Review on 💻 Gigabyte GT 1030 GV-N1030D5-2GL Low Profile 2G Graphics Card by Yadira Hernandez

I bought this to upgrade my old setup - so while my 'main' PC is in my office and my 'old' PC is in my living room, it gets used quite a bit. I usually play fairly basic games on the PC in question, but still the MSI R7 250 2GB DDR3 had internal issues. Fable Anniversary could barely get down 30 fps on medium settings. Wolfenstein The New Order/The Old Blood runs at 25-30 fps on low/medium settings. Even Crusader Kings II, Hearts of Iron III/IV, and Stellaris ran below 60 fps on low/medium settings. I bought a GT 1030 to remedy these shortcomings and heck I wasn't disappointed. 60+ FPS in Fable Anniversary at max settings. Stable 55-60 FPS in Wolfenstein at maximum (well, very close to maximum) settings. In Paradox games, the frame rate went from 20-25 frames per second to over 70. The latter shocked me a lot. To wrap up my performance review, let's talk about clock speed. After installing the (basic) driver from the supplied CD, the built-in clock control program is also installed. It's easier to use than Afterburner, has safe presets, but doesn't give you as much control unless specifically set to "Professional" mode. Otherwise clock speeds are decent for a $69 card. Additionally, the video memory is DDR5 - a massive upgrade for those still using DDR3 VRAM. As for the more physical nature of the map - wow, it's tiny. Less than half the size of my spare R7 250, probably a quarter the size of the 1070 in my main computer. Also, it's a lot easier. Installation was easy as power is drawn directly from the PCI/motherboard slot. Speaking of strength, this thing barely pulls. I don't remember exactly, but I know the amount is small. As long as you have a 300-350W PSU it should be fine. Keep in mind that given the size, this card only has ONE DVI port and ONE HDMI port. That's all. Just something to think about. I was a little surprised they didn't put a VGA slot on the card that NVIDIA is touting as an answer to every budget gamer's needs, but I digress. I suppose even sports monitors/TVs with HDMI are cheap these days. The card is quiet, although when it was first installed it spun quickly and vigorously for several minutes and made significant noise - don't worry if that happens. It has excellent thermal performance, but I installed a redundant cooling system on this PC, so for the average person who isn't obsessed with cooling, the results are likely to be skewed. Anyway, $69 low-profile Pascal-based NVIDIA GPU. ? It's not too good to be true. Give it a try if you're on a budget, have performance or size limitations, or even if you're just an NVIDIA or GPU enthusiast. It won't replace your 1070, but it will definitely surprise you, especially given its small form factor and low power consumption. A quick note before I stop talking - don't ask me how, but - I'm pretty sure NVIDIA will release the GT 1040 soon, maybe by the end of the year. For those not in a hurry, maybe wait?