How much breathing room do video cards need?

[Sonikku]

Just curious. I see a lot of mini itx builds in window cases that look really cool, though I imagine the gpu runs super hot and loud being right against the PSU.

I went with ATX in a recent build and I imagine that's plenty of room. But what I'm wondering is if Micro ATX give a card enough clearance so as to not necessitate water cooling to remain cool in a compact case.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Annecdotal, but I was running a Q9550 on a stock cooler + Hd 7950 in a Silverstone Sugo SG03, which is a ridiculously compact MATX case that stacks a full size power supply above the CPU and more or less right next to the videocard...and the thing ran great for just about forever, until my hands got tired of manuvering in such cramped space.

Always give up something to save on size... Things are just going to run a little hotter, a little louder, and it's just a bit more miserable if you want to swap something out in the case.

Decided to go standard ATX this round myself.

 

[mopardude87]

I had a Asus strixx GTX970 in a Emachines pos case with a single 80mm fan as exhaust as well as the psu.The build was kind of a sleeper budget build at first till a bit later.Temps ran very good actually l then again i had a i5 4670 so nothing overclocked at all. I figured the 970 would require the door off the side of the case but honestly temps never hit over 70cel and that was with a mid fan curve.

 

[Rifter]

When i ran SLI the card that was sandwiched in the middle ran 10-15C hotter than the top card which had alot more airflow around it.

 

[whm1974]

I was thinking of building a system using one of those short mATX minitowers, but seeing this thread, perhaps not...

 

[Rifter]

I was thinking of building a system using one of those short mATX minitowers, but seeing this thread, perhaps not...

Alot will depend on the specific case, PSU ontop of mobo could well leave more than enough breathing room for GPU.

 

[whm1974]

Alot will depend on the specific case, PSU ontop of mobo could well leave more than enough breathing room for GPU.

Come to think this sounds like it is more of an issue tower mITX builds then short mATX ones. For mITX something like a shoebox or the Milo-08B case should fix this problem with lack of air flow since the card is drawing air from the side.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It depends on a load of factors, but it's generally not a problem. The coolers on video cards these days are more than capable of cooling them, they typically have a decent thermal headroom and most video cards have variable turbo modes anyway and simply downclock a bit if temps get too bad.

Decent cases have air vents on the bottom as well and you can mount the PSU upside down so air flow through the PSU is independent of the rest of the case, which is great for small builds where the GPU is close by.