Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 2GB Review

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Power Consumption

Voltages & Temperatures

The two cards perform almost identically during our gaming loop, with the voltages plateauing between 0.96 to 0.98V after warming up.

A closer look shows that the passively-cooled card regulates its voltage a bit more quickly and accurately. However, this doesn’t make any noticeable difference: the average clock rates and gaming results come out nearly the same.

Both cards’ power consumption may as well be identical, too. The small fan consumes less than a single watt during normal operation. This is in the same order of magnitude as differences we'd measure due to GPU quality.

A 32W result during gaming and a 34W measurement under our stress test do exceed Nvidia's TDP specification. But that number only covers the GPU. This means our two GP108s do stay within the 30W limit.

Power Consumption & Current

A look at the gaming loop graph shows short peaks of almost 40W. Zoom in even further and you'll see the cards go as high as ~48W. Every one of those brief peaks is followed by a valley, though, which compensates for it. In short, the peaks are nothing to worry about; the averages end up right where they should according to the manufacturer's technical specs.

Brief current peaks of 3.3A don’t pose any danger to other hardware components, either.

During our stress test, the load and power consumption curve are more constant and even. The highest peaks reach approximately 39W.

The current plot looks good as well.

Motherboard Slot Utilization

As usual, we test the cards’ conformance to the PCI-SIG's slot specification, which allows a maximum current of 5.5A. Gigabyte’s new graphics cards make it all the way to 2.7A, or just under half of the specified ceiling. There’s no cause for concern with these GT 1030s.


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Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • turkey3_scratch
    This is a fantastic chip! Seeing as it performs nearly on-par with the 750Ti, it has approximately double the performance/power ratio. It is also perfect for a noiseless PC, the passively cooled one is.
    Reply
  • takeshi7
    Does this card work with 4K Netflix? From what I've read Nvidia requires 3GB VRAM for it which seems stupid and arbitrary. 2GB is enough to buffer several seconds of 4K movie frames.
    Reply
  • King_V
    Definitely interesting. Going through the initial tests, I actually started wondering why the RX550 was lower in the hierarchy charts than the 750Ti.

    Then, when they switched positions in some other tests, it became more clear. And, I concluded that even putting certain cards in tiers relative to each other is not that easy.

    I was very glad to see this test, though, as I'd previously considered getting the GT1030. My need for it is no longer there.

    Overall, I think the 750Ti, RX 550, and RX 460 are closer to each other than I anticipated. It does seem the 1030 is behind them all, but not too far behind.

    Thanks for this review. I can't wait to see where it ultimately falls in the hierarchy chart(which, oddly, is missing the RX 560 but I suspect that is in the same tier as the RX 460)
    Reply
  • Boom_4
    TAKESHI7
    yes it's enough, IDK where you heard that you need 3gb or VRAM.
    Reply
  • hendriksnyder
    Will this work with a core I7 7700k? And would it be able to run games like FO4 and TitanFall 2 on ultra settings?
    Reply
  • takeshi7
    19934708 said:
    TAKESHI7
    yes it's enough, IDK where you heard that you need 3gb or VRAM.

    Multiple sources say you need 3GB VRAM
    http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4457/~/preview-of-4k-uhd-netflix-content-on-nvidia-gpus
    http://www.pcworld.com/article/3193566/components-graphics/nvidia-quietly-opens-4k-netflix-streaming-on-geforce-gtx-10-series-graphics-cards.html

    It's pretty stupid because that means you have to spend twice as much to get a 1050 Ti minimum.

    Reply
  • zcat
    Can't wait to swap out my miniITX's old 750Ti with a true successor that's twice as powerful at the same bus-powered max of 60W.
    Reply
  • mikegrok
    I am going to be installing a bunch of these into a dental office as soon as stocks get better. Dental offices have 2 monitors per computer (usually using the gti 720). One for work, and one to show Netflix, and distract the patients. The computers have CPUs that don't accelerate h265, and the 1000 series nvidia GPUs accelerate the current video codecs.
    Reply
  • Kuo Ping
    got this card for months and really love it for LOL.
    Reply
  • caamsa
    Wow things must be slow in the world of computer hardware.
    Reply