Gfx cards fans on wrong side or what?

[abacab]

Could someone tell me why GPU fans on gfx cards are facing down, they seem to be built like this. Heat goes up so the fan is pushing it back on the gpu, well.... it cools it too but you know I though that if they built the card on the other side, first heat would dissipate better and second, the fan could pull the heat up. I don't know, if they did it the way it is they must have a reason, my old 3dfx V3 was like that too and if you had a V3 you sure noticed that the heatsink was REALLY hot, I sometimes wondered how it could stand all that heat!!

Well anyway post what you think...

[causticVapor]

Yeah, it's yet another flaw in the aging x-ATX specification. When ATX was originally designed, graphics cards didn't put out enough heat to justify heatsinking. No to mention the only fan was to be the one in the PSU. :eek: How times have changed.

Admittedly, the upside-down orientation of AGP cards is thermally retentive, but it does allow for cool intake air to be pushed onto the core of the card, which is what really matters. Hot air gets pushed off the sides and eventually is lifted out by the exhaust fans. Really, an ideal config in this situation IS the FX blower, albeit a quieter version of it. Cool air drawn directly from the outside of the case and exhausted in a closed circuit minimizes the hot air that eventually gets drawn into the CPU fan. For as we all know, heat-dumping cards raise case temps considerably. And the performance of the CPU cooler depends directly on the temperature of the air being blasted upon it.