NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Feature Roundup

NVIDIA finally released their answer to AMD’s Radeon RX 550 graphics cards in the form of the GeForce GT 1030. The new power-efficient Pascal-based GPU is built on the 14nm process, supporting DX12, OpenGL 4.5, CUDA 6.1 and OpenCL 1.2. All NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 graphics cards come with 2GB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit memory bus. The GP108-300-A1 GPU used is configured to have one GPC, three SMs, with 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 9 ROPs total across it. It draws power directly from the PCIe bus and requires no external PSU connector.

NVIDIA’s partners are free to release custom card designs at launch with varying sizes, clock speeds and cooling equipment. The majority of GT 1030 video cards launched are either low-profile or single-slot. EVGA for example released three half-height video cards, one of which is passive while the other two have a 50m cooling fan. Due to the NVIDIA GT 1030’s low-profile size, and passive cooling, it makes an ideal HTPC video card. The single-slot height also makes it ideal as an integrated graphics alternative for compact SFF PCs.

GeForce GT 1030 Feature Comparison Chart

*KFA2 video cards are omitted in the list since they essentially go by the GALAX video card brand in other markets.

MSI rules the roost with over seven GT 1030 video cards to choose from. All of these options are also factory overclocked to 1265MHz core with 1518MHz boost clock. MSI also mixed and matched the profile height and display output configuration for each one. Their 2G LP OC and 2GH LP OC video card for example, are the only GT 1030 video cards available with a DisplayPort connector.

The price of the GeForce GT 1030 is around £69.99 on average currently on Amazon.co.uk. This is actually around £10 cheaper than the RX550 2GB version on average. The lowest price is currently Palit’s GT 1030 2GB which is available for only £64.99. The lowest priced RX 550 on the other hand is Sapphire’s RX 550 Pulse 2GB for £78.99.