Question What is PCB form factor ATX for PCIe Graphics Card?

[mmp09]

Hi,
While reviewing specs for GeForce RTX™ 3060 GAMING card by Gigabyte, as an example.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N3060GAMING-OC-12GD-rev-10/sp#sp

I came across this term PCB Form ATX.
I know ATX Case and ATX motherboard, but how to interpret this spec?
Does it mean that I need to have ATX Case to fit this card?
e.g. a mATX case may not have space after last expansion slot and many cards occupy two slots physically?
Thanks

 

[rgd1101]

the card size is right above
Card size
L=282 W=117 H=41 mm

probably marketing error

 

[Eximo]

We don't talk about it much, but everything that interfaces with the chassis is ATX, that is what makes it a standard.

Advanced Technology eXtended is the official name.

ATX power supply
ATX Motherboard
ATX Expansion cards. These accept ATX power (when applicable) and fit in standard ATX form factor chassis.

Gotten more muddled with PCI-SIG also defining power standards related to ATX.

You could make a non conforming expansion card, but then who would you sell it to? Apple has done it a few times, but they tend to stay close enough to ATX so that third party cards still work.

ASUS and their powered slot concept is branching out as well. Don't think that is catching on, even with OEMs. They would have to make wider boards then they are used to, only to accommodate a likely short lived approach.

 

[BFG-9000]

It means the card will not fit into BTX systems because the heatsink is too tall.

See, with BTX the GPU heatsink faces up instead of downwards like ATX when installed in a vertical tower case, so very long video cards will have a height limit for the GPU heatsink before it impinges on the CPU cooler. It's the same PCIe slot but there are size restrictions from where it's placed.

 

[Eximo]

It means the card will not fit into BTX systems because the heatsink is too tall.

See, with BTX the GPU heatsink faces up instead of downwards like ATX when installed in a vertical tower case, so very long video cards will have a height limit for the GPU heatsink before it impinges on the CPU cooler. It's the same PCIe slot but there are size restrictions from where it's placed.

BTX was quite short lived though, and only came in OEM machines with little expectation of large gaming GPUs. Intended also for passive heatsinks for CPUs with the chassis providing the necessary airflow.

Despite some of the 4090 cards being "ATX", they don't fit in all chassis. Either length or height. Also the possibility of running into motherboard I/O on older boards.

The standards are more like guidelines these days.

 

[BFG-9000]

🤷‍♂️ that formfactor spec has been on Gigabyte's spec pages for a dozen years now, since 600 series Kepler. I'm just explaining why it was first put there way back then. And even back then it was not intended as a guarantee that it would fit into any ATX chassis. It's just still there in the template.

Dell used BTX in their most expensive gaming XPS and Alienware gaming systems factory equipped with the largest and highest performance GPUs of the time back then, with essentially a custom 4-slot-tall but not very deep CPU cooler atop them. They were Intel Kool-Aid drinkers back then, and Intel told them BTX was better, even though it meant the GPU heatsink directly received the hot blast of preheated air from the CPU cooler. Well it was certainly better for the Intel CPU.

 

[Eximo]

I was aware Intel pushed it as a replacement for ATX.

Not finding any specific Alienware models with a BTX motherboard, but I don't doubt there may have been some. That was right around when Dell acquired them.

There were a number of XPS machines with BTX boards, and plenty of regular Dell and HP machines. The rest were pretty much straight from Intel motherboards (back when they used to do that)