Looking for best small form factor graphics card

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t4keheart

Weaksauce
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Sep 24, 2019
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Hey guys,
The title pretty much explains it. I need the most powerful "small form factor" graphics card I can find.
When I say "small form factor", I mean length wise; not height/low rise. I have a small case that this needs to fit inside.
The other requirement is that it doesn't need any additional power connections, other than what it gets from the pcie slot.
Right now I'm running a GTX 1050 2gb, but I'm wondering if there's anything better that's small enough to fit and doesn't need any additional power connections.

Was looking at some single fan models like the 1070 and 1080 but it looks to me like all of those require additional power.

Any thoughts? Don't mind if it's an AMD card.
 
t4keheart said:
Any versions of the gtx 1070 or 1080 that don't require extra power?
Click to expand...

Absolutely not.

They need way more than the ~75W the PCIe slot provides. Hell, even the mobile 1070 has a TDP of 115W. with the most efficient model (MaxQ) dropping that to about ~90W. That's the best that could be squeezed out of the mid-high end Pascal chips.

You won't be finding a faster slot-powered desktop card than a GTX 1650 at the moment.

That Gigabyte card may not be your only option though. What's your actual limitation in that case? The Gig. card is 170mm long, while this EVGA card is ~190mm (disregard, that card needs a 6-pin).

-edit-

Actually, you can also just buy the Gigabyte low-profile model. Those are even shorter than the one Auer linked, coming in at 167mm. Downside is that it'll be a bit noiser due to using smaller (60-80mm?) fans instead of the larger 92mm on other single fan cards.
 
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A lot of SFF cases require a low profile card. I'd look for a 1650 low profile card. I guess it depends on what you consider to be "SFF".
 
cjcox said:
A lot of SFF cases require a low profile card. I'd look for a 1650 low profile card. I guess it depends on what you consider to be "SFF".
Click to expand...

Well i don't need a low profile card. Normal profile, but my case is kinda small so it needs to be of the shorter single fan variety... also psu doesn't have any of those extra 6 pin gpu connectors... so I'm looking for the best card this pc can accomodate.
 
doubletake said:
Absolutely not.

They need way more than the ~75W the PCIe slot provides. Hell, even the mobile 1070 has a TDP of 115W. with the most efficient model (MaxQ) dropping that to about ~90W. That's the best that could be squeezed out of the mid-high end Pascal chips.

You won't be finding a faster slot-powered desktop card than a GTX 1650 at the moment.

That Gigabyte card may not be your only option though. What's your actual limitation in that case? The Gig. card is 170mm long, while this EVGA card is ~190mm (disregard, that card needs a 6-pin).

-edit-

Actually, you can also just buy the Gigabyte low-profile model. Those are even shorter than the one Auer linked, coming in at 167mm. Downside is that it'll be a bit noiser due to using smaller (60-80mm?) fans instead of the larger 92mm on other single fan cards.
Click to expand...

So that's it then? the 1650 would be my highest performance option for my situation? I don't know the actual length limitation, I have to measure. I just know that it doesn't have a whole lot of extra room than what my current 1050 gtx is using.
 
t4keheart said:
Well i don't need a low profile card. Normal profile, but my case is kinda small so it needs to be of the shorter single fan variety... also psu doesn't have any of those extra 6 pin gpu connectors... so I'm looking for the best card this pc can accomodate.
Click to expand...

Just curious, what case? Shorty card is better than low profile. Better cooling/noise.
 
anything from this generation faster than a 1650 is going to need an extra power cable. If you’re limited to slot power it’s the best you’re going to get.

If you’ve already got a 1050 it’s probably 30-40% faster.
 
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cjcox said:
Just curious, what case? Shorty card is better than low profile. Better cooling/noise.
Click to expand...

This isn't a home/custom built machine. It's just an HP Pavillion I was given that I'm trying to max out the performance on... so it's just a regular HP Pavilion case with not too much extra room. Also the psu has no extra connectors for the gpu, which is why any card I'm looking at needs to be powered from the pci slot.
 
t4keheart said:
This isn't a home/custom built machine. It's just an HP Pavillion I was given that I'm trying to max out the performance on... so it's just a regular HP Pavilion case with not too much extra room. Also the psu has no extra connectors for the gpu, which is why any card I'm looking at needs to be powered from the pci slot.
Click to expand...

Honestly I have a shorty 1070 I put into an e-GPU enclosure that would probably work. Needs a bit of power though.

If you are not going to be gaming on it.
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-geforce-gt-1030-gv-n1030oc-2gi/p/N82E16814932004

That will get the job done.
 
KarsusTG said:
Honestly I have a shorty 1070 I put into an e-GPU enclosure that would probably work. Needs a bit of power though.

If you are not going to be gaming on it.
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-geforce-gt-1030-gv-n1030oc-2gi/p/N82E16814932004

That will get the job done.
Click to expand...

I do game on it, and it handles things much better than I had initially expected. Currently it's got 16GB ddr4, 2x samsung evo ssd's, an 8th gen i5, and the 2gb gtx 1050 that it came with.

I've been able to play any game I've wanted to play on it and performance is smooth. Settings are usually medium-high. I'm thinking maybe I could lose one of the ssd's and get some sort of adapter to utilize that sata power cable to power a better gpu... something like this:
adapter


Looks like that card you linked would be a downgrade from what I currently have, no?
 
The GDDR6 GTX 1650 cards are rolling out, though I haven't see any for sale without the pcie connector yet. If you have a few watts to spare on your psus, maybe you could run a molecule to pcie cable and step up to something like a 1650 Super.
 
Overclock it. I have a Zotac mini 1050 2gb I was getting like +150 core and like +450 on the Memory. And from what I have read I got a pretty bad overclocker. Even though you are limited for upgrades it might be worth it to wait for more variety or just pick up another PSU. A decent 500w bronze on sale is like 50 bucks and should be way over and above your current stock one couple that with a 2060S or something and the difference will be staggering. To me the 1650 just isn’t worth the upgrade from the 1050. But I starved myself out until I could pick up a 2080ti and most people aren’t going to do that anyway.
 
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