Will GT1030 work with my old Dell 960 SFF?

[TaqiChauhan]

i have an old Dell 960 small form factor system with 4gb DDR2 ram, Core2Quad Q6600 CPU (@2.4GHz) and 235W PSU.
Keeping above components in view, will the new GT 1030 2gb low profile (THIS ONE) work with my system? Will it bottleneck?
Please tell surely. I have tested gtx 750 in my system (I borrowed it from my friend) and it worked perfectly, no bottlenecking at all, GTA V ran at smooth 40fps at normal-high, The only problem with 750 is that it is still expensive in my country. Even in used people are selling higher price which exceed my budget. Thanks.
Please note I am not going to play games at 1080p and highest quality. So ignore this.

 

[Guest]

It will be great, also you tested gtx 750 which is more powerful.

 

[TaqiChauhan]

will there be any bottlenecking? I am afraid this new card may give me low performance on games due to my outdated cpu (q6600)!!

 

[photonboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaJVGGd_orw

The GT1030 is almost as fast, consumes less power, is apparently cheaper there and frankly with the lower CPU performance numbers between the GT1030 vs GTX750 are likely almost identical for most games.

BOTTLENECKING is very misunderstood. Every game varies in how much CPU vs GPU it needs (and it can even switch between GPU and CPU in the same game). Obviously a GTX1080Ti + low-end CPU is a waste of money but for most setups with older CPU's just get a GT1030 or better and don't worry too much about "bottlenecking". Even a GTX1070 would make a difference in some situations so you make an EDUCATED GUESS as to where there's on average diminishing returns (or just limited by budget).

Rather you need to concentrate on how best to TWEAK the game settings to get a good result. This includes:

a) VSYNC OFF (aim for 40FPS or so depending on type of game).
Con: screen tear

b) VSYNC ON (for 60Hz monitor need to match 60FPS at all times or dips cause Stutter)
Pro: no screen tear

c) Adaptive VSYNC: toggles VSYNC ON and OFF (to prevent stutter if you drop below the target of 60FPS/60Hz).

NCP-> manage 3d settings-> ... add game-> (setting) -> save (test with FRAPS or other FPS indicator that dropping below 60FPS causes screen tear otherwise capped at 60FPS)

d) "HALF REFRESH" Adaptive VSYNC: synchs to HALF the refresh (30FPS/60Hz) which is easier to hit
con: much more sluggish than 60FPS

Can apply this to 144Hz/72FPS though you don't likely have that.

To OPTIMIZE your experience you have to experiment with this. It's a two-step process:
#1 - set your goal (VSYNC ON?)
#2 - adjust game settings to meet that goal (i.e if you can't maintain 60FPS with Adaptive VSYNC most of the time then drop some settings such as MSAA, shadows etc to find the best balance of visuals vs game smoothness/tear)

 

[photonboy]

GT1030 LP:
If you have reasonable case cooling you may want to consider a fanless card. The Low Profile small fans MAY be noisy (can look for comments to see at Newegg etc.)

There's a card with TWO small fans which is likely better than just one small fan, AND you can likely adjust the fan profile to be quieter than default while still sufficient to cool the card.

There are also DIFFERENT CONNECTIONS on these cards. They seem to be grouped as:

1) HDMI + DVI-D, or
2) HDMI + DP

So check your monitor. If for example it has DVI + VGA only you need one with DVI. There is no VGA support.

Examples:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125973&cm_re=gt1030-_-14-125-973-_-Product
(Note it's description is WRONG as there's HDMI + DVI but no DP).

MSI's dual-fan LP is oddly expensive ($115):
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GTX-1050-2GT-LP/dp/B01N6NI5X6/ref=sr_1_10?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1501878262&sr=1-10&keywords=gt+1030

 

[TaqiChauhan]

GT1030 LP:
If you have reasonable case cooling you may want to consider a fanless card. The Low Profile small fans MAY be noisy (can look for comments to see at Newegg etc.)

There's a card with TWO small fans which is likely better than just one small fan, AND you can likely adjust the fan profile to be quieter than default while still sufficient to cool the card.

Thanks a lot for your help and explanation. I am ordering it tomorrow and will share the results.
I will look for 2 fans variant but I don't think I will find one. Thanks again!

 

[photonboy]

GT1030 LP:
If you have reasonable case cooling you may want to consider a fanless card. The Low Profile small fans MAY be noisy (can look for comments to see at Newegg etc.)

There's a card with TWO small fans which is likely better than just one small fan, AND you can likely adjust the fan profile to be quieter than default while still sufficient to cool the card.

Thanks a lot for your help and explanation. I am ordering it tomorrow and will share the results.
I will look for 2 fans variant but I don't think I will find one. Thanks again!

I just updated my post, and not sure what you have locally but the 2-fan MSI LP is more expensive (by a lot). EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all have fanless solutions which I think are probably best. Probably will work fine, and worst-case I'm sure you get a better or another case fan.

It's actually fairly easy to rig up a fan internally with some pad (noise dampening) and elastic to strap a low-RPM fan to just constantly blow air across the card if need be.

 

[TaqiChauhan]

GT1030 LP:
If you have reasonable case cooling you may want to consider a fanless card. The Low Profile small fans MAY be noisy (can look for comments to see at Newegg etc.)

There's a card with TWO small fans which is likely better than just one small fan, AND you can likely adjust the fan profile to be quieter than default while still sufficient to cool the card.

Thanks a lot for your help and explanation. I am ordering it tomorrow and will share the results.
I will look for 2 fans variant but I don't think I will find one. Thanks again!

I just updated my post, and not sure what you have locally but the 2-fan MSI LP is more expensive (by a lot). EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all have fanless solutions which I think are probably best. Probably will work fine, and worst-case I'm sure you get a better or another case fan.

It's actually fairly easy to rig up a fan internally with some pad (noise dampening) and elastic to strap a low-RPM fan to just constantly blow air across the card if need be.

I have SFF pc which has opened top case since 3 years (when I bought it). Due to being a Small Form Factor, I have to remove the top casing and put harddisk on top of cd rom to make space for Graphics card.
Also I have a spare fan of another graphics card which I will use to blow air.

 

[photonboy]

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Quad+Q6600+%40+2.40GHz

FX-4300 is I believe over 1400 single core, and newer Intel's over 2000.

So there will be some games with severe CPU bottleneck, though many older games or newer, less-demanding games will run well.

My general rule of thumb is check the CPU and GPU requirements and make sure you are not too close to the minimums.

There's also a handy option in the NVidia Control Panel called Adaptive VSYNC. For 60Hz monitors it would lock to 60FPS VSYNC ON (like normal VSYNC) but auto turn off VSYNC if you can't output 60FPS. You then get screen tear but not the added STUTTER due to the synch mismatch.

There's even a "HALF REFRESH" option that would then lock to 30FPS and again disable VSYNC if you can't output 30FPS. There's a lot more lag/sluggishness so it's best for SLOWER PACED GAMES where screen tear looks bad and you want that to be gone.

If screen tear happens too often you need to drop the game settings to raise the FPS (which may not do much if it's a CPU bottleneck).

You can do this by:
NCP-> manage 3d settings-> .. add game-> (setting change)-> save -> (confirm locks to 60FPS/30FPS as appropriate and dropping below causes screen tear not added stuttering).

Some games may look okay at 1366x768 and 2xMSAA (anti-aliasing). Skyrim for example can hit 30FPS at least with that CPU and GT1030 with low/medium settings.

You can find various suggestions online for games that run well on lower-specced systems. (Braid, Super Meatboy, 2D games in general, maybe Half-Life 2 etc)