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Why Do GPU Fans Face Down?

The Shaft
By The Shaft
in Graphics Cards
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Posted

         Wouldn't it make the most sense to have them facing out towards the rear of the computer or upwards so that the hot air can be blown out and cool air can be drawn in.  I know thermals are less important for GPU's but still, if you want to optimize your airflow why would they do this? In fact I don't know why on ATX boards they don't even take this into account and have fans facing upwards to draw low and push up. 

     

     Could someone enlighten me on this. 

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Just now, The Shaft said:

only problem with blowers is that is cools one side more than the other, at least from what I've heard. 

it cools the side with the gpu and VRMs more, because thats the side where the heat is at :P

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I think it's this to not suck air from CPU. This is only a real problem when the case is small and the fan is very close to the bottom of the case

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

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Just now, Jurrunio said:

I think it's this to not suck air from CPU. This is only a real problem when the case is small and the fan is very close to the bottom of the case

there's actually been *some* cards with holes on both sides, the most recent example being the asus 970 turbo, but aside from extremely constrained SLI setups the benefit is minimal.

SLI1.jpg

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2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

there's actually been *some* cards with holes on both sides, the most recent example being the asus 970 turbo, but aside from extremely constrained SLI setups the benefit is minimal.

SLI1.jpg

,I thought the newest example is the reference RX 480? There are also these small holes on the back of the cooler fan. Not sure if ref 580s (that even a thing?) have this. It seems to only be on cards with blower cooler.

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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Just now, Jurrunio said:

,I thought the newest example is the reference RX 480? There are also these small holes on the back of the cooler fan. Not sure if ref 580s (that even a thing?) have this. It seems to only be on cards with blower cooler.

i dont think they market it as a feature tho, and its only the "least effective" side of the fan.

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Expansion cards were face-up in the AGP days, PCI Express slots were designed upside-down so that board manufacturers could put both an AGP slot and a PCIe slot on the same bracket and the user could choose which to use.

 

EDIT: Meant ISA, not AGP. See here:

 

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4 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

Expansion cards were face-up in the AGP days, PCI Express slots were designed upside-down so that board manufacturers could put both an AGP slot and a PCIe slot on the same bracket and the user could choose which to use.

heh kinda like good ol ISA and PCI. :P

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3 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

heh kinda like good ol ISA and PCI. :P

I think that's what I meant to say actually... Come to think of it AGP were upside-down too.

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Posted (edited)

Having the fans facing down is actually a good thing (and the only proper way to do it).  Cold air falls, so naturally you'd want to pull cooler air from the bottom instead of hotter air from the top.  If it was facing up, then all the heat rising from the card would just be blown back down onto the GPU.

 

In essence, you'd be "cooling" (or more accurately, cooking) your card with the heat that it's generating.

 

Now, if the case has the video card facing up (as some OEM systems do), then the design is a problem, but that's not standard.

 

*EDIT*
 

Edited by Jito463
Clarified my statements, made them less confusing

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/449522-smoking-barrels-ltts-unnofficial-gun-club/

 

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