Fans of small form factor PCs will be delighted with today’s announcement of Nvidia SFF-Ready, a new graphics card and PC case compatibility certification program designed to make it easy to know which cards and cases can coexist.
The new Nvidia certification, which has just been unveiled at Computex, affects both the best PC case models and the best graphics cards on the market. Only certain sizes of cases and cards are eligible for the stamp of approval.
It simply states that if a graphics card is smaller than 304mm long, 151mm tall, and 50mm (2.5 slots) wide, it is small enough. Meanwhile, the dimensions for cases are a little larger, with enough room needed for cables and airflow around the card. A case must allow 312 x 154.5 x 50mm of clearance to qualify.
The SFF-Ready program only applies to conventional air-cooled cards, on the basis that water-cooled cards, or those with integrated AIO coolers that have a range of requirements, are too large for such a program to make sense for them.
Nvidia has already listed a load of cards that conform to the standard, with unsurprisingly few truly top-tier cards making the list. There’s just one Asus ProArt RTX 4080 Super variant that’s small enough, with all other graphics cards being based on the RTX 4070 Ti Super or lower when it comes to performance.
On the case side, the likes of Fractal’s popular Ridge and Terra cases make the grade, along with the Phanteks Evolv XT. Meanwhile, dozens of other card and case manufacturers are signed up to the program.
Nvidia hasn’t yet provided a link to a list of its own that shows compatible cards and cases – as it has done with DLSS-compatible games, for instance. However, manufacturers will no doubt waste no time making sure their qualifying products show the new SFF-Ready badge loud and proud.
Nvidia also showed off its new G-Assist AI gaming feature at Computex, where we’re on the show floor getting hands on with all the latest gaming hardware, including the new Asus ROG Ally X. Check out our Computex story hub for all the latest news from the show.