Although Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5060 is massively slower than higher-end Blackwell models, it has one indisputable advantage over its bigger brethren: low power consumption. This opens doors for makers of graphics cards to build GeForce RTX 5060 add-in-boards in a variety of form-factors to address different systems. And Zotac is one of the companies that does not hesitate to build miniature GeForce RTX 5060 cards.
The company is demonstrating a low-profile GeForce RTX 5060 as well as Mini-ITX GeForce RTX 5060 at Computex. Both boards are based on Nvidia’s GB206 graphics processing unit with 3840 CUDA cores and carry 8 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 128-bit interface, just like full-size boards. However, while the Mini-ITX version has four display connectors, the low-profile AIB has only three display outputs.
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As for coolers, the Zotac Gaming Mini-ITX GeForce RTX 5060 comes with a rather sophisticated single-fan cooling system with multiple heat pipes, whereas the low-profile product is equipped with a dual-slot triple-fan cooler, which is something to be expected from a graphics board with a 145W total board power. To enhance the compatibility of both cards with inexpensive systems, Zotac equipped them with an eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector, which is perfectly fine for such devices.
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As both gamers and makers of PC hardware try to squeeze all the juice from parts like graphics cards, the latter became quite huge in the last 10 years as they tend to come equipped with huge coolers no matter how much power they actually consume. To that end, it became close to impossible to find a gaming graphics card in low-profile and Mini-ITX form-factor. Fortunately, there are companies like Zotac, which tend to address rather niche markets with more or less decent offerings for gaming, providing an upgrade path for compact systems.
Zotac plans to start selling its low-profile and Mini-ITX versions of GeForce RTX 5060 graphics cards this summer, though it remains to be seen whether these boards will be available at price points close to GeForce RTX 5060’s MSRP of $299, or the company charges a premium for exclusivity as small graphics adapters are rare these days.
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