A PC enthusiast has cut an Nvidia RTX 3080’s hotspot temperature by up to 19°C through unconventional graphics card placement.
According to Tom’s Hardware, YouTuber TrashBench achieved the reduction by experimenting with component positions and airflow inside an existing desktop system. The biggest GPU improvement came with higher CPU temperatures, proving that heat remains exceptionally good at becoming somebody else’s problem.
The baseline build used a triple-fan RTX 3080 in its conventional expansion slot, with a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler handling the CPU.
TrashBench described the plan as “test it normally, then start moving s*** around”, giving the experiment a refreshingly honest mission statement.
The team tested combined looping 3DMark Time Spy with 7-Zip’s built-in benchmark, while fixed fan speeds kept comparisons consistent between configurations.
TrashBench said the aim was “trying to figure out if we’ve been putting the parts in the wrong place”.
The graphics card was tested at the bottom of the case and in different vertical orientations near the side fans. We switched the radiator airflow between intake and exhaust configurations to assess its effect on cooling.
Some arrangements favoured the graphics card, while others helped the processor, so the lowest GPU reading is a poor guide to overall cooling.
Further adjustments produced a configuration that reduced the GPU hotspot by 14°C while lowering the CPU temperature by 3.3°C. These results apply to the tested system; different cases and cooling arrangements require their own measurements.
Repositioning the graphics card required PCIe riser cables, which TrashBench used in several lengths during the experiment.
