Guides · SFF clearances
Will an RTX 5090 fit in a Fractal Terra?
Checked August 2026
On paper, yes — and almost nobody should do it. Both halves of that sentence need the numbers.
The Terra’s published limits
The Terra is a 10.4-liter case with a movable spine: the same millimetres are shared between the GPU side and the CPU-cooler side, and you choose where they go. Fractal publishes the extremes:
| Max GPU length | 322 mm |
|---|---|
| Max GPU height (spine at max GPU) | 145 mm |
| Max GPU thickness (spine at max GPU) | 72 mm · 3 slots |
| CPU cooler height left over | 48 mm |
| Max GPU thickness (spine at max cooler) | 33–43 mm · 2 slots |
| CPU cooler height in that mode | 77 mm |
| Power supply | SFX / SFX-L |
The trade is the whole story. Give the GPU its full 72 mm and your CPU cooler has 48 mm to live in — low-profile territory, chosen carefully. Give the cooler room and you are down to a 2-slot card.
What that means for an RTX 5090
NVIDIA’s Founders Edition 5090 is 304 mm long, 137 mm tall and genuinely 2 slots — remarkable for a 575-watt card, and the only version of the 5090 those clearances describe. It clears the Terra’s length by 18 mm and its height by 8 mm with the spine at max GPU. Dimensionally, it fits.
Almost every partner (AIB) 5090 does not. Typical partner cards run 330–360 mm long and 3.5 to 4 slots thick — past the Terra’s length limit and past its thickness limit at the same time. If the card in your cart is not the Founders Edition, measure before you assume anything.
Fitting is not the same as belonging
Three things the spec table does not say. A 575-watt card wants an SFX or SFX-L supply that can hold its transient spikes with a high-end CPU beside it, near the top of what the format sells. The 48 mm cooler ceiling pairs your hottest possible GPU with your most constrained possible CPU cooling. And 10.4 litres gives that heat one exit path, so fan curves become something you live with daily.
This is why we draw our own line lower. We build Terra machines up to the RTX 5070 Ti and RX 9070 XT class, where the card, the cooler and the acoustics all have margin, and we put 5090-class builds in roomier enclosures — our Local AI workstation ships the 5090 in a 16-liter case for exactly this reason. Every combination we sell is one we have committed to cool and to warranty, and the configurator only offers enclosures that hold that promise.
The three-number check, for any card
Length against 322 mm. Height against 145 mm. Thickness in slots against the spine position you can actually afford, remembering the cooler on the other side. Manufacturers publish all three figures for every card; when one is missing from a listing, that is a listing to distrust. If you would rather hand the checking to someone whose name is on the result, that is the job we do.