RTX 3080 'Flow Through' Cooler Explained

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Graphics Card: A Compact Powerhouse with Flow-Through Cooling Design

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition is a powerful graphics card that offers impressive performance and features. With its dimensions of 242 millimeters in length and 112 millimeters in height, it takes up more space than the RTX 2060 Super's equivalent model, but still fits within most ITX cases. The RTX 3080FE maintains the same two-slot thickness as the standard RTX 2080 Ti, making it a great option for those who want to build a compact PC without sacrificing performance.

However, there is one significant difference between the RTX 3080FE and the standard RTX 3080. The former has an extended length of 285 millimeters, while the latter's full-length model stretches to 313 millimeters in length. This extra length makes the FE model slightly more challenging to accommodate in smaller cases like the Silverstone SG13.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1390 Founders Edition is another notable graphics card from the series. With its three slots and height of 138 millimeters (not including the power connector), it requires more space than most ITX cases can offer. This makes it unsuitable for smaller cases like the Den A4 or Ghost S1, which are only two slots wide. The Cooler Master NR200 and Silverstone SM580 might be able to accommodate this card, but it's essential to check the specific dimensions before purchasing.

The RTX 3080FE comes with NVIDIA's flow-through cooling design, which is an innovative approach to heat dissipation. This design features a fan blowing hot air from the graphics card towards the back of the case, where it can be exhausted by a top or bottom exhaust fan. However, this airflow problem might pose a challenge in smaller ITX cases like the Den A4 or Ghost S1.

The RTX 3080FE's flow-through cooling design is quite effective, but its compact size makes it tricky to work with in certain cases. Most of these challenges can be overcome by using larger cases or custom water cooling solutions. However, for those who want to build a powerful PC without sacrificing performance, the RTX 3080FE might be an excellent option.

One potential solution to this airflow problem is the use of aftermarket cards with no back plate covering the airflow of the last fan. These designs can help mitigate some of the issues associated with flow-through cooling in ITX cases. Another possible approach is using liquid cooling solutions, which could provide a more effective way to cool the graphics card and address any heat-related issues.

In conclusion, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition is an impressive graphics card that offers excellent performance and features. Its compact size makes it suitable for ITX builds, but its flow-through cooling design poses some challenges in smaller cases. By using larger cases or custom water cooling solutions, these issues can be addressed, making this card a great option for those who want to build powerful PCs without sacrificing performance.

NVIDIA's RTX 3080 and 3090 Founders Editions: A Review of the Compact Powerhouse

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 Founders Editions are two of the most powerful graphics cards currently available. With their impressive performance and features, they are a great option for those who want to build high-performance PCs without sacrificing space or cooling issues.

One notable aspect of these cards is their compact design. The RTX 3080FE measures 242 millimeters in length and 112 millimeters in height, making it suitable for ITX builds. However, its flow-through cooling design poses some challenges in smaller cases like the Den A4 or Ghost S1.

The RTX 1390 Founders Edition is another notable graphics card from NVIDIA's recent lineup. With its three slots and height of 138 millimeters (not including the power connector), it requires more space than most ITX cases can offer. This makes it unsuitable for smaller cases like the Den A4 or Ghost S1, which are only two slots wide.

The Cooler Master NR200 and Silverstone SM580 might be able to accommodate this card, but it's essential to check the specific dimensions before purchasing. The RTX 1390 FE comes with NVIDIA's flow-through cooling design, which is an innovative approach to heat dissipation.

In recent months, we've seen a significant shift in the way graphics cards are designed and marketed. Many board partners have opted for larger cards with more aggressive cooling solutions, making them less suitable for compact ITX builds. However, there are still some options available that can accommodate smaller cases without sacrificing performance.

One potential solution to this challenge is the use of aftermarket cards with no back plate covering the airflow of the last fan. These designs can help mitigate some of the issues associated with flow-through cooling in ITX cases. Another possible approach is using liquid cooling solutions, which could provide a more effective way to cool the graphics card and address any heat-related issues.

