I'm after a little advice. I bought a GT1030 last week. Let me explain why:
- I have a Gigabyte Z97X-SLI board with a Intel 4790k cpu (not overclocked), 16 GB ram. PSU is decently beefy but I'd have to check what (novatech prebuild).
- PC is mostly used for "desktop" apps, some coding, music, videos, writing docs, lots of web browsing, a little virtualization. Also photo cataloguing/editing in lightroom, occasional photoshop
- I had a new 4k display (LG 27UD88) arrive last week
- The built in Intel 4600 display struggled with even a 4K desktop. Refresh was capped at 30 Hz and everything felt very laggy, even with max "video ram"
- I searched on amazon, but confused at the sheer number of options went with something at the cheaper end, 4K support, passive - quite happy with not getting more fan noise, though existing PSU and to a lesser extent processor fan are audible!
- noticed 1030 just released, and amazon was telling me "order in next 5 mins to get tomorrow" .. so I did
- actual card is GT1030-SL-2G-BRK GDDR5
Desktop seems to work "just fine" at 4k/60Hz over HDMI 2 & is smooth and snappy, a way away from the intel's performance
So that's the back story, but I can return within 30 days, so I'm now wondering if I made a sensible choice. For desktop, video use would the experts here recommend other options. I'm not totally against a fan design if not too loud under desktop use . I spent ~ 70 ukp on the asus passive gt1030 card, I wouldn't want to go much above this. 90 perhaps? I did read the ATI RX550s were decent, but years ago ati drivers were abysmal, and that's what I remember, whilst nvidia seem decent (that being said the LG monitor I think has freesync, nothing nvidia though since I don't game I guess who cares!). 2GB feels a little tight, but it seems quite a big step up in price to get 3GB/4GB (I notice netflix want 3GB for their 4k pc service)
Feedback/comments welcome
- I have a Gigabyte Z97X-SLI board with a Intel 4790k cpu (not overclocked), 16 GB ram. PSU is decently beefy but I'd have to check what (novatech prebuild).
- PC is mostly used for "desktop" apps, some coding, music, videos, writing docs, lots of web browsing, a little virtualization. Also photo cataloguing/editing in lightroom, occasional photoshop
- I had a new 4k display (LG 27UD88) arrive last week
- The built in Intel 4600 display struggled with even a 4K desktop. Refresh was capped at 30 Hz and everything felt very laggy, even with max "video ram"
- I searched on amazon, but confused at the sheer number of options went with something at the cheaper end, 4K support, passive - quite happy with not getting more fan noise, though existing PSU and to a lesser extent processor fan are audible!
- noticed 1030 just released, and amazon was telling me "order in next 5 mins to get tomorrow" .. so I did
- actual card is GT1030-SL-2G-BRK GDDR5
Desktop seems to work "just fine" at 4k/60Hz over HDMI 2 & is smooth and snappy, a way away from the intel's performance
So that's the back story, but I can return within 30 days, so I'm now wondering if I made a sensible choice. For desktop, video use would the experts here recommend other options. I'm not totally against a fan design if not too loud under desktop use . I spent ~ 70 ukp on the asus passive gt1030 card, I wouldn't want to go much above this. 90 perhaps? I did read the ATI RX550s were decent, but years ago ati drivers were abysmal, and that's what I remember, whilst nvidia seem decent (that being said the LG monitor I think has freesync, nothing nvidia though since I don't game I guess who cares!). 2GB feels a little tight, but it seems quite a big step up in price to get 3GB/4GB (I notice netflix want 3GB for their 4k pc service)
Feedback/comments welcome