GPU why aren't there any blower style sff gpu's?

[darksidecookie]

hey all,

i've noticed that (as far as i know) al major sff gpu's (gtx 1080/70 mini, r9 nano, etc..) use an open air cooler as opposed to a blower style cooler.
this is especialy anoying when you have a case with front-to-back airflow as the open air cooler just blows its warm air everywhere and so disrupts the airflow af all other components.

so why do manufacturesrs keep on putting open air coolers on these cards?

 

[robbee]

They used to, but this thing was loud!

 

[aquelito]

Open-air cooler are usually shorter than blower cooler. I guess it is a size matter.

VS.

 

[darksidecookie]

but why not take the fan from the gtx1070 katan and put it on top of its heatsink and fill out the rest with fins, so you get a short dual slot card with better performance due to the extra fin surface? or is there something i'm missing?

 

[Pelican]

Oooo those KFA2 cards are gorgeous.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

but why not take the fan from the gtx1070 katan and put it on top of its heatsink and fill out the rest with fins, so you get a short dual slot card with better performance due to the extra fin surface? or is there something i'm missing?

Basically Axial (non-blower) vs Radial (blower) fan:

There are mixed solution like the one Asus used on the ITX GTX970, but the air was still exhausted inside the chassis.

 

[DocH]

Another aspect your missing is where the blower is located you are missing heatsink usually. So if you were to do that on a smaller card you would lose out on that aspect. This makes it very difficult to cool the card since your making it smaller anyway. Also i believe if you reduced the size of the blower you would have more noise which blowers are already notorious for. This is the reason why i think everyone does open air because in general it is better cooling especially if your doing a smaller card. Blower cards usually tend to run hotter as well which adding all this factors together i don't think making a SFF GPU that much realistic. But, someone could test it out i guess and see if they could make it work.

 

[Chrizz]

Videocardz lists this, but I've never seen it in a build so I think it's fake.

This low profile, blowerstyle 190mm GTX 1050 ti is real though.

 

[VegetableStu]

Videocardz lists this

That's just a quick model cutout Nvidia made for their marketing material I think.

 

[Commissariat]

Videocardz lists this, but I've never seen it in a build so I think it's fake.

This low profile, blowerstyle 190mm GTX 1050 ti is real though.

That card is kind of amazing, actually - I think I've never seen a true single slot low profile 1050 ti. What company is that?

 

[Chrizz]

That card is kind of amazing, actually - I think I've never seen a true single slot low profile 1050 ti. What company is that?

ASL, here's a purchase link.

 

[darksidecookie]

@GuilleAcoustic so the centrifugal fan would (without the shroud) just suck air into the hole, so it would also cool the part of the heatsink below it?

Another aspect your missing is where the blower is located you are missing heatsink usually. So if you were to do that on a smaller card you would lose out on that aspect. This makes it very difficult to cool the card since your making it smaller anyway. Also i believe if you reduced the size of the blower you would have more noise which blowers are already notorious for.

as you can see on the picture below the heatsink would be bigger if they went this route, also because it is bigger wouldn't it be quieter because the fan doesn't need to spin up that hard because of the extra surface area.

 

[FoskcoRS5]

This article has some good information on the difference between vapor chambers where centrifugal blowers and heat pipes where axial blowers are used for cooling.

 

[aquelito]

That card is kind of amazing, actually - I think I've never seen a true single slot low profile 1050 ti. What company is that?

Waiting for my favorite shop to stock this baby. No actual ETA right now.

https://shop.hardware.fr/fiche/AR201705100087.html

 

[Therandomness]

@GuilleAcoustic so the centrifugal fan would (without the shroud) just suck air into the hole, so it would also cool the part of the heatsink below it?
as you can see on the picture below the heatsink would be bigger if they went this route, also because it is bigger wouldn't it be quieter because the fan doesn't need to spin up that hard because of the extra surface area.

The heatsink just under the fan would get no airflow.

 

[Necere]

A simple illustration by way of this photoshopped nvidia reference card:

 

[darksidecookie]

A simple illustration by way of this photoshopped nvidia reference card:

i get wat you are saying but, what i meant was not nessesary a smaller version of the existing blower style coolers, but rather a cooling solution that would blow the hot air of the gpu directly out the back of the case.

 

[Necere]

i get wat you are saying but, what i meant was not nessesary a smaller version of the existing blower style coolers, but rather a cooling solution that would blow the hot air of the gpu directly out the back of the case.

Well, you kind of need a centrifugal fan to do that, which needs to be thicker than an axial fan to move the same air, which is what limits how big the heatsink is. Unless... you used axial fans at the front of the card, aligned with its axis. Check out this mockup I did ages ago:

This uses an 80mm fan, so it takes up a full four slots, but in principle it could work with multiple 60 or 40mm fans (for 3 and 2 slot solutions, respectively), though with increased noise levels, naturally.

 

[darksidecookie]

Well, you kind of need a centrifugal fan to do that, which needs to be thicker than an axial fan to move the same air, which is what limits how big the heatsink is. Unless... you used axial fans at the front of the card, aligned with its axis. Check out this mockup I did ages ago:

This uses an 80mm fan, so it takes up a full four slots, but in principle it could work with multiple 60 or 40mm fans (for 3 and 2 slot solutions, respectively), though with increased noise levels, naturally.

why haven't manufacturers done this before?(the dual 40mm on the back) take for instance the noctua 40mm and add fan control so the fans are off when the gpu is idle. this would (i presume) also greatly improve temps when using 2 in sli or crossfire as the fan intake is no longer blocked by the second card. and yes this will make some noise under load but so does the gtx 1070 mini and that uses a single 90mm fan.

 

[Necere]

why haven't manufacturers done this before?(the dual 40mm on the back)

The smaller the fan the more noisy it's going to get moving the same amount of air. Not just overall sound pressure level, either, but they tend to be higher pitched, which is usually much more annoying.

(Also, pet peeve: the "back" of the card is where the bracket and video connectors are, so opposite of that is the "front." I have the fan on the front. Just IMHO.)