In days gone by budget GPUs were just about useless for gaming, but not anymore.
Howdy howdy guys ponchato here, and today we’re gonna be taking a look at NVIDIA’s
cheapest, most entry-level GPU: the GT 1030.
Released earlier this year in May of 2017, the GT 1030 started at a launch price of only
$79 USD and is one of the few cards actually available for less than its starting price.
It comes with 384 shaders running at 1228MHz and 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1502 MHz.
Due to its 64-bit memory bus the total memory bandwidth is only 48GB/s.
Floating point performance clocks in at 1127 GFLOPS and with a TDP of only 30W, NVIDIA
recommends a 300W power supply – though, 30W is so tiny that basically any functional
power supply should be able to run this.
Because of its super low power draw, it doesn’t require an extra PCIe power connector and
can run entirely off the motherboard slot.
The specific card we’re looking at here is the MSI GT 1030 2GH LP, which stands for
“Low Profile”.
Many of the 1030s are low-profile ready, which means you can replace the back panel bracket
with a shorter one to fit into thin cases, such as for a home theater PC.
The bracket on this one has a slight design flaw: the second screw is directly under the
heat sink, so it takes a bit of work to actually replace the bracket.
This 1030 (along with most of the other 1030s) comes in at 6” or 153mm long, basically
the same length as the PCIe slot itself.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, this one is entirely cooled by the passive heat
sink – it doesn’t have a fan.
Because of this, though it is a single slot bracket, the card with its cooler does take
up two slots.
This one has an HDMI and DisplayPort connector, while most other GT 1030s will have a DVI
connector in place of the DisplayPort.
The test setup today is my i5-7500 build with 8GB of DDR4-2400 memory.
Now we’ll look at the individual game benchmarks.
First up, Battlefield 1.
On low settings, the 1030 maintains over 60FPS with lows just under 50, which makes for very
fluid gameplay.
On medium that average drops to 43 with 1% lows at 33 and 0.1% lows at 31.
The highest playable graphics setting is high, with the average frame rate right at 30 FPS.
Maxed out on Ultra, the GT 1030 averages 26 frames per second with lows at 22 and 21.
So in Battlefield 1 if you’re looking for 60FPS you’ll get that on low settings, and
if you’re okay with 30FPS average then you can push it up to high settings.
Next we’ll look at CSGO.
On low settings, the 1030 averages 184 FPS with lows at 92 and 58.
Medium settings drop it just a bit to 175 average with lows at 83 and 57, and on high
settings the GT 1030 averages 105 FPS but has pretty rough lows at 38 FPS in the 1%
case and 20 FPS in the 0.1%.
If you’re shooting for 120 or 144FPS, medium settings will serve you well.
If you only have a 60Hz monitor, technically high settings will work but since this is
a competitive shooter I can’t really recommend high settings because of the noticeably low
1% and 0.1% lows.
Personally I’d just stick with medium settings.
Third up is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
As you can see, unfortunately, even low settings aren’t low enough for the 1030.
If you’re coming from consoles and you’re used to a “cinematic” 24 frames per second,
then it might be playable on low.
As for the rest of us, DXMD just isn’t on the menu.
This is the most graphically intensive game on the list and I can’t say I’m too surprised
by this performance.
Deus Ex is an enthusiast title and unlike many other games these days, definitely not
designed for a cross platform release with comparatively low end consoles.
Now we’ll look at a console port: GTA 5.
On low settings, the 1030 maintains 100FPS average with hardly noticeable lows at 62
and 47FPS.
Bump it up to medium and the performance bumps down to 40FPS average with lows at 28 and
20.
On high settings, the 1030 still manages over 30FPS but has dips to 22 and 13 FPS.
If you’re shooting for 60+ FPS, you’ll have to stick with low settings, but if you’re
comfortable at 30 frames per second then you can run GTA 5 on high without too much trouble.
Next, Just Cause 3.
Running it on low settings with the 1030 will net you 54 frames per second average with
lows around 30FPS.
Increasing the settings a bit to medium only results in a slight dip in performance: 49FPS
average with lows still around 30.
On high settings, though, the 1030 gets bogged down quite a bit: 29 FPS average, 22 FPS 1%
lows, and 19 FPS 0.1% lows.
The 1030 can almost hit 60FPS on low settings, and if you’re fine with around 30FPS, it
can handle high in Just Cause 3.
Number six in the list is Overwatch.
On low settings, the 1030 can hit just under 100 FPS with lows still well above 60.
Medium settings drop it to 74FPS average with lows at 60 and 48, while high settings bring
it just below 60 FPS average with lows at 48 and 36.
Ultra settings average 50FPS with 1% lows at 41 and 0.1% lows at 29, and finally epic
settings average 37FPS with lows at 31 and 24.
Honestly these results were a bit surprising – I expected better performance in Overwatch
since it’s an esports title and usually easy to render.
