Best single I/O slot video card for $120?

Have you considered a gtx750?

No....how would completely opening up a slot be worse than having it partially open?

This is really the best you can do while filling only 1 expansion slot. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150711

Hello IvanG,

This is my first post on TomsHardware and I recently have been researching endlessly for a rear single slot bracket efficient video card.

Currently, the nVidia GTX 750 is the best performance per watt graphics card using the PCIe slot for its power without adding an extra power connector.

I've isolated my best pick after researching photos of all the current graphics cards and their connectors looking for the best legacy video connector support for my particular needs.

My choice is the Asus GTX750PHOC1GD5.

This card has the legacy D-sub VGA 15 pin analog display connector, DVI-D, and HDMI plus audio.

I have my own particular reasons for still wanting the old VGA display connector rather than a card that uses a DVI-I to VGA adapter. I hate adapters for one and it makes it stick out in the back more and VGA although considered outdated is still useful to me since HDMI has refresh rate and resolution issues coming back from a long sleep state or turned off monitor. I prefer VGA plus the digital optical out TOSlink audio connector. A lot of times when turning on my monitor from being off for a long period all my WinTV windows are off sync and no longer real time or crash. Also, when playing Blu-ray movies while having WinTV recording windows on they interfere with the audio because HDMI audio is embedded into the HDMI video signal which causes it to once again off sync the WinTV video window and mutes the audio from the WinTV windows as well. I am forced to close the WinTV windows and restart them. If I am recording I don't wish to stop them so I have to guess when to stop the recordings since I can't see what is being recorded in real time anymore but laggy delayed images without audio.

Anyhow, this is a tangent but by having a VGA analog signal I never have to worry about powering off my HDTV and having my WinTV recording windows off sync or crash and it allows me to continue my WinTV recordings and watch a Blu-ray without interference. I couldn't do this with just a stand alone HDMI connection. You can thank Sony for their HDCP handshaking requirement for causing this mess in the first place as they want full access of your video and audio signals when initiating the playback of a Blu-ray movie which my VGA video and a TOSlink audio connector setup bypasses as long as you have an AACS decrypter enabled.

Another reason why VGA is great for troubleshooting is before your OS loads to the desktop, I noticed that if you are using HDMI some of the diagnostic screens like Chkdsk will not show up or some of the intro visual animations are frozen until you are inside the desktop of the OS. Also, some laptops if operated from the HDMI port won't show any video signals in DOS or from the BIOS except on the laptop screen unless they are inside the OS. The reason why this happens is because VGA was built as a standard written into the BIOS whereas HDMI came later and probably won't get recognized until you are inside the OS. VGA is analog and I believe the signal is always on whether or not the VGA cable is plugged in or not. HDMI is digital and seems to always want to constantly handshake which is the cause of the headaches coming from a deep sleep and getting a different video resolution and refresh rate than was previously set. Once I've reapplied my previous resolution and refresh rate back again my HDMI audio miraculously restores itself which is one of my biggest frustrations with HDMI.

When is HDMI good? For when you aren't dealing with multiple WinTV overlay recording windows like I am or having more than two programs accessing the video and audio stream before you start your Blu-ray movie. Once you play a Blu-ray movie it will tie up the video and audio stream during its initialization stage which basically kills the audio and sometimes your video sync on your background programs. So if you have a game or some other program that is using the audio and video stream in the background it may need to be restarted again. Sometimes you get lucky and it doesn't conflict and other times when you close your Blu-ray movie player first it should be fine before you resume your program again. I'm a multitasker so I tend to have multiple audio and video streams running in the background or paused and once you involve Blu-ray movies into the mix that is where the problems start. The main advantage of HDMI is simplification by having High Definition video and High Fidelity Surround Sound audio transferred digitally over one single HDMI cable. If you aren't multitasking your video and audio like I am with multiple programs using the video and audio streams then you should be fine and this is the recommended connection choice for you.

Currently I really don't care for the DisplayPort v1.2 at this point since none of my HDTV monitors even support this nor would I recommend this model for G-Sync and I suggest waiting till the GTX 850 or GTX 950 models when the graphic cards are powerful enough for G-Sync gaming and hopefully even more efficient than the current 55-60 Watts threshold if that's possible given the current power efficiency trend. If we are lucky a GTX 960 or GTX 1060 that operates on just the PCIe slot power alone and when G-Sync monitor prices have dropped significantly.

