Graphics cards – size, slots, power and outputs

Length: the most common reason a card will not fit

Case makers state the maximum graphics card length in millimetres. That figure, however, often applies to the case without front fans or a radiator. If you mount 25 mm thick fans at the front, or a liquid cooler with a radiator, you lose free space. Some case makers give both figures.

For illustration, here is what NVIDIA lists for its Founders Edition cards:

Card	Length	Width (height)	Thickness
GeForce RTX 5090 FE	304 mm	137 mm	2 slots
GeForce RTX 5080 FE	304 mm	137 mm	2 slots
GeForce RTX 5070 FE	242 mm	112 mm	2 slots
GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 5060 Ti, 5060	per card maker	per card maker	per card maker

Partner cards (with their own coolers) are often longer and thicker. In the “Prepare your system” section for the RTX 5090, NVIDIA recommends allowing for 304 × 137 mm and a thickness of three slots (61 mm), plus an extra 36 mm for power cables.

You can check the length with our compatibility tool – enter the card length and the free space in your case, and the tool shows the clearance.

Thickness and slots

The card’s thickness determines how many expansion slots below it are covered. If you have another card below the graphics card (a sound or network card, for example), check that it stays accessible and that the graphics card still has room to draw in air.

Power

Mid-range and high-end graphics cards need extra power from the power supply. Details on wattage and connectors are in the PC power supply guide. In short:

• For the RTX 50 series, NVIDIA lists power via a single “PCIe Gen 5” cable (the 16-pin connector that ATX 3.1 calls 12V-2×6) or via an adapter from 8-pin PCIe cables, which is included with the cards.
• For the RX 9070 XT, AMD lists two 8-pin connectors and a recommended power supply of at least 750 W.

Monitor outputs

Current cards have DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. For the RTX 50 series, NVIDIA lists three DisplayPort 2.1b (UHBR20) and one HDMI 2.1b. For the RX 9070 XT, AMD lists DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b. For high resolutions and refresh rates you also need a suitable cable – for UHBR20, VESA certifies DP80 cables (up to 80 Gb/s); for 48 Gb/s HDMI, the “Ultra High Speed HDMI” cable.

The PCIe slot

The graphics card goes into a PCIe ×16 slot. PCIe 5.0 cards also work in boards with PCIe 4.0 – PCIe is backwards compatible. On some cheaper chipsets the graphics slot is PCIe 4.0 (for example AMD B850 and B840, according to AMD’s table).