Will ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 compatible with Mini-ITX Case? Can the heat run out? I’ve tried it! Complete with Benchmark Test

• The ASUS TUF Gaming series has stood out in the middle class so far, but the TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING and TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING will be the first high-end products.
• Of course, TUF Gaming's rigor and stability-oriented mindset have taken over as is, and aircraft-grade and military-grade components are used everywhere, like capacitors.
• The visuals are also simple and solid, and some might look nostalgic.

Will ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 compatible with Mini-ITX cases? This time, I will be implementing the “TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING” 51.6mm ASUS thinnest among video cards featuring GeForce RTX 3080 announced last year. I hope this helps people who want to install the GeForce RTX 3080 in the smallest possible case.

It contains built-in and benchmarks. The purpose of the install is a Twitter PC I built in early Feb 2021, and the TUF-RTX3090-24G-GAMING is also applicable in terms of size.

Let’s start with the video card itself, but it should be noted that there may be physical interference depending on the motherboard, as will be explained later.

As of September 17, 2020, the RTX 30 series belonging to the TUF Gaming brand that will be sold in the future are as follows.

1. TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING
2. TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING
3. TUF-RTX3090-24G-GAMING
4. TUF-RTX3090-O24G-GAMING

There’s a clock-metered version and an overclocking version, and the cases have the same 299.9 x 126.9 x 51.7mm. For thickness, as mentioned earlier, as of 17 September 2020, these are the thinnest 3080 and 3090 excluding Founders Edition, and if you are looking for the thinnest one considering other expansion boards, the TUF RTX Series is a strong candidate. The weight of the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING is around 1390g.

Looking at the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING from the front, the black-based aluminum case stands out. There are three fans, and the center fan rotates in the opposite direction to the left and right fans to increase cooling efficiency.

Each fan uses dual ball bearings, which have managed to extend the service life compared to before and also have a function to stop the fan when the GPU temperature is 55 degrees or less, but the “GPU TWEAK II” app for your ASUS video card can also easily disable it.

Metal backplate for protection and heat dissipation spreads at the back, and there is a vent at one corner. As for airflow, like the Founders Edition, heat is dissipated from the vents to the side of the CPU. However, given the heat lost from the internal exhaust + the entire backplate, it can be identified wherever possible to prevent heat build-up near the intake fan. In most cases of PCs on top of the middle-tower, if the intake and exhaust were sturdy, it wouldn’t be a critical factor.

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On the side, there is an 8P x 2 pin, a light-emitting part, and a mode selector switch. There are two mode selector switches, Performance Mode and Quiet Mode, and the default is Performance Mode. However, there is no specific explanation about this Mode, the score does not change even though the Mode is changed and benchmarks are run, and the change in operating frequency has not been confirmed even with the TWEAK II GPU. This seems to be related to the fan speed control.

Also, from the side, you can clearly see the shape of the heat sink, and you can see that the GPU and VRAM heat sink are independent of each other. Looking at the official websites of each company, cooling not only the GPU but also the VRAM is a problem, and this product is no exception.

In this section, the different approaches are easy to understand. In the case of the TUF Gaming series, not only is it an independent heat sink design for GPU and VRAM but also a manufacturing process is adopted to improve the surface level of the heat spreader. The specific flatness level was not disclosed.

The light is just one point, and it’s easy to understand the different directions from the ROG series. Rather than being called a game light-up, the shot was stronger like a status light. In addition, a PCIe line and a voltage monitoring circuit for additional power supply are installed, and the red LED lights up when the voltage drops.

As a strong and stable route, chokes and MOSFETs are high-end products, and military-grade capacitors, which are suitable not only for gaming but also for those who abuse the GPU for creative purposes. Since it has passed the 144-hour verification test at the time of delivery, some checks that take time after introduction can be shortened and put into the business.

Fits in a Mini-ITX case

The author’s PC for Twitter comes with a large ZALMAN air-cooled CPU cooler in the NZXT “H210i” case for the Mini ITX / DTX, and most of the ROG Crosshair VIII Impact motherboards are invisible.

The video card is the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER MINI, and it has a number of gaps. It has good permissions, but if you install ASUS TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING, the gaps on the front side will get less and less.

When I checked the specs of the case, even though there was a description of the height of the CPU cooler and the length of the board, I didn’t see much that the thickness was up to what mm. This is because the number of slots consumed is a prerequisite, and other gaps often exist for intake purposes. The small case is no exception. For the NZXT 210i case used this time, there are only 2 slots, and no specific explanation is found about how many mm of thickness is suitable.

