Fitting modern graphics cards into smaller cases is sometimes a challenge given that many new graphics cards come in a gargantuan form factor. To enable gamers to use the latest technology, makers of add-in-boards started offering custom-built Nvidia Ampere-based products that are smaller than most cards. Zotac's new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC LHR graphics cards can be easily called the smallest GA104-powered boards released to date.
Zotac's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC LHR and GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC LHR graphics cards carry Nvidia's GA104 GPU with 4864 CUDA cores (at up to 1695 MHz) and 5888 CUDA cores (at up to 1755 MHz), respectively. While formally both boards belong to the OC series, their factory overclocking is minimal (25 MHz ~ 30 MHz), so do not expect these products to offer tangibly higher performance than cards with Nvidia-recommended clocks.
But the main advantage of these boards is not their out-of-box performance, but compact dimensions enabled by custom-designed printed circuit boards and smaller IceStorm 2.0 cooling systems.
The Zotac GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge OC LHR measures 9.1 × 5.6 × 1.6 inches (231.9 × 141.3 × 41.5 mm) and is the smallest GeForce RTX 3070-powered product that we know of. It is smaller than Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition and smaller than the recently launched Galakuro's GeForce RTX 3070 LHR (GG-RTX3070-E8GBOC/DF/LHR).
Meanwhile, the Zotac GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC LHR board is even smaller (it is shorter, lower, and thinner). It measures 8.7 × 4.55 × 1.5 inches (221.1 × 115.6 × 38.2 mm) and is also smaller than Nvidia's Founders Edition version.
Neither of the boards are going to fit into smaller Mini-ITX cases, but they are compatible with Micro-ATX and various gaming-oriented Mini-ITX chasses that have two spare eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors and can feed the boards with up to 220W of power. Despite their small dimensions, the new Zotac Twin Edge boards have a standard display output configuration consisting of four DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1.
So far, Zotac has announced the new GeForce RTX Twin Edge OC LHR boards in Japan (via Hermitage Akihabara), but given that smaller cards and compact gaming PCs are popular around the world these days, expect the new graphics cards to be available in other countries as well eventually.
