The first Mini-ITX Nvidia Ampere graphics cards are on the way

(Image credit: Palit)

The first Mini-ITX graphics cards of the Ampere generation are upon us: the Aero ITX series from MSI, the StormX and Dual series from Palit, and the Pegasus from Gainward—all of which are RTX 3060 12GB graphics cards announced ahead of its late February launch.

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We've not seen anything close to a Mini-ITX graphics card out of the Nvidia RTX 30-series generation yet. That's perhaps a given considering the high-end cards in the series, the RTX 3080s and 3090s of the world, come with considerable TDPs and even more considerable coolers.

The RTX 3060, however, is a little more easy on the power consumption, churning over a 170W TDP and requiring just a slim 550W PSU.

Manufacturers are clearly keen to build out more compact cards out of that power-savvy RTX 3060 GPU. All three manufacturers listed above have announced a form of single-fan RTX 30-series card for the upcoming GPU (via Videocardz), all of which offer a significantly reduce footprint next to dual- or triple-fan designs.

You can bet you'll see plenty of those larger cooler designs with the RTX 3060 12GB, too, and if you're not constrained by case space they'll likely offer better performance.

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Gainward RTX 3060 Pegasus OC graphics card — Gainward GeForce RTX 3060 Pegasus 12GB OC/non-OC(Image credit: Gainward)

Rather, Mini-ITX graphics cards offer a compact alternative. These diminutive GPUs also tend to run cheaper than larger fare.

All three appear to offer a standard triple DisplayPort and single HDMI 2.1 and come with a single 8-pin power connector.

The RTX 3060 12GB has no official launch date as of yet but its penned in for late February. We'll have to wait until closer to the time to see how this card shapes up, but it's at least promising to be a cheaper alternative to the existing Ampere generation graphics cards, at $329.

I'd bet these single-fan cards will fall somewhere close to that reference MSRP, too.

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating into breaking things professionally at PCGamesN. Now he's managing editor of the hardware team at PC Gamer, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC.