NVIDIA Wants To Make Building Small Form-Factor PCs Easier For Everyone

NVIDIA Wants To Make Building Small Form-Factor PCs Easier For Everyone

You see, new GPUs from recent years have far outgrown their cooler’s capabilities thanks to NVIDIA’s sky-high power limits in models like the RTX 3090 and the RTX 4090. The solution? Make bigger GPUs! However, things have gotten a bit out of control as some cards have managed to become so thick and pretty much failed to fit in all but the most exotic small form-factor cases.

Wccftech reports that the GPU maker is looking to solve at least some part of that problem with the upcoming “SFF Enthusiast GeForce” framework. While today most users get to use resources like PCPartPicker to figure out which part matches what, one of the limitations of this website is that it can’t account for all kinds of SFF cases, which come in many shapes, sizes, forms, and quirks. Having the official stamp of approval from NVIDIA should make it less likely for users to end up with incompatible parts.

The program is not limited to just GPUs – NVIDIA is also working with chassis, PSU, and various component OEMs to make sure everything fits within the space, airflow, and power constraints.  Here’s what Team Green is planning to do, based on its official description of the program:

Enthusiasts around the world are choosing Small Form Factor chassis for their dream rigs.

However, when building around modern enthusiast GPUs, finding the best components for a SFF (Small Form Factor) build can be challenging.

NVIDIA has developed form factor guidelines to help Gamers pick the best GeForce RTX GPU and components for their SFF build.

These guidelines provide dimensions and clearances between enthusiast graphics cards and SFF chassis, creating a standard for AIC and chassis manufacturers to help make building SFF Gaming PCs a great experience.

The outlet also reported that NVIDIA’s RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060, both with modest power draw allowing single-fan designs or short dual-fan designs, are likely the first candidates to adopt this new standard. It’s not necessarily limited to small builds, either – some relatively large SFF cases (like the Cooler Master NCORE 100 MAX we recently reviewed) can fit fairly sizeable GPUs, and it’s likely that some of the thicker GPUs may still get this designation, but we’ll have to see.

Pokdepinion: This seems like a solid idea, but we’ll have to see if the standard can take some exotic designs into account.