Although it is difficult to actually measure, there is a distance of about 11 to 12 mm visually when viewed from the 41 mm thickness of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER MINI. However, this is the case when the long vertical metal plate (cable rod) attached to the case is removed to hide the cable wires. Also, when I looked at the Reddit post site, there was an example of inserting a 51mm thick video card including the cable bar, so I judged that there was no problem with the thickness.

With Be Quiet! The “Silent Wings 3 140mm” (25mm thick) intake fan mounted on the front of the case, the length of the mountable card was measured with the laser rangefinder and turned out to be 313mm. The TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING is about 300mm, so there is a 13mm margin.

It’s fine for an air-cooled CPU cooler, but if you try to install a simple water cooler, the thickness of the radiator will be added, so you need to take action like making the fan 15mm thick. These tend to be mini-towers, so it’s best to double-check the specs of your favorite PC case.

The installation itself was smooth, although there were a few problems. The thing to worry about in the back of the hanging board. There is a screw hole for the VGA holder on the back, but according to an article at the opening ceremony, it seems a familiar standard for workstations. I’ve never seen one in a store, so it’s best to make full use of tension rods and cables.

May interfere with motherboard rear I/O covers, etc.

Earlier, I mentioned possible interference with the motherboard. Looking at ASUS motherboards, this is possible with microATX and Mini-ITX/DTX motherboards. The TUF-RTX3080/3090 series may be designed in such a way that there are no design issues so that there is not much to play. Since this is an industrial product, some errors will occur.

Therefore, for example, even if the motherboard is the same, there is a good chance that it will run into it without any problems. The reason why I am writing this is that I have physical disturbances in this embedded environment.

This case was discovered during the verification and has been reported to ASUS, the fastest in the world. There may be a motherboard announcement that could cause physical harm.

Be careful not to break the PCIe slot lock when removing it!

If you like air-cooled CPU coolers, this is common practice, but when you are changing a video card, you will try to access the video card by pressing the slot lock with a screwdriver or chopstick without removing the CPU cooler.

According to the author, the slot lock was damaged in part due to physical interference on the + weight of the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING. I think I should take this case honestly without putting it down nicely.

Heat needs to be designed

Let’s take a look at the effect of heat on the relatively small case and air-cooled CPU cooler. The TUF-RTX 3080/3090 series is easy to install in a few minor cases, and we decided it would be best to have this kind of information.

Soft readings and a thermistor are used for measurement. The application used is HWiNFO64. The main unit setting is Performance Mode / OC Mode. As will be explained later, the default settings have been applied. Power plan has high performance. There seems to be a lot of balanced operations, but I thought it would be better to know the limit value, so I made it high-performance.

In conclusion, it will be hot, but it can be overcome if the intake and exhaust are in the solid case, and an exhaust fan 25 mm thick is desired. Depending on the layout of the motherboard, you may be concerned about the M.2 storage temperature rise as heat will be drastically dissipated from the backplate, and even in the case of a simple water cooler, if the airflow inside the case is not solid, the entire system Temperature rise is the same as in RTX20 era.

It’s fine to cool the PC case on top of the middle-tower with a simple water cooler, but for a small group of cases, try lowering the CPU TDP or lowering it as far as the GPU clock allows. I think there will be more elements to enjoy, like clocks.

Below are charts and graphs of temperature trends. This is the temperature of each part when running the OCCT 3D preset for 30 minutes. The CPU usage rate is around 5%, and the temperature rise factor is close to that of a video card only.

In the case of GPU-intensive processing, the CPU side effects are less noticeable, and if any, the M.2 storage temperature rise is a bit high. The ROG Crosshair VIII Impact is a specification that connects M.2 storage above and below the child card, and the temperature rise of the KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS SSD, which is close to the video card, is visible.

Additionally, standard ATX motherboards have NVMe slots near the video card, which can lead to a similar trend.

Currently, the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING GPU temperature is 71-73 degrees. As a treatment, heat is released in an equal manner with the heat sink and backplate. It seems that the vents are working too, but heat dissipation from the entire backplate is more concern.

What if you envisioned gaming in 4K? I tried to repeat FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION Benchmark ver1.3 for 30 minutes. The settings are as shown in the image below.

As the graph shows, both the CPU and GPU are in the 70-degree range. I tried to continue for about 2 hours just in case, but due to the situation, in the second half, the graphics continued, no problem occurred even for the small PC case apart from the noise.

The TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING measured is the overclocking model, but the TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING is the metered clock, so it seems that the temperature rise is a little quieter.

A power capacity from 850W is suitable

I also checked the power consumption because I used the Seasonic “FOCUS PX-750” which has the recommended power capacity of the NVIDIA 750W.

I ran the OCCT v6.2.0 Power preset for 8 hours to see if the Seasonic FOCUS PX-750 could hold it, but the whole system fluctuated between 540 and 570W and resolved without shutting down. Looking at the HWiNFO64, the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING’s power consumption peaked at 353W.

As a reminder, it’s better to have spare power in terms of hardware, so 850W to 1000W power supply is better. Also, depending on the power supply, there are cases where the 12V line is not thick even though the capacity is described as 750W, and the notation may be timed peak performance, so I would like to review the specifications of the power supply used again.

Above are the specifications of the Seasonic FOCUS PX-750. The +12V is 744W. Taking into account the load, I would like to have a margin with a power supply of 850 to 1000W.

Perfect performance instead of paying attention to weight, heat dissipation, and power consumption! It can be said that this is the strongest video card at the moment

Lastly, let’s have a look at the performance. First of all, the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING is an overclocking model, and the boost clock is set higher than the TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING.

The modes are OC Mode 1815MHz, Gaming Mode 1785MHz, silent Mode 1755MHz when viewed with ASUS GPU Tweak II, and the difference in operating frequency from TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING from the catalog specifications and the fluctuation range with GPU Tweak II are as follows.

By default, it’s in OC Mode, and if you’re not using GPU Tweak II, the boost clock will be 1815MHz. There is also a toggle between Performance Mode and Quiet Mode with physical switches, but since the effect on operating frequency has not been confirmed, the following benchmarks adopt the results in Performance Mode / OC Mode. Please compare the previously released Founder’s Edition results and the current environment you are using.

The benchmarks are 3DMark, FINAL FANTASY XV: Jet Black Villas Benchmark, FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION Benchmark ver1.3, Horizon Zero Dawn, Blender Open Date (2.90), V-Ray Next Benchmark (hotfix 4). Each measurement is taken 3 times, and the average value is posted. The driver uses the 456.16 prepared for the review.

3080/3090 is recommended for TUF Gaming as thin as possible of the steady-minded people

As you can see from the review, the TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING feels comfortable, and I feel like I want to continue using it even after this verification is complete. When used for creative work, the load continues for a long time, and the same is true when playing games, and it’s great because it operates stably. I tried benchmarking, gaming, and photo/video editing for a few days, and it was a good environment without stopping. This point may be due to the fact that it passed the test 144 hours before delivery.

Heat and noise at high loads are issues, but it seems you can enjoy solving them, especially for veteran home PC users who love small PC cases, you can design precautions for early spring while changing heaters in winter. It can be said that this is a video card that you can fully enjoy in addition to performance.

The TUF-RTX 30 series comes highly recommended if you want to consider the 3080/3090 series, which looks simpler than the STRIX series but puts performance over the looks or is as thin as possible. The actual selling price of the “TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING” regular model is around USD 860 (tax excluded). How much does the factory OC model “TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING” cost? I want to wait for the press release for the release date and price.

Solve heat problems by replacing the rear and top fan

For gaming in 4K, the above results are fine in terms of operation, but not mentally. I considered making it a mini-tower, but the current environment is only set for the second half of January 2021, and it’s not time to change the case yet. So, I modified it a bit and updated the fan.

When the video card was RTX 2060 SUPER, there was no problem with the SilverStone SST-FN124B, but when I saw the CPU and M.2 storage temperature rise on the daughter card, the exhaust didn’t seem to catch up, so I followed and changed it like this. Regarding the top, I feel that I am out of work because of the ZALMAN CNPS20X from the start, but just in case.

FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION The version 1.3 benchmark is run in the same conditions as before the fan was replaced. Overall, temperatures dropped, the video card stuck at nearly 70 degrees, and CPU temperatures started hovering between 60 and 70 degrees. The M.2 storage temperature has also dropped, which is a nice result.

The problem is that the fans are outside the case, so noise is a concern. However, it’s hard to solve the noise problem, which I don’t know how many times, so I decided to wear headphones.

Do you think you have other ideas about Solutions How to Fix the heat generated with the installation of ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 in Mini-ITX form? you can comment below or discuss more Tips related to “Will ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 compatible with Mini-ITX Case?” in the CnwinTech Forum. Also, read more articles about overclocking or other interesting tech tips and tricks articles only at CnwinTech.

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