Cute, tiny card. Why we buy full lenght cards when the small one has exactly the same performance and gives us way more airflow space inside rig?

Cute, tiny card. Why we buy full lenght cards when the small one has exactly the same performance and gives us way more airflow space inside rig?

That's a really good question.

Cute, tiny card. Why we buy full lenght cards when the small one has exactly the same performance and gives us way more airflow space inside rig?

That's a really good question.

These cards are not new as these small mini versions have been around since the GTX 670 I believe, but in answer to the question... they do not perform the same. First, they are clocked slower on both the GPU and usually on the memory too, although not by much. The next reason is that because the cooler is smaller, the temps will run higher and while that is fine for stock speeds, it does limit overclocking potential, although this is not such a big issue with the 9xx cards as they are much cooler to begin with than the hotter running GTX 670's. Also to do with the cooling, on the larger versions the fans are often able to completely stop (ASUS and MSI have this feature) thus meaning the card is effectually a passively cooled card and therefore silent, with the fans only spinning up when needed (thermally controlled). These smaller cards need the fans to run much more often (even constantly) and often spin significantly faster which raises noise. Personally I think these cards are awesome and I would get one of these, slap on a full cover water block and water cool it, thus allowing me to overclock the card to the full potential just like it's larger brother without any noise increase.

I just go for whichever has the nicest cooler for the money size in my case is irrelevent, now in a nice lan party machine this would be awesome.

Cute, tiny card. Why we buy full lenght cards when the small one has exactly the same performance and gives us way more airflow space inside rig?

Don't these small cards run quite warm because it's such a small heatsink? and then they'll be noisy because it's just one fan trying to do all the work of cooling it. Also I don't see people getting much overclocking out of small cards

They run about 5-10 C hotter and no overclockers but hey if someone buy such a card wont do it for o'cing but due to size. So if you have a decent-cooling case and don't care for OC then you may buy one of these(or two),price is almost the same with "bigger" brothers.

lol imagine this quad sli.

this 1 looks even better than the gigabyte one. The vapor chamber should really make a big difference compared to the mini itx gigabyte version without one. Asus has always made the best mini itx versions of cards and I have no doubts it will continue that tradition. I wish someone would get extra daring and make a mini itx 980. I know it could technically be done as the 980 doesn't really put off that much more heat than the 970. Sure the card would be loud as they would really have to crank up the rpms on a mini itx 980 but there would still be a big enthusiast niche surrounding it. Someday I would like to connect a badass gaming HTPC to my 55" oled and a mini itx 980 would find a good home with me in that role.

After a month of it's release I've searched all over to find out a review about the Gigabyte mini with no luck. Later on somewhere i've found a user complaining about the noise. At the same time others were praising its quietness so this was no clean-cut. As I am thinking about upgrading to the 9xx series this mini itx is really appealing but noise was my concern when i have read about it. Even if the 9xx series cards are less power hungry compared to the previous gens there's no way such a small cooler can keep those cards cool under load while staying quiet.

This card looks really great for small machines, but perhaps it would be better to just get a case that supports longer cards, like Raven RVZ01?

After a month of it's release I've searched all over to find out a review about the Gigabyte mini with no luck. Later on somewhere i've found a user complaining about the noise. At the same time others were praising its quietness so this was no clean-cut. As I am thinking about upgrading to the 9xx series this mini itx is really appealing but noise was my concern when i have read about it. Even if the 9xx series cards are less power hungry compared to the previous gens there's no way such a small cooler can keep those cards cool under load while staying quiet.

You said yourself that you haven't seen a review so it is hardly fair to make such a conclusion. I can't speak for Gigabyte's cards but previous mini cards from ASUS have been very good at cooling while keeping things quiet. Personally I would wait for a review.

I also wanted get GTX 970 mini version from Gigabyte but after research obvious logic dictated smaller headsink and one fan, there will be problems and I have plenty space in my PC case