Card orientation question

[Darkst4r]

Probably a silly question but I was just wondering why most , if not all graphics cards seem to fit into the slots upside down ?

I don't really see the point in company's putting awesome looking artwork on their cards if you don't really get to show it off once it's put into your machine.

 

[craig3000]

Erm not really sure comes to think of it, I mean they could switch the layout of the PCB no problem, its not an airflow thing, I wouldn't imagine dual cards are an affect

The only extremely lame thing I can think of is the air underneath could be cooler but even then were talking a very small amount OR it acts as protection from anything falling into the fan , you've got me stumped, I'm sure there is a reason though

 

[Exsurgo]

Alas the BTX form factor never really took off, it had them nicely logo side up.

 

[craig3000]

Alas the BTX form factor never really took off, it had them nicely logo side up.

Interesting stuff weird CPU socket angle :/

 

[craig3000]

I know why, I know why!!!!! I don't know why I didn't say this before, it's so dust doesn't collect on the heatsink fan which would render it less effective a lot faster

Basically DUST is the reason, although if you have a dust filter it is less of a worry but there not going to change it now and not everybody has a dust filter

 

[PGdude]

I know why, I know why!!!!! I don't know why I didn't say this before, it's so dust doesn't collect on the heatsink fan which would render it less effective a lot faster

Basically DUST is the reason, although if you have a dust filter it is less of a worry but there not going to change it now and not everybody has a dust filter

My card manages to have a heck-load of dust on it anyway. Oh well

 

[AMG]

yeah they love to do that on AMD cards, I mean my two sapphires have porn on them...but you can't see it ....but I suspect its to protect them

 

[bru]

i think is just a throwback to the way the older cards were designed, back in the day when the cases were desktop, rather than tower with the cards all sitting vertical.

 

[Jakus]

Probably a silly question but I was just wondering why most , if not all graphics cards seem to fit into the slots upside down ?

I don't really see the point in company's putting awesome looking artwork on their cards if you don't really get to show it off once it's put into your machine.

Because of the ATX standard and as for the pretty pictures for the Kids, there's an old racing saying, "yeah i got plenty pretty !...Wanna swap for some Fast!!"

 

[Corasik]

The PCI express standards took many of the basic's of the PCI standard when it comes to board layout and design. PCI was designed to coexist with ISA standard cards.

ISA cards and PCI cards are designed so that motherboards could interleve the slots and have both connectors on the motherboard, so that either card could be inserted.

Therefore ISA cards are "right handed" and PCI(and PCI-e) are "left handed" if you hold the card vertically with the metal bracket on the top.

The standards may not be idea from an asthetics point of view, but they do allow GPU, motherboard and case manafacturers the ability to produce cards which will work correctly with 99.9% of computers, without worrying about exact combinations of case/motherboard/gpu etc.

Another area the standards come into play is the positioning of drive bays in the case. By knowing that the motherboards (and expansion cards) will follow set standards, certain parts of the motherboard can be positioned underneath the hard drive bays without worrying about blocking access to the slots.

Virtually all motherboards primary PCI-e slot is the one closest to the CPU, inverting the board would cause componants and coolers to overlap the memory slots, and reduce the space available for CPU coolers.

Also many high powered GPU's vent the hot air from the case, by being upside down they are drawing air from the coolest part of the case (the floor) and venting it out the back, this is a very "natual" airflow pattern. Inverting the card works against this, and without a major redesign of motherboards and cases (AKA BTX) would lead to the CPU, GPU and Powersupply all trying to draw air from the same part of the case, and it would likely be much harder to keep it all running cool, with a stable air flow.

 

[TheMorningStar]

with high end gfx solutions its actually better to have the card upside down as the heat rises through the pcb and its actually reported that this warps the cards leading to failure etc. regardless of the orientation of the card dust will always gather on the fan/heatsink