In conclusion, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 Founders Editions are powerful graphics cards that offer excellent performance and features. Their compact design makes them suitable for ITX builds, but their flow-through cooling design poses some challenges in smaller cases. By using larger cases or custom water cooling solutions, these issues can be addressed, making these cards a great option for those who want to build high-performance PCs without sacrificing space or performance.

NVIDIA's RTX 3080 and 3090 Founders Editions: A Compact Powerhouse with Flow-Through Cooling Design

NVIDIA's RTX 3080 and

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enafter the recent announcement of nvidia's rtx 30 series gpus i received a lot of questions about the coolers that the founders edition cards will be using it's a very unique cooling design and looking at the airflow setup it's likely to perform either really good or really bad depending on which case you put it in so if you are interested in picking up either the rtx 3070 3080 or 3090 this video should give you some more insight on whether you might want to consider picking up the founders edition card with the new flow through cooler or consider picking up a conventional open air cooler from a board partner and of course without the physical cards actually in hand yet this won't be a temperature or thermal review there won't be actual numbers in this video but this is more so just to take a closer look at explaining the thermal design and airflow setup and taking a look at where this will and probably won't work so let's start off by breaking down this new cooler design and i'll use the rtx 3080 as a reference firstly the heatsink is significantly larger compared to the rtx 20 series fe cards extending pretty much all the way to the card's 2-slot thickness as opposed to leaving some of that volume for the faceplate or shroud here's where the thermal design gets interesting though the first fan operates as intake right near the io forcing cool air onto the heatsink which is then channeled directly out of the case near the rear i o just like a blower card except here the process seems a lot more efficient cool air is taken in and immediately shoved out of the heatsink in a short space that means there's no time or space for that hot air to recirculate to the rest of your system or back into the card then we have the second fan at the opposite end of the card and at the top and since the founders edition pcb is a lot smaller and also v-shaped this second heatsink is completely open at either end allowing air to pass completely all the way through the exterior metal frame of the founders edition cards helps channel this direction of airflow and overall creates a really interesting cooler design the two thin arrays located at the middle of the cooler are attached directly to four heat pipes although they don't receive active cooling like the two primary heat sink areas these instead just serve to increase the total surface area of the entire heatsink a bit more and receive more passive cooling as the air passing through these fins will be a lot slower in velocity the fins are spaced out a lot more than the actively cooled portion so this flow through cooler design is optimized around a mid tower case system where you have cool air coming through the front of the case and exhaust fans placed at the top and rear the only concern with a mid-tower case is when using an air cooler for the cpu the air going into that cooler is going to be a lot warmer since some of it is going to be coming from the top exhaust fan from the graphics card aio based setups with the radiator positioned at the front of the case shouldn't encounter this issue although you might with a radiator that is rear or top mounted for the most part you should be totally fine with a mid tower case that has enough airflow itx cases on the other hand are a completely different story but before we dive into the thermal challenges there let's just take a look at whether the 3080 and 3090 will even fit into many popular itx cases for the rtx 3070 founders edition that will fit in pretty much anything except those itx cases that are 5 liters in volume and below the 3070 fe comes in at 242 millimeters in length and 112 millimeters in height which makes it roughly 14 millimeters longer than the fe cooler for the rtx 2060 super the rtx 3080 maintains that same two slot thickness and 112 millimeters in height however the length is now stretched slightly longer than the full length 20 series founders edition cards at 285 millimeters again most itx cases will have no problem with this such as the encase m1 nr 200 ghost s1 and nzxt h1 but smaller cases such as the silverstone sg13 won't be able to physically accommodate the 3080fe the rtx 1390 founders edition is a big graphics card though three slots 138 millimeters in height not including the power connector that needs to exit at the front and 313 millimeters in length this will not fit in most itx cases and anything that is only two slots is immediately off the menu like a den a4 or ghost s1 a couple of cases that do come to mind that can fit the 3090 founders edition are the cooler master nr200 and the sliger sm580 this also applies to most of the rtx 3080 and 3090 board partner cards that are two and a half to three slots most of them are tall long triple fan designs that require at least 300 mils in length however there might be some hope if you are looking to build with that monster rtx 3090 in a relatively compact itx case and that's because the water blocks