165W is a little beyond a single slot cooler according to a new review.
There are those of us out there who simply adore small form factor PCs, especially those that can cram a decent level of performance into something the size of a shoebox. These days, it's pretty hard to get around the TDP requirements of a high-end graphics card, though.
I'd hoped the single slot Galax RTX 4060 Ti Unparalleled MAX 16GB would hearken back to the glory days of the likes of the GeForce 8800 GT, but sadly, it does appear that the 165W TDP of the AD106 equipped RTX 4060 Ti is a little beyond it.
Chinese tech site EXP Review (via harukaze5719) got their hands on one of these intriguing cards and gave it the full review treatment. The results show the card performs much like any other RTX 4060 Ti. That's a good thing, as any concerns around thermal throttling appear to be moot.
In order to keep the card performing at the same level as a dual slot card with far more heatsink surface area, the fan needed to resort to higher speeds, returning a load noise level of 51.4dBA. If we assume a standard RTX 4060 Ti is around the 30dBA mark, the single slot card is perceivably around four times louder, given that decibel measurements are logarithmic.
If you game while wearing headphones, that's not insurmountable, but it's high if you don't. It makes me wonder why Galax didn't opt to launch an RTX 4060 model instead, as its 115W TDP is much easier to tame than the 165W TDP of the RTX 4060 Ti. For comparison, the legendary 8800 GT came with a 125W TDP.
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
There's no word on when or if we might see the card hit the market. It may end up as a China-only release. I'd expect it to be a pricey affair too, given its unique design on top of the already steep price premium of the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB over the 8GB one.
Perhaps Galax is positioning the card as more of a budget compute option rather than a gaming card, where you could install more of them into a desktop or workstation system than would otherwise be possible. Another use case is if you need a load of video outputs, say, to power a wall of monitors or TVs from a single, compact system.
So, unless you care little about noise levels or your system is in another room, this Galax option is probably not for you. You'll get more capable and quieter cooling from a regular dual slot cooler, and probably even a dual slot low-profile one.
How about a single slot RTX 4060 Galax? That's one I could really behind, without the need for ear protection.
