The Lowest-End GPU: GeForce GT 1010 Available, Benchmarked, Pictured

GeForce
(Image credit: Taobao)

Given the ongoing GPU shortages, some users are looking for basic functionality rather than performance. Perhaps that's why Nvidia launched its GeForce GT 1010 based on a four-years-old low-end GP108 GPU in 2021, or AMD released its Radeon RX 6500 XT notebook GPU into the desktop world. Of course, given the positioning of the GeForce GT 1010, it was also never supposed to be in retail, but it has happened anyway.  

A Lenovo-badged GeForce GT 1010 has emerged on Taobao, a Chinese online marketplace (via VideoCardz), and @Zed_Wang has published an image of a LeadTek-made GeForce GT 1010 board. While companies like LeadTek produce cards for PC makers, they rarely put their labels on these types of products, meaning that the device in question is specifically aimed at the channel or even retail markets. The card is available at Tabao for about $70. 

We have doubts about GeForce GT 1010's success in retail because of its low performance — Wang ran the 3DMark Time Spy Extreme benchmark and got 153 points. To put that into context, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2060 scores around 2800 – 2900 points in this benchmark. But then again, Nvidia's GP108 was never meant to perform well in gaming applications. 

Entry-level notebook GPUs are designed to be cheap and consume as little power as possible. To that end, they feature modest specs and poor performance in games, but when you need something inexpensive and low power, performance in games is the least of your concerns. Nvidia originally released its GP108 as an entry-level desktop and notebook GPU in 2017, and since it never produced a low-end Turing GPU, it continued to manufacture the chip. Then to address demand from its OEM customers, Nvidia quietly released its GeForce GT 1010 based on a cut-down GP108 early last year. 

With 256 CUDA cores, 16 texture units, 16 render backends, and 2GB of memory onboard, the GeForce GT 1010 would have been a fine gaming solution in 2008, but this product won't appeal to many gamers in 2021. That's why Nvidia only made it available to OEMs who needed to serve business customers that sometimes demand standalone graphics cards in their desktops. Amid the GPU shortage, even a cut-down GP108-based GeForce GT 1010 is good enough for companies like Lenovo. Now the question is if it will be good enough for retail sales, too.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • salgado18
    Put into perspective the score of the GT 1030, please! Comparing it to a much faster card is completely meaningless. Put the scores of the 1030, the 1050, the RX 550, RX 560, even the RX 6400 if there is already, if not all of them at least one of them. Comparing it to an RTX 2060 has no value for the reader.
    Reply
  • chickenballs
    In other word its as useful as NFTs.
    cant wait for them to release a ddr4 version (y)
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    salgado18 said:
    Put into perspective the score of the GT 1030, please! Comparing it to a much faster card is completely meaningless.
    Doesn't take much imagination to determine that 1/20th the score of the four years old RTX2060 is pretty bad. Having 2GB of memory makes it a no-go for anything but the most lightweight of modern games that would run about the same or better on modern IGPs than a GT1010.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    What would be the purpose/benefit of this over just using integrated graphics?
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    cknobman said:
    What would be the purpose/benefit of this over just using integrated graphics?
    Some CPUs have no IGP or at least not a working or enabled one. Some people also need more outputs than IGPs can provide.
    Reply
  • artk2219
    salgado18 said:
    Put into perspective the score of the GT 1030, please! Comparing it to a much faster card is completely meaningless. Put the scores of the 1030, the 1050, the RX 550, RX 560, even the RX 6400 if there is already, if not all of them at least one of them. Comparing it to an RTX 2060 has no value for the reader.

    Honestly I agree, it could have been compared to a GT 730 or 710, intels HD 630, basically the other crappy GPU's that will likely be options around it, or at least the GT1030 (ideally both the DDR4 and GDDR5 versions) to compare how much of a stepdown it is, or an RX 550 2GB. No this isn't a rocket ship, it was never meant to be, but posting a comparison to a way faster chip that everyone knows is way faster doesn't really help. Anyone looking to throw something into an esport machine, or conteplating whether or not its better than integrated graphics may be looking at a card like this, and there is nothing here to help them with that comparison.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    If you had to buy something new for an esports machine, GT1030 all the way. Or something from the used market, real GTX1050 commonly sell for around $100.

    GT730 GDDR5 version has similar memory bandwidth to the GT1010, lower core count (but newer cores), probably around the same performance. But they basically don't make the good 730 anymore, so not much chance of getting one new. And quite the gamble used.

    The downside of the GT1030 and likely GT1010 is also limited PCIe bandwidth. Only a 4x card, so you lose half that running at 2.0 and half again at 1.1. In that regard, some of the even older GPUs would be better. But at that point more effective to pick up an AMD APU.
    Reply
  • samopa
    Eximo said:
    If you had to buy something new for an esports machine, GT1030 all the way. Or something from the used market, real GTX1050 commonly sell for around $100.

    Situation in my place is much worse, a good, used, GT1050 is sold for more than $200.
    It's so much worse that they even re-release GT210 1GB (brand new) for $25-$35, and GT610 2GB (brand new) for $45-$55.
    Reply
  • mcsey
    salgado18 said:
    Put into perspective the score of the GT 1030, please! Comparing it to a much faster card is completely meaningless. Put the scores of the 1030, the 1050, the RX 550, RX 560, even the RX 6400 if there is already, if not all of them at least one of them. Comparing it to an RTX 2060 has no value for the reader.

    I just got 1247 on Timespy with a GT 1030 and an I7-8800. The 1010 appears to be crap even compared to crap.
    Reply
  • cyrusfox
    yeah on my GDDR5 GT 1030 on a 10850k I am getting a score of 1450, so 10x better than the 1010 scoring 153... Intel IGPU is better... (low end Intel 32EU gets a score of 805)
    Reply