that are coming out on the market are relatively small ek have released one of their water block designs for the rtx 3080 and 3090 and that looks only around 250 mils in length this block is for the reference pcb though which the founders edition cards do not use so we're still waiting to see which cards this block is compatible with despite the water block itself being quite small though there's still a huge question around how much radiator volume you'll need given the power ratings for the 3090 and 3080 are quite high thermal testing and finding a suitable water cooled configuration is going to be interesting for sure now back to the flow through airflow design as it does pose a problem for some itx cases although the rtx 3080 fe will fit in sandwich layout cases like the ghost s1 and dna4 since the back plate sits so close to the spine of the case that's exactly where the top exhaust fan is going to be blowing that means more noise due to turbulence since there's an object closer to the fan blades and also very limited space and direction for that hot air to escape even with a top or bottom exhaust fan i'm doubtful that you'll be able to overcome this airflow problem some of you have noted that in the den a4 it is possible to flip the power supply orientation to have the fan facing the graphics card fan instead i'm just not sure the psu fan can create enough pressure to make that work there is one sandwich layout case which i think will be able to work with this 3080 founders edition and that's the 10 liter formed t1 in this case it's possible to offset the power supply away from the graphics card allowing for a pocket of air between them that can be exhausted from a fan above it now i have been looking for more compact card and cooler designs from the board partners such as asus evga and msi however it just looks like they're plainly avoiding compact cards for this series so far i haven't found any two slot rtx 3080s yet apart from the founders edition and i think two slot rtx 3090s will just be completely out of the question and that's likely for a good reason these cards pull quite a bit of juice overall the flow-through cooling design is one of the more interesting ones that we've seen on a graphics card and for many larger cases i can see it working quite well it'll be interesting to see whether it poses a problem for large tower coolers for cpus which will consequently be taking some of that hot air in by the way a lot of aftermarket cars also use a shorter pcb with no back plate covering the airflow of that last fan so you'll end up with a similar vertical airflow path as the founders edition kind of heading towards the cpu cooler and the top of the case liquid cooling looks like a pretty solid bet though if you're looking to build a powerful 3080 or 3090 rig as compact as possible and i think a dual radiator setup will be likely required so those are my thoughts on the new founders edition calling design before we jump into all of the testing and i would love to know your thoughts down below as always a huge thanks for watching and i'll see you all in the next oneafter the recent announcement of nvidia's rtx 30 series gpus i received a lot of questions about the coolers that the founders edition cards will be using it's a very unique cooling design and looking at the airflow setup it's likely to perform either really good or really bad depending on which case you put it in so if you are interested in picking up either the rtx 3070 3080 or 3090 this video should give you some more insight on whether you might want to consider picking up the founders edition card with the new flow through cooler or consider picking up a conventional open air cooler from a board partner and of course without the physical cards actually in hand yet this won't be a temperature or thermal review there won't be actual numbers in this video but this is more so just to take a closer look at explaining the thermal design and airflow setup and taking a look at where this will and probably won't work so let's start off by breaking down this new cooler design and i'll use the rtx 3080 as a reference firstly the heatsink is significantly larger compared to the rtx 20 series fe cards extending pretty much all the way to the card's 2-slot thickness as opposed to leaving some of that volume for the faceplate or shroud here's where the thermal design gets interesting though the first fan operates as intake right near the io forcing cool air onto the heatsink which is then channeled directly out of the case near the rear i o just like a blower card except here the process seems a lot more efficient cool air is taken in and immediately shoved out of the heatsink in a short space that means there's no time or space for that hot air to recirculate to the rest of your system or back into the card then we have the second fan at the opposite end of the card and at the top and since the founders edition pcb is a lot smaller and also v-shaped this second heatsink is completely open at either end allowing air to pass completely all the way through the exterior metal frame of the founders edition cards helps channel this direction of airflow and overall creates a really interesting cooler design the two thin arrays located at the middle of the cooler are attached directly to four heat pipes although they don't receive active cooling like the two primary heat sink areas these instead just serve to increase the total surface area of the entire heatsink a bit more and receive more passive cooling as the air passing through these fins will be a lot slower in velocity