This GTX750PHOC1GD5 video card currently costs $125 and has Free Shipping.

If you are in a TAXable state from Amazon then I recommend ordering it from BHPhoto in New York. I've ordered from them before and never had any problems.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax
Currently Amazon.Com is taxable in:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.


If you are in New York then you might be out of luck finding it elsewhere for $125 since New York is taxable through Amazon as well. But I did find this one location in California if you are in New York. I haven't ordered from Superbiiz before so make your own decisions.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?p=AS-750PO1G&c=pw&hash=de9ali6dAuWPAmFusDxlCB1I6VzpTi1P9e0ksrrPgeklCfXlfpk9YnU%2B8ohUrW6QJsfwEDleLqnnqmQe4IQSiesC%2BfCcmmth8YohQ1FPQdWtOrFemNAI%2Baeepng


If you are in a NON-TAXable state from Amazon you're in luck because their is currently a $10 Mail In Rebate form if purchased by till 7/31/14 for it which would bring it down to $115 total cost plus stamp and rebate printed materials.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1034240-REG/asus_gtx750_phoc_1gd5_geforce_gtx750_oc_1gd5.html

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-GTX750-PHOC-1GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00IB9P1GK

Specs and Photos:
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX750PHOC1GD5/

If you examine the photos this card uses only 1 rear slot bracket. However internally, the width of the fan will possibly over take the adjacent slot. But if you are using a spare rear bracket to seal the gap like I am this won't be a problem.

This is $5 over your maximum price assuming no rebate but this is the best priced performance per watt card I could find within your budget.

You'll be amazed how well this card performs given the low wattage. It is over 4 times more powerful than my older passive AMD HD 6570 and this doubly outperforms the passive AMD HD 7750.

I plan on removing the fan housing and keeping the heatsink on to see if it can passively run.

If it doesn't, I will try and install another passive heatsink from an older video card with a higher TDP than this.

If this interests you, I may post a follow up on my success or failure.

No other card at the moment meets my specs for a rear single slot with the legacy ports except the 2GB version of this card.

This is also possibly the last generation graphics cards that will also support XP 32-bit graphics. I plan on playing these older games on the highest graphics settings now that it is possible. It is uncertain whether nVidia will add XP driver support in the upcoming GTX 800 and GTX 900 series since Microsoft officially dropped support for XP on April 8th, 2014. I'm hoping nVidia will continue providing XP drivers for at 3 more generations to the 1000 series if possible. I have a feeling AMD may jump ship earlier and end XP support at the Radeon Rx 200 Series which is why I chose nVidia this time around over AMD since they seem to have the best legacy OS support and the power efficiency performance jump of the GTX 750 is amazing and the closest from AMD is the R7 250 at 65 Watts TDP which is still less than half the performance and 10 Watts more hungrier than the standard GTX 750 of 55 Watts TDP.

Unfortunately, I could not locate the 2GB version anywhere in the USA and they cost nearly $200 to import from overseas and most will not ship to the USA nor ship internationally.

GTX750-PHOC-2GD5
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX750PHOC2GD5/

I felt that the $125 free shipping and tax free pricing was the best bang for the buck GTX 750 I could locate.

I did look at the GTX 750 Ti models but only one came close but it has a dual slot rear bracket where the 2nd slot had vent holes. I wish they supplied a swappable bracket for an easy single slot swap modification.

The only other single slot which is not available yet is this one.

Galaxy GTX 750 Ti Razor
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/galaxy-gtx-750-ti-single-gtx-780-6gb-2ghz,27005.html

Side Profile Pic shows full VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI video connectors:
http://cdn.teamhardwarevzla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Galaxy-GeForce-GTX-750-Ti-Razor-570x379.jpg


I hope my suggestion for the GTX750PHOC1GD5 is still valid for you if you're still hunting. I wouldn't wait around for the Galaxy GTX 750 Ti Razor as they stated to me they don't know when it will be available and I don't want to wait 6 months or longer to appreciate the GTX 750's potential. Also, I believe they redesigned the PCB so the mounting holes are not standard or possibly fused to the board so I won't be able to experiment by attaching my own passive heatsink. My goal is performance efficiency and silence!


Good luck!