Nvidia announced new specifications for GeForce graphics cards and PC cases today at Computex 2024 that should make small form factor PC enthusiasts rejoice. It's something that has sort of existed already, but now Nvidia has defined certain size and spacing requirements for "SFF-ready enthusiast GPUs" — with a list of both graphics cards and cases that meet the requirements. If you've ever wanted one of the best graphics cards but have also wanted to put together a mini-ITX system, this should make things somewhat easier.
While there are lower-tier graphics cards that will already fit in compact builds, Nvidia specifically wants to address the "enthusiast" market — meaning, gamers who are buying at least a $549 RTX 4070, all the way up to a $999 (or more) RTX 4080 Super.
It's pretty easy to find graphics cards on the lower end of the performance spectrum that will fit in a mini-ITX case: Nvidia's RTX 4070 Founders Edition (and the identically sized RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition) are prime examples. But once you get to the level of the RTX 4070 Ti Super and RTX 4080 Super, often you'll find lots of triple-slot (or wider) cards that are far too big.
To qualify for Nvidia's SFF-ready label (it's not clear if that's a sticker on the box or something else), graphics cards have to be 2.5-slots thick or less, with a length of 304mm or less and a height of 151mm or less. PC cases need slightly more space to give a bit of wiggle room for installing a card, and so they need 2.5-slots of thickness, 312mm of length, and 154.5mm of height.
Nvidia also notes that power cable clearance is another requirement, but didn't provide any specifics on what that means in practice. All it says is that the card dimensions are "151mm height (including space for power cable)." And considering all of the cards in question will likely require the use of the 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector, with optional adapter if you don't have an ATX 3.0 PSU, that's a bit of an odd omission.
Regardless, at present, Nvidia provided the above list of 33 RTX 40-series GPU models and 18 cases that meet its SFF-ready requirements. That means you should be able to grab any of the graphics cards or cases and they'll fit together without problems.
It's worth pointing out that most of the graphics cards are 4070 or 4070 Super variants. It's a lot easier to cool a 200W or 220W GPU in a smaller form factor. 13 of the models are 4070 cards, another 11 are 4070 Super, seven are 4070 Ti Super, and only two cards — the Asus ProArt and Palit Infinity3 — manage to pack a 4080 Super into the restricted volume.
There was also a rumor last week that Nvidia would have a dual-slot RTX 5090 card. Frankly, that seems like some wires potentially getting crossed and this "SFF-ready" announcement getting blended with Blackwell RTX 50-series GPU rumors to end up with dual-slot 5090 cards.
One thing we know for certain is that there will inevitably be triple-slot and larger RTX 5090 and 5080 models that most definitely won't fit in most mini-ITX builds. But could we actually get a 5090 that meets the SFF-ready size restrictions? We'll have to wait and see what actually happens with the next-generation cards start to arrive this fall.
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