Zotac Gaming GeForce GT 1030 GDDR5 2GB 64bit PCIe 3.0 Graphics Card with 1468 Mhz Boost Clock, pci_e

It was time to upgrade my 11 year old Intel Core 2 Duo based PC recently and so I had done all the usual things someone who is able to build their own machine does, namely I selected my CPU, motherboard, RAM and SSD. Now, I must stress that my needs are very modest. I do not play any kind of games nor do I run any content creation software. In essence, my PC is a fancy office PC.

All that was left was to choose a new graphics card. I could retain my ancient Nvidia GeForece 9600GT, but that card required additional power via the appropriate cable from the power supply and I wanted something much more energy efficient, quiet and modern. The choices given my use case were fairly obvious. I could go for an AMD RX550 or the Nvidia GT1030. Both cards traded blows in various performance charts, but what tipped the balance for me was the fact that the Nvidia offering did not require additional power, drawing a paltry 30 Watts maximum from the PCI-E slot. Using less energy usually also translates to a cooler running card and so the GT1030 was the clear choice for me. In addition, the 1030 was actually cheaper!

Next decision was, which one?

Perhaps ironically, I wanted a card that had a fan and thus was actively cooled. Despite the card running fairly cool anyway, I still wanted an actively pooled one rather than various passively cooled cards on offer. Sure, those cards may be better suited for use in a home theatrew PC based in your living room, but I still find the fan to be so quiet,it really isn’t an issue. Most cards offered a pair of video ports, usually an HDMI and a DVI port. That suited me, although MSI did offer one with a Display port in place of the DVI port which was no good to me although may be a consideration to others who require or prefer connecting their monitor via a display port connection.

So, of the actively cooled GT1030’s available, which one to pick?

There are some models that come pre overclocked from the factory, offering around 50MHz higher boost clock speeds, but this is a tiny performance bump in the scheme of things and I suspect is more a marketing ploy to part you with more money. besides, if you know your stuff, you can likely add the 50MHz to the boost clock if you’re so inclined using the required software tools. Nope, no need for a tiny boost like that, so why did I finally settle on the Zotac model? Well, as cooling was my consideration for selection, I literally weighed up the list of cards which saw the Zotac model come in at some 318G, the heaviest model I was able to find. Added weight usually is as a result of more metal, more cooling area in other words. On a card so small, I cannot think of much else to account for the difference between some of the models. In addition, to anyone considering this model for their HTPC build, it does come with the half height bracket so many have lamented were missing from their choice of cards. Further, the Zotac card was one of the cheapest available at the time I purchased, so a great deal since I got a fan and a bracket for that price!

In operation the card runs cool and quiet. However, to be fair, I am not stressing it at all as it essentially just runs my Windows 10 desktop and video playback via YouTube and the like. Still, inside my tower case the fan via the software utility, Hardware Info, reported an idle temp in the mid 30’s – around 35C I believe. Fan noise was not even noticeable. I could hear my case exhaust fan and CPU cooler fan over the video card. Of course, quiet is subjective, so anyone wanting a truly silent card for their HTPC setup may want to consider a passively cooled model, but I don’t think the fan on this would be an annoyance even in a small HTPC case, – not unless, of course, you’re sat with your head close to the case and then you might hear the low whir of it.

A note to the less informed, do not select a card that advertises it uses DDR4 memory rather than the much faster GDDR5. Some vendors did release cards, Palette was one I believe, that used this inferior form of memory for the card’s video RAM.

There have been some critical reviews of the GT1030 that focus on its relatively poor gaming performance. This card was not designed for gaming, so the critical nature of some reviews is unfair. Yes, you can run some lightweight games on this card,but do not purchase this card if you believe it’s going to offer a highly playable frame rates on Pub G at high settings.

For those who simply want a cool, quiet and efficient video card for everyday PC use with the ability to playback 1080p and 4K video content, this is all you need if your choice of CPU does not come with an integrated GPU as most Intel CPU’s have done for the last several generations. For average desktop use and video playback, even that will work fine for you. If, like me, you’ve opted for an AMD CPU that doesn’t come with an integrated GPU, then this card is a good choice.

Happy

I got this as a small card to fit a 1080P home-theater PC (HTPC) which could only take low-profile, short cards.
This is probably the best performance-per-cost card available which fits those parameters.
No, you don’t want to do serious gaming on it (although you could probably get by on some older games in 1080P). And even a 4K HTPC would require a higher-end card.
But for 1080P HTPC, this is an outstanding fit, and does just what is needed.

I had to replace a failing 10 year old 24″ VGA HD monitor, so I bought a 28″ 4K monitor that I plugged in to a HDMI port on the back of my 10 year old desktop PC that I hadn’t even known it was equipped with! The image quality was tremendously better, but the onboard graphics processor was limited to HD resolution. I’ll need to replace my PC in the next two years to accommodate Windows 11 (or 12), so I was limited to finding an “older technology” graphics card built for a PCIe 3.0 interface which happened to be available on my PC’s motherboard. My research led me to this card which I purchased two months ago, and I finally took the plunge to open up my trusty (and dusty!) old computer to install it. The installation was easier than I’d ever imagined, and after I powered up the PC again (and it struggled through multiple Windows 10 and other assorted application updates since it had been powered down for a week), the computer discovered the new graphics card, and then the graphics card identified the monitor and configured its output for full 4K resolution. I was literally awestruck at how finely detailed the monitor’s display is now! I of course don’t use this “vintage” 3rd gen i5-based PC for gaming, but the increase in image quality and fine-grained detail literally changes the experience interacting with Windows, viewing images and data on web sites, and working with documents and spreadsheets. Anyone who has an older PC that they’ll be using for a few more years but wants the full benefit of a 4K monitor in the mean time should truely consider this graphics card!

Performance is good but I am disappointed with this GPU because only one port working Only DVI Port working

I wanted to playback HDR content, so incredibly good. Plays so smooth, tested HDR in 4K with a little 1.25 speed video playback, so smoothly played. 100% value for money and top quality 🤩👍