Question Assistance with a lower end card for an Ultrawide monitor pls

[punkncat]

I am well more versed in older and or higher end cards and am having a hard time knowing what to look for.

I built a new PC for one of the office PC that is using an LG Ultrawide 29" IPS LED Monitor at a resolution of 2560 x 1080.
The CPU selected for the build is a 12600KF due to a really nice open box price. I thought I was going to get away with using an older R7 240 (or similar) GPU for it, but it simply doesn't have the grunt to run the native resolution without letterboxing it. I am a bit confused as the card should be on roughly the same level of power/ability as the i5 8400 integrated graphics but that has not been the case.

I am far more well versed in older low end cards, and newer gaming type cards. I am considering something like the RX 6600 Challenger card but know it is well overkill for this use case. The monitor is Freesync and had considered continuing to use an AMD GPU alongside that, hooked up to the monitor via HDMI (the monitor also offers a DP connection). I have a limit of a 500W PSU, which is far more than needed when considering that I really don't need as strong a card as selected above.

What should I be looking at? From my "gaming" perspective I recall the 6400 being a card to avoid for a variety of reasons. I really don't know if those shortcomings matter for a static screen office use case.

The card I am looking at above is:
white, has a backplate, will work with the existing new PSU

I wouldn't have an issue using a smaller black card such as a half height (with full size I/O plate) as it will hide under the cooler anyway. In that case no supplemental power would be preferred. I just don't know what to look at so far as possible models. Closer to about half the $210 the above card is listed at wouldn't be bad if it will run the proper resolution and not letterbox.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i had setup a 2560x1080 running from a GTX 1050 with a 300w unit.
had no issue with the 21:9 aspect ratio.

 

[punkncat]

i had setup a 2560x1080 running from a GTX 1050 with a 300w unit.
had no issue with the 21:9 aspect ratio.

First off, thank you for the suggestion. It brings up a point that is part of what I am having trouble with.

I would like to get a new card since it would provide proper receipt and warranty. I will be able to turn that in on an expense report where used would have to go through more of a back channel.

I note that when searching this model that a whole lot of the "insert no-name company you have never heard of" cards at half the expected price OR name brand models that are at most perhaps 30 or so $ from the price of the card I referenced above, new.

Do you have any suggestion on where I might find such a card for a decent price as opposed to something new or last gen available new?
Amazon doesn't appear to be it. Unfortunately, Newegg has removed a lot of the filters I found so helpful over the years so can't really find much helpful there.
The other issue there is when filtering by price a lot of really old, obsolete, and unsuitable models have to be dug through. Pretty much the summation of why I started the thread.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

most of the RX 6600s i've seen are closer to ~$200.
while the latest "new" GTX 1050s seem closer to ~$150.

this is the card we used in that ITX build, MSI single fan at Newegg.
this particular one listed is not sold directly by Newegg, and not sure how they cover their 3rd party seller's transactions or if they do at all.

 

[punkncat]

Yes, the 6600 I am looking at is specifically white with a backplate. The main reason for selecting it that way is that it will be large enough to see under the Cooler Master "EVO" style (like a Hyper 212 but newer) which is also white. The build also has ARGB aspects that are working, looking nice, and sync-ing properly but the GPU doesn't have to be included in that concern.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CL5ZCH1J/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A39LAUWR53IY4G&th=1

This particular build was done not only for its level of performance, but with a mind towards the ergo and overall look. It was an aspect the user found important to them and even so remains within the set budget including the OS license. I actually have about $330-something left but see no real need to spend it (all) quite yet as there may also be a keyboard and mouse update. Everything else is new.

 

[punkncat]

Well, for what I can find and alongside the various considerations I think I have this thing narrowed down to three possibilities.

The RX 6600 Challenger card referred to above.

An RTX 3050 LP card which is something like $30 less expensive but also mildly less powerful and less VRAM than the above card with the benefit of not needing supplemental power.

The Sparkle ARC A320 ECO.

