Building a compact desktop computer with a high-powered graphics card has become a daunting task lately due to the substantial increase in the size of these cards. Nvidia seems to have a workaround for this issue with their newly announced SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card certification program for both compact PC graphics cards and cases.
The growing performance and power capabilities of graphics cards has led to a considerable expansion in their size. Presently, it is not unusual for mid-range models to occupy upwards of three expansion slots. Compact PCs or Small Form-Factor (SFF) PCs are still appealing to many users, yet fitting these increasingly large modern graphics cards into them has become exceedingly difficult.
Nvidia, at the Computex 2024 exhibition, announced the launch of their initiative called SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card. The company seeks to address consumer confusion and capitalize on the trend of powerful yet compact computer builds. Nvidia’s created guidelines defining maximum graphics card dimensions, including a small allowance for power connectors, and minimum clearance inside the case for proper placement and cooling.
Nvidia will assign a SFF-Ready badge to accelerators and PC cases that meet these requirements. This visible marker, usable in advertising, will reassure gamers regarding compatibility between their case and their graphics card. Nonetheless, SFF-Ready cards might not be as compact as one might expect.
The SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card guidelines stipulate that the card height must not exceed 50mm (or 2.5 slots), width must not surpass 151mm, and length must not go beyond 304mm. Similarly, a PC case must provide at least 2.5 expansion slots, 154.5mm width, and 312mm length for proper graphics card installation. These dimensions serve as maximums for cards and minimums for cases.
Nvidia has already compiled a list of SFF-Ready cards and cases currently on the market. Cases from several major SFF case manufacturers have been listed, and GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti cards represent most of the graphics card selection, although a few GeForce RTX 4080s are also included. Lower range cards are absent from the list as the SFF-Ready initiative is targeted towards enthusiasts. The remarkably slim Asus ProArt RTX 4080 Super stands as the most powerful SFF-Ready card available.
