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Need Help Finding Low Energy GPU

Justinbaileyman

Justinbaileyman

Golden Member
I want to buy a cheap Very low energy use GPU for my new server.
I would like it to be able to play 4k Video If possible without stutter and it has to have HDMI.
I dont really game on my PC,thats what my XBOX ONE is for.But It would be nice to play some lower end games like Guitar Hero or Need for speed Underground.
Please if any one knows of what im looking for please point me in the right direction.
 
GTX 950 only uses a single 6-pin connector and has HDMI 2.0 for 4K 60Hz televisions. I believe this is both the cheapest and lowest energy card that has HDMI 2.0 as this does not appear on any AMD or older Nvidia GPUs. Older cheaper, lower energy GPUs may support 4K at 30Hz over HDMI, and while this would cover most 4K videos, you may not find this ideal.
 
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GTX 950 is the best there currently is due to the decode engine. Alternative is GTX 960. Else that's it. All other cards lack one or more features.
 
What the others said. You want a GTX 950 for HDMI 2.0 supporting 4K @ 60Hz and the ability to use all important codecs.
 
Justinbaileyman said:
I want to buy a cheap Very low energy use GPU for my new server.
I would like it to be able to play 4k Video If possible without stutter and it has to have HDMI.
I dont really game on my PC,thats what my XBOX ONE is for.But It would be nice to play some lower end games like Guitar Hero or Need for speed Underground.
Please if any one knows of what im looking for please point me in the right direction.
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Your reference to 4K video indicates that you'll probably be needing HEVC decoding and HDMI 2.0 output. As of this moment, the only GPU that supports hardware HEVC decoding is the GM206, used in the GTX 950 and GTX 960 video cards. The 950 has a TDP of 90W, and the 960 has a TDP of 120W. Both should be fine as well for light gaming of the type you describe.

If you want something that has even lower power requirements (e.g. under 75W with no 6-pin power connector), wait a couple of months; AMD will be releasing Polaris 10 in mid-year, and it will be supporting HEVC decoding and HDMI 2.0 output as well as having significantly lower power consumption than the GTX 950.
 
750TI doesn't support the same decode and HDMI as GTX950. GTX950 and GTX960 are the only GPUs to fully support HEVC 10Bit in hardware.

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There really isn't any alternatives to these 2 until new GPUs gets released.

Or if you want no 6pin you can maybe get this soon:
http://www.techpowerup.com/220126/nvidia-readies-geforce-gtx-950-se-graphics-card.html

Seems to replace the 750 series.
 
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If you're building new, I would just use a skylake CPU w/ iGPU. Seems like a waste of money to buy a card to do what your iGPU already does if you're not actually gaming much. This is provided of course that you are buying a new CPU as part of this thing
 
monstercameron said:
Just buy a cheap carrizo laptop.
With what you get:
Hdmi 2.0
4k h.264/5
Light gaming.
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What would he do with the Carrizo laptop, duct tape it into a PCIe slot on his server?

@OP, the 950 is your best bet and if you're not gaming on it there's not a whole lot of reason to get a 960 instead. Newegg had an MSI 950 up on eBay for $120 FS last week, though it looks like it might be gone now. If you do want to do a little gaming though the 960 might be worth it as the price difference only looks to be $20 ATM. The 950SE would be a good card when and if it does get released, but you might not want to wait that long.
 
MrTeal said:
What would he do with the Carrizo laptop, duct tape it into a PCIe slot on his server?

@OP, the 950 is your best bet and if you're not gaming on it there's not a whole lot of reason to get a 960 instead. Newegg had an MSI 950 up on eBay for $120 FS last week, though it looks like it might be gone now. If you do want to do a little gaming though the 960 might be worth it as the price difference only looks to be $20 ATM. The 950SE would be a good card when and if it does get released, but you might not want to wait that long.
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That was with the assumption that he was running a file server, where carrizo could easily fit in.
 
OK what would be better a GTX960 or a R9 380? Do they both do 4K video playback?
Should I go for 2gb or 4gb version? I have like $200 to spend and kinda need to know asap what to pull the trigger on? Which will be more future proof if there even is such a thing with video cards.
 
The best options have already been given. GTX 950 or GTX 960. I would just go 950 and call it a day. Ignore the people that ignore your requirements and try to sell you on their favorite hardware company product. I bet if you go over this thread again you'll figure out who they are.
 
Justinbaileyman said:
OK what would be better a GTX960 or a R9 380? Do they both do 4K video playback?
Should I go for 2gb or 4gb version? I have like $200 to spend and kinda need to know asap what to pull the trigger on? Which will be more future proof if there even is such a thing with video cards.
Click to expand...

A gtx950 is your best bet. Buy the cheapest one you can find. They should be about 130$ or less. A 2gb card is all you will need for a non gaming PC.
 
Ok I just Purchased the EVGA GTX 960 4gb SC itx version for $200, hope its a good card.Dont know anything about Nvidia these days, I always bought AMD/Radeon..
 
Justinbaileyman said:
Ok I just Purchased the EVGA GTX 960 4gb SC itx version for $200, hope its a good card.Dont know anything about Nvidia these days, I always bought AMD/Radeon..
Click to expand...

The 960 is definitely far more powerful than your Xbox One. Digital Foundry at Eurogamer found that a 950 can always provide at least PS4 settings and performance. Your 960 is a step higher, and the Xbone is considerably below the PS4 in GPU power. You may be pleasantly surprised if you try PC gaming now lol (keeping in mind Xbone targets 1600x900 with generally a mix of High and Medium settings).
 
Yeah I kinda was trying to think ahead for future use in case I want to do some gaming on steam. I have a dozen or so steam games just sitting there collecting dust begging to be played again.Plus I keep getting all these offers from steam to buy games for super cheap when alot of those same titles are still $60-70 bucks on Xbox One. Anyways thanks guys, now the wait for it to get here is going to drive me nuts..
 
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