Video cards upside down

[marine73]

I realize this is not a burning topic but does anyone out there know why video cards are oriented the way they are?
Some of them look pretty cool with their heatsinks, ducts, etc. and then we mount them and all the good stuff is hidden.
I assume there is a reason this is so, just can't fathom what it might be, other than a cooling issue with those chips that
are mounted on the opposite side from the GPU.

 

[AndyHui]

AGP is an extension to the PCI standard when it all boils down. That's the way PCI cards face and it's also the way AGP cards face.

 

[blazerazor]

Dude! For REAL!!!
Ive always wondered that too. There'is more Room above for fans and cool Lights.

As for standards, If its a 'standard' then its out of date and there's something faster, smaller, cooler and probably more expensive, but the shelf life would be longer.

 

[Luagsch]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
As for standards, If its a 'standard' then its out of date and there's something faster, smaller, cooler and probably more expensive, but the shelf life would be longer.

whatever.... just wait a year, pci-express is your destiny...

 

[Elcs]

This must be a "Frequently Thought but Never Asked Question"

However it is rather unfortunate that we do lose a PCI slot with some cooling solutions. Doesnt really bother me though, I dont use all mine but I can see what problems it can cause.

 

[fkloster]

You know its funny.... My Addtronix 8500 WTX case orients everything on the OTHER side of the case so my cpu is @ the bottom of the case and all my cards face up. Better for cooling as heat dissapates better going up than facing down!

 

[LordOfAll]

the new btx standard turns it all around anyway. just wait a bit.

 

[Sheriff]

Reminds me of ISA

 

[oldfart]

You as thinking of this in a tower case configuration. Cases use to be primarily desktop. An AGP card in a desktop case is not upside down, it's on edge.

 

[Nebor]

Dust doesn't settle upside down? This question has been asked before.

 

[cow123]

oh it will settle upside down... if u have a fan blowing on it

recently had to clean off gpu heatsink, thing was kind of clogged

 

[0roo0roo]

way back they didn't think vid cards would be spitting out gobs of heat. in the olden days vid cards didn't even have heatsinks

 

[Blackroot]

Even my Geforce DDR has a little hs/f, and that thing is like ancient.

 

[0roo0roo]

geforce ddr isnt ancient, it was the first of the gpu vid cards. one of the first with active cooling for sure. ancient is a diamond stealth 24 i used to have no active cooling at all. that or one of the failed intel video cards, or a riva tnt non ultra. no fans.

then theres my monochrome hercules graphics full length card, no active cooling or sinks there either

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Three of my older Matrox vid cards, an ATi Rage, and an nVidia Vanta didn't have HS\Fs.

I'm not sure, but I don't think my other Radeon VE does either.

Every other video card I have has a HS\F on it

 

[Tsaico]

I would say it has to do with the dust factor. While many of us routinely upgrade and move stuff around and rebuild and the what not, general population doesn't. So even a year's buildup of dust can pile up on a heatsink or fan or even just chips. And whith things being as crammed as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if things started shorting because of general dust/mineral build up over teh years. But I agree, I wish tey were on the other side too... And all of my cards have at least a heat sink... but some of my isa video trident cards don't... but then again, most do not even have a meg of vid ram... the good old days of EGA

 

[jjyiz28]

Originally posted by: marine73
I realize this is not a burning topic but does anyone out there know why video cards are oriented the way they are?
Some of them look pretty cool with their heatsinks, ducts, etc. and then we mount them and all the good stuff is hidden.
I assume there is a reason this is so, just can't fathom what it might be, other than a cooling issue with those chips that
are mounted on the opposite side from the GPU.

its so that the gpu h/s does not have to contend for air with the cpu h/s.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
geforce ddr isnt ancient, it was the first of the gpu vid cards. one of the first with active cooling for sure. ancient is a diamond stealth 24 i used to have no active cooling at all. that or one of the failed intel video cards, or a riva tnt non ultra. no fans.

then theres my monochrome hercules graphics full length card, no active cooling or sinks there either

Does my 1MB Trident ISA card count as ancient? But for real though, my newest card without a HS/F is a ATI xPert98 8MB PCI (which uses the RAGE chipset). Still a great card, and I only paid $50 about 4 years ago!

 

[0roo0roo]

yea, think the newest card i have without a hsf is also ati, rage3d orsomething. ~50 bux a few years ago too

 

[Baronz]

Well I can tell you they're not gona flip them the other way so you can look at stupid LED lights

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: AndyHui
AGP is an extension to the PCI standard when it all boils down. That's the way PCI cards face and it's also the way AGP cards face.

Oddly enough, even PCI-E/BTX doesn't fix this if I recall correctly. The GPU is still upside down to fit in the "cooling tunnel" in the BTX standard.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
geforce ddr isnt ancient, it was the first of the gpu vid cards. one of the first with active cooling for sure. ancient is a diamond stealth 24 i used to have no active cooling at all. that or one of the failed intel video cards, or a riva tnt non ultra. no fans.

then theres my monochrome hercules graphics full length card, no active cooling or sinks there either

Yeah, I've got one of those Diamond Stealths too! I actually tried finding drivers for it and running it seeing how it ran but I couldn't find drivers....

But yeah, I think its just because it has stemmed from the old days like that. Motherboards with the early AGP slots were designed around that basic design and so placement of certain objects were on the other side. They would have to make space for them if they wanted to do that now. I guess some video card manufacturers could do it, but they would be very limited on space and then the trouble of people running in SFF setups.

Oh yeah, marine73, this was a great post! These are the kinds of posts that just make a person wonder and wonder...