Why does the 7900GT fan face downwards?

[Artheas]

I'm new to 'custom PCs', built a machine with an Abit an8-sli mobo with an XFX 7900GT Extreme.
The 7900GT is 'upside down' and the fan faces downwards.

The mobo is the right way round as far as i can tell lol... PCI slots line up with the case, so it must be right. Case is Akasa Eclipse-62.

It just seems rather stupid/inefficient to have a fan that blows hot air directly downwards.

Is there something i'm missing?

 

[NightSt@lk3r]

all GPU's face downwards it how they have always been

 

[Artheas]

all GPU's face downwards it how they have always been

Looking at the arctic freezer 64 pro hovering above the graphics card, it would make perfect sense to blow the hot air upwards, even if hot air didnt rise!

I wonder why no card manufacturer has changed it..

Oh well, thanks for answering my newb question

 

[NightSt@lk3r]

because then the heat will be going directly to the CPU and ram area

 

[Artheas]

because then the heat will be going directly to the CPU and ram area

But any exhaust fan would take care of that.

Asssuming there wasnt one fitted though, i still find it bizarre. It's like peeing into the wind.

 

[Journey]

A BTX chassis will put the expansion slots above the CPU/RAM and the Gfx card would stay pointing downward, so the hot air all ready be at the top of the case, and be pushed downwoard by th fan.

 

[sunlitsix]

some cases are designed so that the motherboard goes in upside down, so the fan would face up.
but it is the norm for the fan to face downwards