Blower fans had a technical reason to exist that isn’t very relevant anymore.
It used to be to keep the card profile low so you could have other PCI card slots populated. However these days everything including Wifi can be found pre populated on the motherboard. It is rare you put in any additional PCI cards in modern personal systems.
They also help keep hot air from the gpu from being dumped inside the case instead blowing straight out. But the better solution is just better case airflow. So their limited usecases is still in server racks.
ATX boards had most relevant slots below that already, especially due to SLI / CF being a thing at that time. I know because I used wlan and audio cards back then - that is with the third party cooler + fans, which blocked like 3 slots.
The blower gpu fans were definitely a trend. I remember buying third party coolers and strapping 120mm fans onto them with zip ties.
Blower fans had a technical reason to exist that isn’t very relevant anymore.
It used to be to keep the card profile low so you could have other PCI card slots populated. However these days everything including Wifi can be found pre populated on the motherboard. It is rare you put in any additional PCI cards in modern personal systems.
They also help keep hot air from the gpu from being dumped inside the case instead blowing straight out. But the better solution is just better case airflow. So their limited usecases is still in server racks.
ATX boards had most relevant slots below that already, especially due to SLI / CF being a thing at that time. I know because I used wlan and audio cards back then - that is with the third party cooler + fans, which blocked like 3 slots.