General dumb question

[Jerped]

This is just a dumb question, but why is the cool side of GPU's always faced down? I would like to see the fans or the artwork on my Strix card, but on the up side it's only a black back plate.

 

^^"

[Oshino Shinobu]

One of the main reasons is likely due to motherboard layout. If you had the cooler on the top of the card, it would interfere with the CPU cooler, RAM and some other parts. 

Motherboard layout and graphics card designs have been using the same, or similar standards for such a long time that it's difficult to change it. It would require creating new motherboard layouts and standardising a new graphics card design, as well as new case designs. That's a lot to organise when there's so many companies involved in the creation of the affected components. 

[ThinkWithPortals]

7 minutes ago, Jerped said:

This is just a dumb question, but why is the cool side of GPU's always faced down? I would like to see the fans or the artwork on my Strix card, but on the up side it's only a black back plate.

 

^^"

Because for some reason they were designed that way.

 

You could get a case which positions the motherboard upside down and as such lets you see the GPU fans. The only case of this kind I can think of is the Corsair 600C.

[W-L]

6 minutes ago, Jerped said:

This is just a dumb question, but why is the cool side of GPU's always faced down? I would like to see the fans or the artwork on my Strix card, but on the up side it's only a black back plate.

^^"

It has to do with the connections on PCI-E and the standard works, however if you want to see the fan side you can always get a Inverted ATX case which oriented the CPU at the bottom and the GPU at the top to show it off more. Here's an example:

http://www.corsair.com/en/carbide-series-clear-600c-inverse-atx-full-tower-case

[Allshevski]

Get a case with upside down layout - problem solved..

Quote

They did it for the lulz.

~ 88EVGAFTW on overclock.net

[Moonzy]

well technically they can just make the card with the chip and cooler on the other side and it'll be using a lower pcie slot

 

but that will cause issues in mITX build which only have one top pcie slot, so i doubt they'll do it

[Jerped]

(sorry for the delay ^^")

 

Oshino Shinobu, Your explanation looks damn well logical to me hahahahahah    It would just be a cool idea for, as an exemple, MSI (which have their own motherboard and graphics card). They could place the PCI-E lane one slot lower and thus it would make it possible. The card would take the exact same amount of place in the PC, It would just be placed with the cooler on top and the components on the bottom!

 

I wasn't really thinking of having this kind of placement in an ITX build, I was more focussing on Full-Tower or ATX cases.

 

 

Thanks a lot guys!