My main concerns about the Intel card is whether it actually has the grunt to put out the resolution I want. It isn't the desired color but should be hidden under the cooler at the low profile size. Only $100. My other concern is with a noisy fan due to the resolution. I am pretty unlikely to get this card but haven't ruled it out.

The 6600 and the 3050 are a slightly harder choice. The price isn't far off. The 6600 in the model I have chosen is going to look choice in the build. It will not be utilized very much in the particular use case, however, would leave light gaming and better future resale cases valid. The 3050 has a few setbacks of its own but will also hide under the cooler. I can't find a shot of the back of the board and hope it is just black. At this time and in general Nvidia cards tend to hold value better, but the ergonomics of the color match choices could play well later.

The only other consideration is the power supply. It is a Micro Center branded 500 watt unit of questionable quality. The plus side it and its cables were all white and it really does look quite striking. It is the recommended of the 6600 card, which will never be anywhere near utilization in this use case. Those later considerations may come up to play then in relation to that quality.

 

[punkncat]

I ended up going a completely different route and ended up with an Intel ARC A380 low profile from ASRock. I am hopeful that it will work on the 2560x1080 resolution. I saw quite a few posts from 22 into 23 stating they would not work with that res. I didn't see anything past about mid last year or so. I am hopeful that a driver update cured that problem.

I had some concerns about the power supply and that card (6600) being right on the recommended use. I just don't trust this PSU that much. The other aspect was that the user wasn't crazy about the price of the RX 6600 and was concerned about its size as they are liking the openness that the low profile card which is in the build now offers.

As a side note, a bunch of retailers have the XFX RX 580 available new for $130 right now. Really not a bad price for a card of that legacy and power. It is a gigantic thing though so if they had concerns about the 6600, this certainly would have been too big.

This will leave more funds available for a good unicorn puke keyboard and mouse. At least on the KB aspect I am hoping to find something that will sync with the current lighting. IDK crap about that aspect so another problem for another day.

 

[Eximo]

I don't see why it wouldn't. Runs my 4K TV just fine. Actually need to try that again with the latest driver. I typically run it at 1080p because of some lingering multimedia glitches that have stuck around.

Audio via HDMI failing to recover after the screen has been off. Installed a new driver yesterday, hasn't happened yet (used to happen pretty much constantly with the 2022-2023 drivers)

And HDCP causing the screen to go black briefly when copyrighted video is playing. Or when re-sizing, or when tabbing away from a video, or whenever a video aspect ratio changed (ie an ad switching to a wider than 16:9, or playing an older 4:3 aspect ratio video) It was very annoying, but lower resolutions seemed to take care of that.

 

[punkncat]

The last aspect of your own experience is what I have been reading about in reference to the 21:9 format. I am hopeful that driver updates have rectified that issue. Intel has been working very hard to get these up to snuff.

TBH I wouldn't even have considered one of these cards a few months back. A lot of the reviewers and such are coming out to say the drivers have matured a pretty good bit and they are well better than towards release. With the impending Battle Mage thing some of their older cards may be a pretty good deal.

I opted for the ASRock model almost 100% due to the PCB color. It was black where the Sparkle and such are a blue PCB with an almost purple shroud. The purple would have been fine but unless the blue was completely obscured it would have clashed.

I will know how it works out tomorrow afternoon. Got my fingers crossed and @Eximo, I appreciate your input.

 

[punkncat]

Initial impression on the low profile A380 is very good for this use case. Once I got the drivers installed, the resolution and the framerate set correctly it looks great (on screen). It was able to do the 2560x1080/100 no problems at all. The little R7 this replaced could only do 30hz and made everything on the monitor look a bit fuzzy.

Can't hear it running, looks good aesthetically, and didn't require additional power so as to be safer with the power supply choice.

The only aspect I wasn't crazy about was that this card had been opened before. Someone was very careful with the packaging and all the tamper seals. Probably would not have known if they hadn't screwed the full size I/O bracket in too tightly and left a ring and bend. The LP bracket was also quite loose. I tried to contact Amazon to chat with them about it but the only recourse is either exchange or refund. I didn't see the point in that before seeing if it worked. So far so good and next week should be a good test for it.