Do you think video cards are up-side down?

[Looney1a]

I was thinking, wouldn't it be better for the gpu/vpu to be on the other side of the video card. That way it would be blowing hot air up (where most people have a cooling fan in their case, blowing out the rear), instead of blowing hot air all over the pci slots below it. Well anyway, just a thought.

Looney

 

[Viper96720]

I'm assuming the manufacturers didn't put the gpu on that side for no reason. They could probably design the cards with the GPU on either side. Would you rather have more hot air going towards the cpu? If I wanted my GPU cooler I would use one of those PCI fan thingies. Could put in the slot next to the agp. Since I never use that slot anyways.

 

[botchla]

depends

 

[JHutch]

I think Viper hit the reason. The GPU on the other side of the card would be exhausting hot air against the CPU, which is already the most temperature critical device in my system. As it is, there is still radiated heat from the back of the card going toward the CPU, but the majority of the hot air is pushed downward, where, depending on the air flow in your case, it spreads out before moving upwards through case again.

Plus, those PCI fans can move quite a bit of heat out from the case if they are place right below the video card.

JHutch

 

[MadTom]

Nice idea. However they are doing it this way, since the processor is just above the graphic card (commonly). Probably it's some kind of standard in motherboard designs.

 

[Shalmanese]

the reason the video cards are the "wrong" way was that, in ye olde days of ISA, the ISA slot was the "right" way around. When PCI came around, some smart guy decided the idea that a shared ISA/PCI slot would be a good idea (and it was!) to save room but they were now the "wrong" way. When AGP came around, most of the first AGP cards were layed out exactly the same as PCI cards to save cost. This meant that the AGP cards had to go the "wrong" way the same as PCI cards. Frankly, nobody back then really anticipated heat dissapation as that big a problem and it was definately a more insignificant problem than redesigning a card just to turn it the other way around. Now, the AGP spec allows ~ 1mm of room above the AGP card so theres not much chance for anything to fit there.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: Shalmanese
the reason the video cards are the "wrong" way was that, in ye olde days of ISA, the ISA slot was the "right" way around. When PCI came around, some smart guy decided the idea that a shared ISA/PCI slot would be a good idea (and it was!) to save room but they were now the "wrong" way. When AGP came around, most of the first AGP cards were layed out exactly the same as PCI cards to save cost. This meant that the AGP cards had to go the "wrong" way the same as PCI cards. Frankly, nobody back then really anticipated heat dissapation as that big a problem and it was definately a more insignificant problem than redesigning a card just to turn it the other way around. Now, the AGP spec allows ~ 1mm of room above the AGP card so theres not much chance for anything to fit there.

what this brotha said.

 

[sechs]

Really, the correct answer is because your computer is in the wrong orientation.

 

[Smilin]

I think they should flip it upside down if for no other reason than it lets you see the kewl heatsinks through your plexiglass case.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Shalmanese
the reason the video cards are the "wrong" way was that, in ye olde days of ISA, the ISA slot was the "right" way around. When PCI came around, some smart guy decided the idea that a shared ISA/PCI slot would be a good idea (and it was!) to save room but they were now the "wrong" way. When AGP came around, most of the first AGP cards were layed out exactly the same as PCI cards to save cost. This meant that the AGP cards had to go the "wrong" way the same as PCI cards. Frankly, nobody back then really anticipated heat dissapation as that big a problem and it was definately a more insignificant problem than redesigning a card just to turn it the other way around. Now, the AGP spec allows ~ 1mm of room above the AGP card so theres not much chance for anything to fit there.

Yup, he's right. Also, pretty much all cases were of the desktop style (as opposed to towers which are the norm now), so there really wasn't any "up" or "down". AGP, as an extension of PCI, merely conforms to the same standards: downward facing components. It has been discussed and it makes a lot more sense to have the GPU on top, but it just can't happen until the AGP spec is changed.

 

[techfuzz]

This is all a moot point really. AGP 8X is the last incantation of the AGP spec before it is to be "replaced" by PCI Express. Since PCI Express is supposed to be backwards compatible with PCI and way back when PCI and AGP 1X was supposed to be compatible. So in theory PCI Express is just like PCI which is backwards to ISA. So we draw our conclusions that we will not be seeing the GPU on the "top" of cards any time in the near future.

 

[sechs]

If the components were on the otherside, it wouldn't work very well with AGP Pro.

 

[PoolMaster]

I have one of those pci cooler thingies right by my vid card and it works great.