Question What's the current "low Wattage" graphics king?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Let's say 30 Watts or less. I have a thin client that has an m.2 slot that is designed for wifi, but can also be used for the PCI connection. Using an adapter, I can add an external mini PCI-e riser card, and add a low Wattage graphics card.

I'm wondering what the best card out there that is 30 Watts or less is today? Thanks!

 

[kschendel]

A GT 710, maybe? I know of no video card made in the last 5+ years that draw 30w or less. An RX550 draws 50-ish, I think. I would love to find out that low power video cards really exist.

 

[MrTeal]

You're providing external power for the GPU, right?
Could do a GT 710, they're basically free at this point. There's 20W DDR4 versions of the 1030 that are pretty terrible cards but can provide a display output at least.

With some caveats you might be able to use a USB display adapter as well.

 

[Brainonska511]

What are you trying to achieve? I would imagine that would play a role in selecting a GPU.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

An ARC A310 will run on 30W no problem. The A380 I had rarely went beyond 50W. Sat in the high 30s low 40s most of the time.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

What are you trying to achieve? I would imagine that would play a role in selecting a GPU.

Good question. I guess I just wanted about 5X the performance of the built in Intel UHD 600 graphics. This gives an average G3D Mark of 324 score. The performance is close to an old laptop RTX 3050.
Wish I could do it for 10 watts......

 

[Brainonska511]

Good question. I guess I just wanted about 5X the performance of the built in Intel UHD 600 graphics. This gives an average G3D Mark of 324 score. The performance is close to an old laptop RTX 3050.
Wish I could do it for 10 watts......

Yes, but what do you want to do with the machine? Is there something you want to do with it now that you can't?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Good question. I guess I just wanted about 5X the performance of the built in Intel UHD 600 graphics. This gives an average G3D Mark of 324 score. The performance is close to an old laptop RTX 3050.
Wish I could do it for 10 watts......

What are you on about? The slowest mobile 3050 is far faster than the newest UHD 770. If you mean you are looking for something on par with the mobile 3050 that's lower power? Well, you are not doing it with a M.2 x4 PCIe gen 3 slot to work with.

 

[gdansk]

Probably the best performance per watt you can get for $180 is a RTX 3050 6GB and set the TDP to 45W with nvidia-smi on boot. I think that's as low as it will go but I don't have one to test.

 

[MrTeal]

What are you on about? The slowest mobile 3050 is far faster than the newest UHD 770. If you mean you are looking for something on par with the mobile 3050 that's lower power? Well, you are not doing it with a M.2 x4 PCIe gen 3 slot to work with.

If it's a Wifi m.2, it's probably a/e/a+e keyed and an x1 slot.
That would actually be an interesting test. I have a 750 Ti kicking around, I wonder how Firestrike performance would be affected running it on a x1 riser?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

If it's a Wifi m.2, it's probably a/e/a+e keyed and an x1 slot.
That would actually be an interesting test. I have a 750 Ti kicking around, I wonder how Firestrike performance would be affected running it on a x1 riser?

Thank you. And my bad. I derped nvme for wifi. Yeah, not much happening with m.2 wifi to work with. But you should run the test for science and report results.

 

[MrTeal]

My bad too, I messed that up. The Mini PCIe cards are x1, m.2 Wifi PCIe is x2.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

My bad too, I messed that up. The Mini PCIe cards are x1, m.2 Wifi PCIe is x2.

No worries, but it's good to get specs right.

That thin client looks to be Gemini Lake so adding a dPGU is an absolute waste of time.

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/gemini_lake

• 6x PCIe 2.0 (1x4 + 1x2 or 4x1 or 2x1+1x2 + 1x2)

Big OOF!

The IGP seems to support through VP9 decode which is good enough for youtube 4K. CPU is also too weak to support anything faster anyways.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Yes, but what do you want to do with the machine? Is there something you want to do with it now that you can't?

Yes, I'd like to do some gaming and retro gaming. If I added a riser card and enlarged the case a bit, I could add a low power video card, or I could do it externally. Originally, I thought it was pretty much locked to the onboard Intel graphics, but it appears that it is not.

 

[Brainonska511]

Yes, I'd like to do some gaming and retro gaming. If I added a riser card and enlarged the case a bit, I could add a low power video card, or I could do it externally. Originally, I thought it was pretty much locked to the onboard Intel graphics, but it appears that it is not.

It seems like there would be better ways to do this than jerry rig a GPU into thin client that isn't really designed to work with one.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

It seems like there would be better ways to do this than jerry rig a GPU into thin client that isn't really designed to work with one.

