Dual GPU air flow

[thorley]

I have the nzxt h500 with the rog strix z390 mobo and was wondering if two Palit rtx 2080ti's would be able to fit and if the around 20mm in between the cards would be enough to stop thermal throttling?

 

[Oussebon]

Thermal throttling is a tricking thing to talk about because of how Nvidia GPUs boost themselves.

If you mean throttling as in overheating to the point they drop below base clocks, you should be fine. However, it's unlikely you'll get quite the same clock speeds under load - because there will be quite a lot more heat in the case, raising GPU temps and causing the GPUs' boost algorithms to not go quite as high as a single one's does.

Assuming you have a game that actually benefits from multiple GPUs, you'd still see a performance increase, but don't expect to be running at quite the same boost frequencies.

I have to ask - have you checked that your favourite games that you sink most of your time into benefit from dual GPUs? assuming this is for gaming, and not e.g. rendering on Octane or similar.

Thermals will also be affected by your CPU, how its cooled, and the fan/radiator configuration in the case I guess. And the fan profiles you use.

I'd also check that, if there is 20mm between the cards, how much clearance does the 2nd GPU have from the PSU shroud at the bottom.

If it were me I'd probably want a case with better airflow and more space than a £60 budget-ish case to house 2 x £1000 GPUs.