Card Layout and Photos
The RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition may look familiar to you if you have been keeping up with the Nvidia launches. That is because it looks nearly the same as the RTX 3070 Founders Edition with its normal dual axial fan layout. It has the shroud-less design that Nvidia has used on all of the 3000 series cards which has the heatsinks exposed to the outside with the black fins. The fin layout also gives us a clue as to the airflow as well. They use an S-shaped shroud that directs the air from everything on the right side of the left fan up and out the top. The right fan is similar with it being directed down. The fans have 9 blades with an outer ring that gives them strength and helps with static pressure. Then I the center the metal centercaps have a darker finish that matches the color of the fans, leaving just the S-shaped shroud in silver the only bright part of the card. This is also the main change to the design, the 3070’s shroud had the same layout but had a darker finish.
The RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition, like the RTX 3070, actually fits the old “standard” in sizing as well with it being 240mm long, only two slots thick, and not extending past the top of the PCI bracket. The higher-end cards have gotten huge and SFF builds are going to suffer in the future, so I am happy to see that this at least will be an option. I should also point out not long ago we were begging for ITX length cards and now here we are just happy when cards fit the old standard of a normal card.
Looking around on the edge is where you will see most of the thick metal S-shaped shroud. Up on top the silver finish (which reminds me of the silver Nvidia used on their old FE and reference cards) dominates with just the small section of black fins in the middle and the GeForce RTX branding near the end. The logo isn’t backlit, the RTX 3060 Ti FE doesn’t have any lighting. Then in that center section of fins, they have slipped in the 12-pin power connection which fits up against the PCB and isn’t angled like on the RTX 3080. This means that the included adapter is going to stick right up as well, so even with the normal card height, you will have to deal with that. The end of the card has two screws filling the holes added for anti-sag mounting which is mostly used in GPU servers. Then down on the bottom, you have a matching small black fin set venting near the center as well.
The back of the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition has a thick metal backplate that has a grove design machined into it that matches the exposed fins. They have the actual model name here for branding which is filled in with white but is surprisingly small compared to what everyone else is doing. I would love to see this model name on the top edge and then have the backplate have the more generic GeForce RTX branding. I like showing off what model you have out on the top edge but not many cards do it. Then the main feature of the back is down at the end where the shorter PCB ends and Nvidia has the heatsink fins from the front exposed all the way through with a blow through design for most of the second fan. If you look closely you can even see the fan as well as the heatpipes they are using to pull the heat out to this heatsink.
The end of the card has what is now the standard layout of three DisplayPort connections and one HDMI 2.1 port. The VirtualLink Type-C connection of the past gen was short-lived sadly and DVI seems to be dropped now in these more middle of the range cards that used to get it. The bracket does have a section of etched logos and serial number information which is a cool way to hide it and make it easier to see when the card is installed. Then a large vent takes up the rest of the end. I would love to see the bracket be black to match the rest of the card and to match more builds, but it is at least slightly tinted.
For those wondering just how different the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition is compared to the RTX 3070 Founders Edition, I did get pictures of them together. They have the exactly same cooler with the color of the S-shaped shroud being the only difference.
