Question Optimal price/performance low-profile card for modern gaming?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Anyone have any ideas?

As contenders, I picked up a qty. of new-old-stock (possibly pulls from unsold desktops) of OEM Radeon R7 350(X?) 4GB GDDR3, for $33 ea. on ebay. (THey're all over, but beware the 2GB models.)
TPU rates these at just below a Vega 8 iGPU, if that tells you anything. (There is a YT vid of one of these playing Fortnite @ 60FPS.)

Another option, unsure if still available, Amazon had some PowerColor 2GB GDDR5 RX 550 cards. These are a bit weak for modern gaming as well. They do make 4GB GDDR5 models of the RX 550/560, but unsure about avail./price.


Another option is a single-slot low-profile GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5/6 from China for $200. I just don't think that the price-performance is there for a cheap 4th/6th-gen quad SFF OEM box build flip.

As far as currently available on the market, we've got the GT 1030, either 2GB GDDR5, or 4GB DDR4 (half-performance). Neither is great.

Also, the dual-wide low-profile GTX 1630 4GB cards, not great pricing.

Best performance that I am aware of, excluding "Pro" cards like the Quadros, the A-series, and the WX-series on the AMD side, is the dual-wide GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5/6, and the GTX 1050 / Ti / 3GB in DW LP as well, with GDDR5. But availability (used) is spotty, and prices are unknown.
 
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In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
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1660 super for $229? Plays everything we've thrown at it @1080p. Games like Fortnite and Valorant can hit over 144fps. Never used this specific card but it seems low profile and has decent reviews.
ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Super Overclocked 6GB Phoenix Fan Edition HDMI DP DVI Graphics Card (PH-GTX1660S-O6G) https://a.co/d/8BUiDJp
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,340
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That card from Amazon is NOT "low profile". That verbiage has specific meaning, and is also referred to as "half-height", although I don't believe that the height of the expansion bracket is exactly half of a full-height card.

Edit: Yes, I wish that they made a card from the 1660-family in LP. But to my knowledge, they don't. Unless Galax has some obscure model only sold in JPN.

Edit: Here's a LP GTX 1650, but ships from China:

Edit: 4GB RX 550 LP by MaxSun, ships from USA.

 
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Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Anyone have any ideas?

Might be time to let go of the low profile half height card form factor. I don't think we'll ever see anything with greater performance then the 1650 GDDR6. And that's a pretty low performance card already.

APUs have taken over.

Regarding those 350's, you are aware that AMD has put anything pre-GCN4 out to pasture? They will not get new drivers, so any issues with newer titles will not get fixed.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Isn’t the RX 6400 the best or at least best price to perf low profile card?
If the RX 6400 LP 4GB GDDR6 cards were avail @ $99 ea., I would go with them all day long.

But when the base refurb SFF PC with a 6th-gen i5, RAM, and SSD costs under $150, it make the pricing of the GPU somewhat lop-sided. To say nothing of the PCI-E x4 issue, which neuters much of it's performance.
 

Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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If the RX 6400 LP 4GB GDDR6 cards were avail @ $99 ea., I would go with them all day long.

But when the base refurb SFF PC with a 6th-gen i5, RAM, and SSD costs under $150, it make the pricing of the GPU somewhat lop-sided. To say nothing of the PCI-E x4 issue, which neuters much of it's performance.
Well the best I saw them was 135€ - it’s okay ish

but yes the other issues remain.