Possible, but I got the thin client for less than $25. It's not bad on its own, but since we mostly play casual games, with a gpu upgrade, it could be a really great retro & casual gaming machine for us, for not much money.

 

[MrTeal]

Yeah, I have no mental reference for what an Atom processor with a dGPU running probably PCIe 2.0 x1 would perform like. If you can get the m.2 e key to PCIe slot adapter cheap off Ali or something, I'd just try it out with any random GPU and second ATX PSU and report back.

 

[MoogleW]

Downclocked rtx 3050 6GB

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Yeah, I have no mental reference for what an Atom processor with a dGPU running probably PCIe 2.0 x1 would perform like. If you can get the m.2 e key to PCIe slot aCeleron J4105dapter cheap off Ali or something, I'd just try it out with any random GPU and second ATX PSU and report back.

Atom processor? The Wyse 5070 has an Intel Celeron J4105. It is a big upgrade from my current thin client.

Current: AMD GX-415GA cpu marks 1,413

New: Celeron J4105 cpu marks 2,902

Unfortunately, the Intel HD 600 video on the Celeron is about 30% less powerful than the AMD processor's graphics were. I doubled the processing power, but decreased the graphics capability. That is the only reason why I was thinking of upgrading the graphics.

 

[MrTeal]

Atom processor? The Wyse 5070 has an Intel Celeron J4105. It is a big upgrade from my current thin client.

Current: AMD GX-415GA cpu marks 1,413

New: Celeron J4105 cpu marks 2,902

Unfortunately, the Intel HD 600 video on the Celeron is about 30% less powerful than the AMD processor's graphics were. I doubled the processing power, but decreased the graphics capability. That is the only reason why I was thinking of upgrading the graphics.

Goldmont Plus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Goldmont Plus is an enhanced 2nd generation out-of-order low-power Atom microarchitecture designed for entry level desktop and notebook computers.

The Atom cores from that time can have Pentium, Celeron or Atom branding, but a Celeron J4105 from Q42017 is a wildly different beast than a Coffee Lake Celeron G4920 from the same era. The Core architecture chip would have about twice the single threaded performance of the Atom.

 

[Mopetar]

If you don't mind spending a bit of money, a Quaddro T400 is rated for 30W TDP. The specs aren't impressive as far as graphics prowess is concerned, but the upside is that it can drive three displays. A P400 is similar, but a fair bit older and probably a bit cheaper.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

If you don't mind spending a bit of money, a Quaddro T400 is rated for 30W TDP. The specs aren't impressive as far as graphics prowess is concerned, but the upside is that it can drive three displays. A P400 is similar, but a fair bit older and probably a bit cheaper.

Hmm, G3Dmark score of 3,630 for those 30 Watts. Yowch - about $130! I don't think I can justify spending about 5X as much on the video as I did for the entire thin client. If I were going to spend $100, I'd probably get an Arc A380. It also uses 30 Watts, but gives about 5,115 G3Dmark score.

Intel HD 600 currently on there gives G3Dmark score of about 323.

Wish there was some way to get a form of the Nvidia MX350 and install it on there. It would give 9X the performance (2,808 G3DMark) for only about 20 Watts. I see used ones for $20 - $40 online, but not sure there would be any way to hook one up to my system.

 

[MrTeal]

Hmm, G3Dmark score of 3,630 for those 30 Watts. Yowch - about $130! I don't think I can justify spending about 5X as much on the video as I did for the entire thin client. If I were going to spend $100, I'd probably get an Arc A380. It also uses 30 Watts, but gives about 5,115 G3Dmark score.

Intel HD 600 currently on there gives G3Dmark score of about 323.

Wish there was some way to get a form of the Nvidia MX350 and install it on there. It would give 9X the performance (2,808 G3DMark) for only about 20 Watts. I see used ones for $20 - $40 online, but not sure there would be any way to hook one up to my system.

You can buy a MXM to PCIe adapter off Aliexpress for $15 if you can find one in that form factor. That's the same GPU and configuration as a GDDR5 1030 though, so you could just buy that for less than the MX350+adapter.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

It would give 9X the performance (2,808 G3DMark) for only about 20 Watts.

No it won't. Best case scenario you'll be feeding the MX350 half the PCIe bandwidth it's designed for. If that thin client is x2 you can half that again.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

No it won't. Best case scenario you'll be feeding the MX350 half the PCIe bandwidth it's designed for. If that thin client is x2 you can half that again.

PCIe 3.0 x8