That said, while you won’t be able to hit 120 or 144FPS with the 1030, if you’re shooting
for 60 FPS gaming you can comfortably play on high.
If anything above 30 FPS is fine, even Epic settings are playable with the GT 1030.
Number 7 is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG.
Honestly I went into this thinking the 1030 would just make it unplayable but here are
the results.
On very low, the 1030 averaged 43 FPS with lows at 31 and 23.
On low settings the average drops to just above 30 FPS with lows in the mid-20s, while
medium settings bring the average just below 30 FPS with lows at 20 and 16.
High and ultra settings aren’t really playable with averages well below 30 FPS.
Despite being such a poorly optimized game, PUBG is actually not that bad on the lowest
settings.
Even low or medium settings are fine if you’re okay with around 30 FPS.
It won’t be super smooth all the time, but the fact that it’s playable at all on such
an inexpensive card is, in my opinion, pretty impressive.
The last game in the list is Rocket League.
On low settings, the GT 1030 averages 134 FPS with lows right around 100.
Medium settings hit 67 FPS average with lows in the mid-50s, and high settings average
45 FPS with 1% lows at 37 and 0.1% lows at 34.
If you have a 120 or 144Hz monitor, low settings will actually pretty much keep up.
If you’re shooting for 60 FPS medium settings will work well, and even maxed out the game
stays well above 30.
If you play a lot of Rocket League, a GT 1030 may actually be all you need.
Now we’ll look at a combined average of the esports titles: CSGO, Overwatch, and Rocket
League.
Low settings will get you around 138 FPS with lows at 93 and 72, while medium settings average
105 with 1% lows at 66 and 0.1% lows around 53.
High or ultra settings average just over 60 FPS with lows at 35 and 26.
All things considered, these results aren’t that bad.
Now here’s the average of the non-esports titles: Battlefield 1, Deus Ex, GTA 5, Just
Cause 3, and PUBG.
Low settings will get you close to 60 FPS average with lows at 39 and 32, while medium
settings drop that to around 36 on average with lows in the low 20s.
High or ultra settings are generally pretty rough, with average FPS at 24 and lows at
17 and 14.
Like the esports average, again, these results aren’t too bad.
Now we’ll take a look at power consumption and temperatures.
Basically every GPU comes with a different cooler so comparing two cards with two different
coolers isn’t very useful, but these results will give you a ballpark estimate of how hot
the GPU gets.
These results were taken in a room at 24C, power was measured for the entire test setup
from the wall, and temperatures were allowed to stabilize for 15 minutes before measuring.
Sitting idle at the desktop, this passively cooled GT 1030 hit 38C and drew 35W.
Under load with Unigine’s Valley benchmark, the 1030 hit 81C and drew 64W.
That is relatively hot for such a low power chip, but keep in mind this one doesn’t
have a fan and 81C is well within the safe limit for a modern GPU.
Side note, 64W is the lowest load power I’ve measured to date, that’s like 20W less than
the RX 550 and about 100W less than the GTX 1060.
Now the most important part for a budget GPU like this: FPS per dollar.
I calculate this by taking the average and 1% lows for all 8 games at medium settings,
add them all up, and divide by the current market price of the card.
Here’s how the GT 1030 looks.
From all the benchmarks I’ve run, 0.9 FPS per dollar is right up there with the best,
and I think the 1030 is among the first cards to break the old budget GPU trend.
Entry level cards like this, ones available for under $100 or so, used to be nearly useless
for gaming.
In many cases they just couldn’t run games acceptably at all, so they’d come out with
horrific FPS per dollar metrics.
That is, they weren’t cheap enough to justify having such awful performance.
Not so with the 1030, and I have to say I’m very happy to see the super budget range getting
some decent parts for the first time in… basically forever.
I was skeptical of the GT 1030 – originally I wanted one just so I could have a passively
cooled, silent GPU for testing noise levels of other components.
But after running these tests and gathering the data…
I’m actually very impressed.
Sure it’s not an RX 580 or a 1060, but it also costs like two thirds less.
And out of the 8 games I tested, only one of them wasn’t playable: Deus Ex.
Every other game could handle low to medium settings, depending on how picky you are with
your frame rates, and some of them even hit 100 FPS or more.
Now I wouldn’t recommend the 1030 if you’re running a mid-range GPU from the last 2 or
3 generations, but if you’ve been struggling with onboard graphics or you have an old entry
level card like the R7 250, the GT 1030 will be quite an upgrade for very little money.
The other big use case is for home theater PCs: as far as I know, the 1030 is the only
current-gen card that can be passively cooled out of the box.
If you just want to start playing games while spending the least amount of money possible,
or you need a GPU for watching 4K video, NVIDIA’s GT 1030 might be perfect for you.
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Thanks for watching, I hope I helped, and I’ll see you in the next video.