News

NVIDIA wants to make building Small-Form Factor PCs easier with its SFF-Ready guidelines

NVIDIA will be launching a new program for enthusiast GeForce cards and cases. As its name implies, it is a set of guidelines for gamers interested in building small-form factor PCs with a GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card. The company says the program not only involves AIB partners such as ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, but also other partners including case manufacturers and PSU brands, working together to meet the standards as laid out in the guidelines. With the rise in popularity of Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs, there has been a growing demand for more powerful and efficient components that can fit into these compact builds. This trend has not gone unnoticed by NVIDIA, who is keen to bring some order to the chaotic range of components that are making this market segment difficult to thrive now. The company’s latest initiative, the SFF-Ready guidelines, aims to address the unique challenges posed by these smaller systems. By providing a standardised set of recommendations, NVIDIA hopes to streamline the development process for manufacturers and ensure a higher level of compatibility and performance across the board. The requirements are quite comprehensive, but in short, to meet the SFF-Ready standard, the minimum GPU must be a GPU from the family – so it also means including the and the It also specifies that the maximum dimensions of the graphics card should not occupy more than 2.5 slots, and should not be larger than 50mm in thickness, 304mm in length and 151mm in width. It should also include a power cable. If you’re wondering why NVIDIA isn’t starting the minimum GPU with a GeForce RTX 4060, the devil lies in the details. As mentioned earlier, NVIDIA is clearly targeting enthusiasts. The RTX 4060, however, is considered a mainstream (budget, if you will) GPU whereas the RTX 4070 and beyond are generally more favoured by PC DIY builders as it can run games at 1440p comfortably and even 4K with some titles too. As it is, there are already components that meet NVIDIA’s guidelines ( ), but it will be interesting to see how and where manufacturers might innovate their future products moving forward.