News Enthusiast Trims RTX 4080 Down to Two Slots For SFF Build

[Admin]

As a hardware enthusiast successfully modifies a bulky RTX 4080 into compact PC-friendly dimensions, hope grows for smaller RTX 40 cards from AIBs.

Enthusiast Trims RTX 4080 Down to Two Slots For SFF Build : Read more

 

[endocine]

The coolers on the 4080 were all overkill, something more sane could have easily been implemented and still kept the thermals under reasonable control. The size of the GPUs and their power consumption has risen to absurd levels. They are cracking, melting, using way too much power and generating too much heat

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

MSI makes a 2 slot liquid cooled 4090, could have just used that.

 

[aberkae]

MSI makes a 2 slot liquid cooled 4090, could have just used that.

yep mine fits in an itx h210 case doesn't throttle even with 150 mhz oc on core and 150 mhz on memory.

New item by Aberkae Godrilla

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[kira-faye]

yep mine fits in an itx h210 case doesn't throttle even with 150 mhz oc on core and 150 mhz on memory.

New item by Aberkae Godrilla

photos.app.goo.gl

I mean, an H210 is gigantic for an ITX case, so that's not really saying much.

 

[jkhoward]

MSI makes a 2 slot liquid cooled 4090, could have just used that.

The size of the heatsink is an old marketing trick, the bigger the better, hence Intel and AMD’s giant CPU boxes.

 

[umeng2002_2]

Or the rumors about these cards originally using like 600 watts were true.

 

[WinThenChill]

MSI makes a 2 slot liquid cooled 4090, could have just used that.

The liquid cooled 4090 by MSI is effectively more than twice the size of this modded 4080 though. If you take the measurements of both the card (280x140x43) and the radiator + fan (274x121x55), the MSI is by all means a huge card.
The modded 4080 has a much smaller footprint and can be used in many small form factor cases that otherwise are limited to 4070 cards at best.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

"Dreams of dual-slot, dual-fan air-cooled RTX 4080 GPUs can come true."

I'd keep the 4 slots over a 20° increase

 

[Joseph_138]

Look at the difference in those operating temps, though. Over time, that's going to have a detrimental effect on the longevity of the GPU. Performance could also be impaired if it starts throttling. If you're someone who upgrades every time something better comes out, it might not be a problem, but if you're like most people, who keep their cards for several years, you may end up having to replace it earlier than you budgeted for.

 

[Joseph_138]

MSI makes a 2 slot liquid cooled 4090, could have just used that.

"Dreams of dual-slot, dual-fan air-cooled RTX 4080 GPUs can come true."

You obviously missed this part. The whole point was to make an air cooled card. Having to install a separate radiator and fan assembly is like adding a second video card, in terms of space, which actually makes it 4x wide. You're not saving any space at all.

 

[WinThenChill]

Look at the difference in those operating temps, though. Over time, that's going to have a detrimental effect on the longevity of the GPU. Performance could also be impaired if it starts throttling. If you're someone who upgrades every time something better comes out, it might not be a problem, but if you're like most people, who keep their cards for several years, you may end up having to replace it earlier than you budgeted for.

Those temperatures should be more than fine and not even have a remotely significant impact on the longevity of the GPU though. 71ºC for the core and 84ºC for the hotspot are well within spec and under the safe maximum operating temperatures (90ºC/110ºC for the core and hotspot respectively). Throttling shouldn't even take place until the core reading, not the hotspot, reaches ~84ºC.

Besides, you can always undervolt or power limit and drop both power usage and temperatures a decent amount while barely losing performance. In the original Reddit post, a 75% power limit yielded a 24% reduction in power draw (from 295.7W to 236.8W), a ~9ºC core and 11ºC hotspot drop in temps, at only a 2.27% performance hit (208.7 vs 204 avg fps).

 

[WinThenChill]

"Dreams of dual-slot, dual-fan air-cooled RTX 4080 GPUs can come true."