the fins are spaced out a lot more than the actively cooled portion so this flow through cooler design is optimized around a mid tower case system where you have cool air coming through the front of the case and exhaust fans placed at the top and rear the only concern with a mid-tower case is when using an air cooler for the cpu the air going into that cooler is going to be a lot warmer since some of it is going to be coming from the top exhaust fan from the graphics card aio based setups with the radiator positioned at the front of the case shouldn't encounter this issue although you might with a radiator that is rear or top mounted for the most part you should be totally fine with a mid tower case that has enough airflow itx cases on the other hand are a completely different story but before we dive into the thermal challenges there let's just take a look at whether the 3080 and 3090 will even fit into many popular itx cases for the rtx 3070 founders edition that will fit in pretty much anything except those itx cases that are 5 liters in volume and below the 3070 fe comes in at 242 millimeters in length and 112 millimeters in height which makes it roughly 14 millimeters longer than the fe cooler for the rtx 2060 super the rtx 3080 maintains that same two slot thickness and 112 millimeters in height however the length is now stretched slightly longer than the full length 20 series founders edition cards at 285 millimeters again most itx cases will have no problem with this such as the encase m1 nr 200 ghost s1 and nzxt h1 but smaller cases such as the silverstone sg13 won't be able to physically accommodate the 3080fe the rtx 1390 founders edition is a big graphics card though three slots 138 millimeters in height not including the power connector that needs to exit at the front and 313 millimeters in length this will not fit in most itx cases and anything that is only two slots is immediately off the menu like a den a4 or ghost s1 a couple of cases that do come to mind that can fit the 3090 founders edition are the cooler master nr200 and the sliger sm580 this also applies to most of the rtx 3080 and 3090 board partner cards that are two and a half to three slots most of them are tall long triple fan designs that require at least 300 mils in length however there might be some hope if you are looking to build with that monster rtx 3090 in a relatively compact itx case and that's because the water blocks that are coming out on the market are relatively small ek have released one of their water block designs for the rtx 3080 and 3090 and that looks only around 250 mils in length this block is for the reference pcb though which the founders edition cards do not use so we're still waiting to see which cards this block is compatible with despite the water block itself being quite small though there's still a huge question around how much radiator volume you'll need given the power ratings for the 3090 and 3080 are quite high thermal testing and finding a suitable water cooled configuration is going to be interesting for sure now back to the flow through airflow design as it does pose a problem for some itx cases although the rtx 3080 fe will fit in sandwich layout cases like the ghost s1 and dna4 since the back plate sits so close to the spine of the case that's exactly where the top exhaust fan is going to be blowing that means more noise due to turbulence since there's an object closer to the fan blades and also very limited space and direction for that hot air to escape even with a top or bottom exhaust fan i'm doubtful that you'll be able to overcome this airflow problem some of you have noted that in the den a4 it is possible to flip the power supply orientation to have the fan facing the graphics card fan instead i'm just not sure the psu fan can create enough pressure to make that work there is one sandwich layout case which i think will be able to work with this 3080 founders edition and that's the 10 liter formed t1 in this case it's possible to offset the power supply away from the graphics card allowing for a pocket of air between them that can be exhausted from a fan above it now i have been looking for more compact card and cooler designs from the board partners such as asus evga and msi however it just looks like they're plainly avoiding compact cards for this series so far i haven't found any two slot rtx 3080s yet apart from the founders edition and i think two slot rtx 3090s will just be completely out of the question and that's likely for a good reason these cards pull quite a bit of juice overall the flow-through cooling design is one of the more interesting ones that we've seen on a graphics card and for many larger cases i can see it working quite well it'll be interesting to see whether it poses a problem for large tower coolers for cpus which will consequently be taking some of that hot air in by the way a lot of aftermarket cars also use a shorter pcb with no back plate covering the airflow of that last fan so you'll end up with a similar vertical airflow path as the founders edition kind of heading towards the cpu cooler and the top of the case liquid cooling looks like a pretty solid bet though if you're looking to build a powerful 3080 or 3090 rig as compact as possible and i think a dual radiator setup will be likely required so those are my thoughts on the new founders edition calling design before we jump into all of the testing and i would love to know your thoughts down below as always a huge thanks for watching and i'll see you all in the next one\n"

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