I have a big GPU problem. That’s an issue my increasingly beleaguered credit card can attest to. Ever since I fell back in love with PC gaming in 2014 (after eight years of being wooed by consoles), I’ve upgraded my graphics cards at an unhinged rate. And yet, up until a few months ago, I never got the full benefit of these GPUs, because I didn’t realize there was a different, more visually appealing way of inserting them into my home-built rigs.
For years, I thought the only way you could connect a graphics card to a motherboard’s PCIe x16 slot was horizontally. Even though I’ve paid for several GPUs that supported flashy RGB effects, I never got the glow-off benefit because my cards were facing downwards. In turn, this meant that the lighting around these GPUs’ fans was obscured due to their inherent positioning.
Now I know better. After years of building PCs wrong, I now know what a GPU should look like when probably installed.
The sleekest way to mount your GPU
Vertical graphics card installations look awesome
Alright, the words “wrong” and “should” in that last sentence are doing some subjective heavy lifting. I’m not saying there’s no incorrect way to put together a custom PC. There are a ton of mistakes first-time PC builders make, and the optional (often expensive) choice to vertically mount your GPU likely isn’t one of them.
What I’m mainly trying to state is that I, very specifically, made the wrong GPU-mounting/PC case choices for a sizable chunk of time because I was simply unaware that you could physically mount a graphics card vertically. Yes, yes, feel free to let the “noob” comments flow forth. Some of us are simply slow learners.
Once you know the precise case and accessories you need to vertically mount a (most likely) high-end graphics card, holy moly, are the results ever eye alluring.
Glow by glow
The flashy benefits of a vertical GPU
I’ve owned my Palit GeForce RTX 5090 for around a year at time of writing. Spoiler: the fastest consumer GPU on the market is pretty dang awesome. My third-party Nvidia graphics card is also downright showy.
While I absolutely appreciate the minimalist design ethic of Team Green’s official “Founders Edition” cards, the reality is that most third-party manufacturers will lean on fancy LED effects to try and prize your money from your change purse.
- Brand
-
Gigabyte
- GPU Speed
-
2.73 GHz
- Memory
-
16GB
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5080 is an Nvidia graphics card with 16GB of GDDR7 memory that supports DLSS 4 supersampling.
When your GPU is pointed downwards, it’s basically impossible to fully appreciate any RGB effects it may offer. When your card is vertically mounted in a PC case with tempered glass (allowing you to admire all of your rig’s components), that’s an entirely different story.
For all that, it’s a thundering cliché among hardcore PC gamers, I must confess: I love RGB lighting effects. I’m 40, so thus I feel more than a tad guilty for embracing my inner teenager, but glowing PC lights make me happy. And I’ve honestly never appreciated a GPU’s aesthetics more than being able to witness my Palit card go through its rainbow effects when I’m enjoying FPS-slaying, but amazing looking path-traced PC games.
Your PC case is key
The downsides to GPU vertical mounting
The Godzilla-sized caveat to vertical GPU mounting is this: you need to love LED effects. If you’re a fan of minimalist PC builds, positioning your graphics card in such an unconventional way is most likely going to slightly hinder performance without adding any benefit to your system.
You should also know that unless a high-tower/mid-tower ATX case is advertised as supporting vertical GPU mounting, you shouldn’t assume this feature is guaranteed. Often, you’ll need a bespoke PCIe 4.0 x16 extension/riser cable connected to your mobo before you can mount your card vertically. And these normally retail for well in excess of $50. My awesome Hyte Y70 Touch Infinite case comes with such an extension, thankfully. But you need to make sure your case supports the fairly roomy capacity such a luxury accessory requires.
You’re leaving GPU performance on the table if this Windows setting is off
It’s not major gains, but any strain off the CPU is good to me.
Another pitfall when it comes to vertically mounting your GPU? Thermal throttling. My PC costs more than my car, yet if my high-end rig didn’t have the room to adequately accommodate my card, in a vertical position, heat dissipation would be a real problem. A problem that could lead to potentially worse in-game frame rates because (occasionally) vertically mounted GPUs don’t have enough room to fully ventilate.
Is mounting your GPU vertically worth it?
Does my now vertically mounted GPU make games like Crimson Desert or Resident Evil Requiem run more smoothly? Obviously not. But in our current TikTok-obsessed times, there’s a lot to be said about admiring a custom–built PC that proudly shows off every crucial component.
Should you be lucky enough to own a tempered glass PC case, and if you have the space to accommodate a PCIe riser cable, a vertically mounted GPU is one of the flashiest upgrades you can bestow upon your rig.
