Review on 💻 MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB GDRR3 64-bit HDCP Support DirectX 12 OpenGL 4.5 Single Fan Low Profile Graphics Card (GT 710 2GD3 LP): Enhance Your Gaming Experience with this Powerful Graphics Card by Jesus Cordova

I need to upgrade the graphics card for a very old compact desktop PC, a 2010 Acer Aspire A3910. This is an entry-level MSI GeForce GT 710 graphics card that fully meets my needs. Here are a few reasons why I chose this particular card over something stronger: - It's relatively cheap. - It has a low profile and only occupies one PCI slot. This is important as my PC has a small form factor (SFF) case with limited space. It uses very little power (20W max) so even the 220W PSU in my PC can handle it. It only uses a heatsink for passive cooling. Cooling. This eliminates the noise and reliability issues associated with cooling fans. [Installation Confusion] - Immediately after installing the graphics card, I can only get a 1200x800 image through the HDMI port. Nothing from the VGA port. After installing the MSI VGA drivers from the disc my monitor can now display 1920x1080 from the VGA port but nothing from the HDMI port. The problem may be related to my computer's motherboard as I've seen the same behavior with EVGA. I previously bought (and returned) a GeForce 210. Keep this in mind if you don't see any images right after installing the card. [Graphics performance] I ran the 3DMARK "Cloud Gate" test on my PC both before and after updating the graphics card: - with integrated graphics. , the total score is a miserable 209.- After installing the GT 710, the score jumps to 3735! EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti. When both cards were tested on a newer desktop PC (Asus M32CD), the 750 card performed about four times better. Note that the 750 doesn't fit in my old small form factor PC as it's much larger. See my uploaded photo for size comparison between 710 and 750. [Power Consumption] I used the EUM-A1 power meter to measure my computer's input power: Before the graphics card upgrade, my computer consumed 50-55W idle, 70-75 W when starting 3DMARK. After upgrading to GT 710, my PC consumes the same 50-55W when idling. So, when idling, this graphics card has the same power consumption as the integrated graphics chip. When running 3DMARK or XCOM: Enemy Unknown, my computer now draws up to 85-90 watts. This means that the graphics card consumes 15-20 watts at full speed. After playing XCOM for a few hours, the heatsink got too hot to touch, but not hot enough to cause a shutdown. In contrast, the EVGA GeForce 210 suffers from overheating after just 10-20 minutes of XCOM gaming. This is because the 210 draws more power (30W versus 20W) but has a smaller heatsink. [Conclusion] The GT 710 works very well in my specific situation. This is a cheap entry-level card, so I can't expect the same performance as my GeForce GTX 750 Ti. But for a very small investment, I can suddenly play a lot of games that were previously unplayable on my old small form factor PC. I'm happy for that.