NVIDIA has unveiled new guidelines under its “SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card” initiative, which should usher in a new era of compact PC builds.
NVIDIA’s SFF-ready Enthusiast GeForce cards are designed for compact PC builds, new guidelines to help vendors select the best components for gaming PCs
A few months ago we exclusively reported that NVIDIA was working on a new ecosystem to power SFF and compact PC builds. Today, NVIDIA is finally pulling back the curtain on its SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Cards guidelines that will help AIB partners, component makers, and gamers looking forward to building compact PCs.
Enthusiasts around the world choose Small Form Factor chassis for their dream rigs.
However, when building around modern enthusiast GPUs, finding the best components for an SFF (Small Form Factor) build can be a challenge.
NVIDIA has developed form factor guidelines to help gamers choose the best GeForce RTX GPU and components for their SFF build.
These guidelines provide dimensions and distances between enthusiast graphics cards and the SFF chassis, creating a standard for AIC and chassis manufacturers to make building SFF gaming PCs a great experience.
NVIDIA to Wccftech
We learned that NVIDIA is working with its partners, which include not only AICs (graphics card manufacturers), but also chassis, PSU, manufacturers, etc., to put together components perfect for SFF builds. Why this is so important is because SFF builds are generally more limited when compared to traditional builds. There is the issue of space constraints, airflow and the right PSU choice.
That’s why, as part of the guidelines for the SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card ecosystem, NVIDIA has established dimensions of 304x155x50 mm for a graphics card to meet the new standard. These cards should have no more than 2.5 slots, which is ideal 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, and ZOTAC. Additionally, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Founders Edition cards, such as the 4070 and 4070 FE, meet these guidelines. It seems like the main focus is on the RTX 4080 SUPER and RTX 4070 series cards, as they fall into the “Enthusiast” graphics card category. The RTX 4060 series is the more mainstream option.
The graphics cards are just one side of this initiative. The second major component is the chassis and NVIDIA has worked with some of the top PC case manufacturers including ASUS, Cooler Master, Corsair, Fractal Design, InWin, Lian Li, MSI, NZXT, Phanteks, Silverstone, SUGER and Thermaltake to ensure that their current and future Mini-ITX and SFF cases guarantee these guidelines for SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce cards.
The guideline parameters for PC cases are that they must provide a minimum of 312 x 154.5 x 50 mm (2.5 slots) of space for an NVIDIA SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce card.
Now you have to wonder if this opens up the space for more Mini-ITX and compact NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs. Well, the answer is both yes and no. You see, NVIDIA won’t be offering its own compact variants as this is largely a partner-driven program, but partners are free to experiment with their solutions to offer GPUs that meet the “SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce” label.
The new initiative will encourage partners to innovate around high-performance graphics cards that can be paired with ITX motherboards within SFF PC builds and that sounds good for the entire PC segment. The first graphics cards and PC cases are now available from leading retailers.
