Put simply, the guideline calls for SFF-Ready advertised enthusiast segment graphics cards to be no larger than the specified dimensions. These are a maximum of 30.4 cm in length, a maximum of 15.1 cm in height, and a maximum of 5 cm or 2.5 slots in card thickness. Only cards at or smaller than these dimensions (304 mm x 151 mm x 50 mm) quality for the SFF-ready marker. It’s also important to note that board partners cannot work their way around this by using AIO liquid cooling solutions where there’s more to the card than its main component (i.e. tubing and a radiator). The total physical dimensions of the card cannot exceed the ones specified above. In addition to this, NVIDIA is now going to maintain a continuously updating list of graphics cards and cases that meet the SFF-Ready dimensions.
NVIDIA Unveils New SFF-friendly Enthusiast GeForce RTX Graphics Card Standard
NVIDIA has taken note of the upward-and-outward trend for enthusiast-segment GeForce RTX gaming graphics cards to be huge, and out of sight for small form-factor gaming PC builds. This can be a problem, as SFF gaming PC builds are confined to exotic liquid cooling solutions that drive up costs, or to make do with mid-performance graphics cards, or simply give up the idea in favor of a next generation console, such as the upcoming ones from Xbox and PlayStation. To confront this trend, NVIDIA developed the new GeForce RTX SFF-Ready Enthusiast Graphics Card Guideline.