I'd keep the 4 slots over a 20° increase

Fair enough, although it should't be a matter of either or, but rather of choice. Sure, having a maximum of 57ºC instead of 70ºC for your GPU is awesome, but it requires having a fairly big case to fit this generation's gigantic GPUs, which is fine, some people like yourself prefer it. However, having a smaller 2 slot 2 fan 4080 would be viable, as proven with this mod, and would open up the amount of cases you could use. It would perfect for people who take their PC with them often or who simply need/prefer their PC to have a small footprint.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Fair enough, although it should't be a matter of either or, but rather of choice. Sure, having a maximum of 57ºC instead of 70ºC for your GPU is awesome, but it requires having a fairly big case to fit this generation's gigantic GPUs, which is fine, some people like yourself prefer it. However, having a smaller 2 slot 2 fan 4080 would be viable, as proven with this mod, and would open up the amount of cases you could use. It would perfect for people who take their PC with them often or who simply need/prefer their PC to have a small footprint.

Possibly. I might have missed it in the article but don't recall what case was used for these tests.

In a SMFF those temps could be even higher

 

[WinThenChill]

Possibly. I might have missed it in the article but don't recall what case was used for these tests.

In a SMFF those temps could be even higher

Yeah depending on the case and GPU orientation temps could be higher,. The original post mentions temps being 5ºC-6ºC degrees higher when mounted vertically in a Velka 7, which is one of the smaller cases you'd be able to fit this card into. I personally would use a 75% power limit since it considerably reduces temps and power draw at a barely noticeable performance hit, but keeping it stock would still be viable.

 

[falcon291]

The coolers on the 4080 were all overkill, something more sane could have easily been implemented and still kept the thermals under reasonable control. The size of the GPUs and their power consumption has risen to absurd levels. They are cracking, melting, using way too much power and generating too much heat

You are contradicting yourself. Do 4080s need powerful coolers or not?

 

[aberkae]

I mean, an H210 is gigantic for an ITX case, so that's not really saying much.

True, it fits a full atx psu. If you want a small factor case the Lianli A4H2O small factor 11 liter case still fits wait for it a 240 mm radiator. I'll take a hybrid design any day over 30 degrees higher delta temperature, chance of throttling, dumping hot air on other components creating a chance of more throttling especially in small form factor pcs. For me the h210 is a perfect balance between size, performance without throttling, fits a noctua d15 to cool my 7800X3D and costs $79.99.

 

[endocine]

You are contradicting yourself. Do 4080s need powerful coolers or not?

There is some nuance to that, while its true that GPUs are too hot and use too much power, which causes the heatsink-fan assemblies to be very large and which is an upward trend, in the case of the 4080 the coolers were borrowed from the 4090 which is a much larger and hotter chip and not entirely required to sufficiently cool the 4080.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

There is some nuance to that, while its true that GPUs are too hot and use too much power, which causes the heatsink-fan assemblies to be very large and which is an upward trend, in the case of the 4080 the coolers were borrowed from the 4090 which is a much larger and hotter chip and not entirely required to sufficiently cool the 4080.

While maybe not ideal in every circumstance, id be thrilled if my card had an oversized cooler allowing for plenty of headroom and the average user not to have to worry.

I have a 4090 and the size is clunky but it also has never gone above 68.x°C. Having that piece of mind that I'm maxing my card out and have never touched 70 is quality piece of mind that I'm happy to have as a tradeoff for the size but it's subjective.

I can see wanted a smaller card but not at 20C more.

Yes cards are more power hungry and generate more heat but there's no avoiding that. They have to get bigger. If you look at the PCB is actually smaller or about the same as many cards back in the day. So that they aren't the size of arcade cabinets is amazing and impressive.

 

[falcon291]

There is some nuance to that, while its true that GPUs are too hot and use too much power, which causes the heatsink-fan assemblies to be very large and which is an upward trend, in the case of the 4080 the coolers were borrowed from the 4090 which is a much larger and hotter chip and not entirely required to sufficiently cool the 4080.

4080 is not as power hungry as 4090, that is true, but still dropping down to 4070 coolers would mean higher temperatures, less performance. I just do not want to check the temperature all the time.