Experiment: moving GPU in front of intake fans cuts temps by up to 19°C

YouTuber TrashBench tested how graphics card placement affects temperatures on a bench with an Intel Core i9-14900K and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. Moving the GPU directly in front of intake fans lowered core temps by 16.7°C and hotspot by 19.3°C, but requires rethinking PC case layout.

• GPU in front of intake fans: core -16.7°C, hotspot -19.3°C
• VRAM dropped 14.0°C, VRM 7.8°C, CPU rose just 1.1°C
• Placing GPU at case bottom improved GPU temps by only 0.1°C
• Switching AIO to intake cooled CPU 6.2°C but heated GPU 16.0°C