Question Can I not get a flow-through GPU if I have another card installed directly behind my GPU?

[Cyber_Akuma]

Do flow-through GPUs rely on having empty space behind the card to cool properly? I have another card that is directly behind my current GPU, but I want to upgrade. Issue is the potential cards I would want to upgrade to seem to use a flow-through design, which I am worried the other card will block. Does that mean that I can't use these GPUs in my setup?

 

[Eximo]

Short answer, no, you can use any card.

Will the card run hotter and throttle sooner? Likely.

Keep in mind, until a few years ago most cards didn't have flow through designs at all. Some were lower power, some were still quite high power by today's standards.

A lot depends on the airflow in your chassis, how much power the card consumes, etc. Hard to give a definitive answer with minimal information.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

My case is a Cooler Master HAF X. It has a 230mm front fan, two 200mm top exhaust fans, a 140mm rear fan, and a 200mm side fan.

Here is an older picture showing the 2080 with the other card behind it:

https://imgur.com/I8uYMaJ

View: https://i.imgur.com/I8uYMaJ.jpg


I wanted to eventually upgrade to a 5070 Ti, preferably a two-slot card as I have other components in my system and don't want a single GPU to basically cover the entirety of my motherboard's other ports. Was considering the Asus Prime 5070 Ti since it's like a 2.25 slot card (Personally, I find it annoying that Nvidia managed to make the 5090 of all things a two-slot design, yet most third party 5070 Tis are 3+ slots... can we please move away from 3-4 slot GPUs being considered the norm?) but that card uses flow-through cooling IIRC. Not sure if it would not run hot in my setup.

 

[Eximo]

That card isn't that long, most flow through designs are only at the rear of the card. Where the GPU actually is is not a flow through so I wouldn't think there would be much difference.

Only exception would be the new FE 5090 I think.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Yes, the card is pretty short, it's a sound card. Didn't consider that the exhaust would be from the back, the card should clear it by a significant margin then.

The 5090 FE is the only one with the PCB in the middle? I thought all the 5000 series FE cards were like that, but I thought the 5000 FE cards weren't flow-through?

 

[Eximo]

Yep, you are right, the 5080 Founder's also has the PCB in the middle. Hadn't actually seen a teardown of that yet. Not that interested in them myself, as it complicates water cooling.

I don't think anyone else followed suite though, so they'll just have the rear half of the heatsink with pass through.