Do "mini" size GPUs lose performance VS bigger cards?

euskalzabe

euskalzabe

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 9, 2009
Messages
1,478
Now that I have time to consider what I'll be buying in... July? I got to thinking about different models and card sizes. I usually buy whatever GPU is in the price range I want to spend, and never think of the physical size of the card. Does the actual shape/size of the GPU affect its performance? For example, this is my 1060 3GB:

1611361610995.png


That's a GIGABYTE GTX 1060 Mini OC 3GB. Meanwhile, in its time you could find way, way bigger 1060s like this:

1611361698581.png


Obviously, that 2nd 1060 is way bigger than my 1060, easily twice the size. This got me thinking: would these cards, at the same clock speed, perform the same? Or are "Mini" cards sacrificing performance in any way?
 
Extra cooling capacity. One fan units may not move as much air, or require much faster (louder) rotation.
 
cjcox said:
Extra cooling capacity. One fan units may not move as much air, or require much faster (louder) rotation.
Click to expand...
My card is quite quiet, it's never struck me as particularly noisy. The fan is bigger than other cards I've had. Better cooling would imply better performance as you're not as thermally limited, but this "mini" 1060 never gets too hot anyway. That's why I wonder if more fans would make any difference in this case, if the card doesn't run particularly hot to begin with?

For example: 70C on Hitman 2 with everything on high at 1400p. Doesn't seem like the fan is hindering the GPU much?

1611365455650.png
 
Last edited:
pippenainteasy said:
Doesn't GPU boost start cutting frequency in 15mhz increments starting around 60C? Either way with bigger cards you do get a tiny bit of extra performance, but most of the gain is in noise levels. It doesn't have to be a wind turbine just to keep the GPU cool.
Click to expand...
Got it. So, as long as price is similar, it's a smart bet to go with the slightly bigger card in general, but if the price difference is considerable, no point in bothering with it.
Thanks!
 
It's the same chip so potentially the same performance.

Cards with bigger heatsinks and more fans can run cooler, meaning you might be seeing better sustained clocks (or factory overclock) but I don't think it would be a huge difference.

I mean, if you're not building a SFF computer, I would get a full-sized card to have some room to grow (if you want to overclock later on) but I still wouldn't shy away from a smaller card if that was what was available.
 
euskalzabe said:
Now that I have time to consider what I'll be buying in... July? I got to thinking about different models and card sizes. I usually buy whatever GPU is in the price range I want to spend, and never think of the physical size of the card. Does the actual shape/size of the GPU affect its performance? For example, this is my 1060 3GB:

View attachment 321669

That's a GIGABYTE GTX 1060 Mini OC 3GB. Meanwhile, in its time you could find way, way bigger 1060s like this:

View attachment 321670

Obviously, that 2nd 1060 is way bigger than my 1060, easily twice the size. This got me thinking: would these cards, at the same clock speed, perform the same? Or are "Mini" cards sacrificing performance in any way?
Click to expand...


As always, the answer is that it depends. What it depends on though is how much power the chip needs, how well the cooler is designed and implemented, and the cooling capacity of your case.

For example: I have a MSI Mini-ITX GTX 1070. It will happily clock above 2GHZ all day long In my CCD MI-6 case. However, I had a single fan RX570 in a Node 202 case. It was a loud GPU that underclocked itself.

Does extra cooling help? Well if it's built well, it doesn't hurt. A well designed single fan though will do the job if the GPU isn't too power hungry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top