX and a compact NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. Well, the answer is both yes and no. You see, NVIDIA won’t be offering any compact variants of its own, as this is mostly a partner-driven program, but partners are free to experiment with their solutions to offer GPUs that meet the “SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce” designation.
The new initiative will encourage partners to innovate in high-performance graphics cards that can be paired with ITX motherboards in SFF PC builds, and that sounds good for the entire PC segment. The first graphics cards and PC cases are now available at leading retailers.
