Nvidia’s GeForce SFF guideline brings big GPU power to tiny PCs

It’s been a confounding few years for PC gaming enthusiasts. Graphics cards have bloated in size as power and performance surged, with triple-slot-plus monstrosities virtually the norm in the mid-range and above. But itty-bitty small form factor PCs have been enjoying a renaissance of their own — and they’re not always able to fit today’s behemoth GPUs.

Nvidia’s new “SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card” guideline, announced during Nvidia’s Computex livestream, hopes to eliminate consumer confusion when the two trends collide.

It’s a pretty straightforward certification plan. Nvidia’s guideline includes specific requirements for the size allowed for the GPU itself (plus a bit of buffer for power connectors) as well as how much surrounding free space is required inside the case to properly house and cool the card.

Graphics cards and cases that meet these requirements can slap a new “Nvidia SFF-Ready” badge on their hardware and advertising. That lets everyday gamers know they’ll be compatible without question.

These graphics cards still won’t be as small as yesteryear’s designs, though. While two-slot GPUs used to be the new, full stop, the SFF-Ready Enthusiast GeForce Card guideline tops out at 50mm (or 2.5 slots) in height, with 151mm width and 304mm length requirements.

The PC cases need to carve out the same 2.5-slot height, but a slightly expanded 154.5mm-by-312mm housing area. Graphics card size is a maximum; case housing size is a minimum.

Nvidia whipped up a list of initially compatible GPUs and cases available now. You’ll see some of the biggest names in SFF cases on the list, as well as mostly GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti graphics cards on the list.

Since this guideline targets enthusiast graphics cards, it appears focused on the RTX 4070 and up, since mainstream GPUs tend to be smaller (and thus cheaper). Only one higher-class graphics card makes the current cut, though — Asus’ impressively slim ProArt RTX 4080 Super.

Further reading: Don’t build an ultra-tiny small form factor PC without reading this first