Fortunately, there are few graphics card which consume less power, but still able to handle modern games at medium and high settings. One of the best example is the discontinued HD 7750, since its power consumption is only 55 Watts, you can even run it to a computer with 400W power supply.
Well this article aims to show some low power graphics card which are strong enough to handle modern games at medium and high settings, just like i told you above.
Note:
- All graphics card below, except GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and GT 740 DDR5, do not require power connector and can run properly with 400W power supply.
- A powerful CPU is required to supports video cards below. Moreover, to avoid bottleneck, you need Intel quad core or equal.
- Recommended graphics card manufacturer: Sapphire, EVGA, XFX, ASUS, HIS, Gigabyte, MSI.
Nvidia GeForce GT 1030
Power Consumption: 30 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 48.06 GB/s
Nvidia as a leading graphics card company has completed the line up for 1000 series, after previously released the GTX 1050, in May 2017 Nvidia officially released graphics card for entry level class: GT 1030.
With the launch of the GT 1030 to the market, PC users now have wide choices, especially gamers with limited budget. This graphics card is released to the market with prices under 100 dollars.
For specification, the GT 1030 is quite good in its class as it is equipped with 384 CUDA Cores and has a boost clock of 1468 MHz.
For the size of entry-level graphics card , GT 1030 is equipped with a complete display connector like HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort. From the official website of Nvidia , to run this graphics card you only require 300-watt power supply without the need for additional connectors.
If you do not have enough budget to get GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 TI which is best for 1080p gaming, then getting the GT 1030 is a very wise choice in terms of price and performance.
Click here to buy GT 1030 from amazon
Nvidia GTX 1650
Power Consumption: 75 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 128.1 GB/s
GTX 1650 is definitely my favorite graphics card in this list and is also the strongest one. Imagine that you don't have to spend that much to play 1080p games on good settings with stable 60fps. Yes, the Nvidia GTX 1650 is designed for such purpose.
Its GPU is powered with Turing Architecture that operates on 1485 MHz and 8 Gbps effective memory clock. On the paper this video card is better than GTX 1050 Ti and just slightly weaker than GTX 970. And by seeing the video we posted in this article can show how powerful the card in playing latest AA games like Battlefield V and Watch Dogs 2 on highest settings with decent frame rate (1080p).
Note that some models of GTX 1650 like Galax need power connector from the power supply.
Click here to buy GeForce GTX 1650 from amazon
GTX 1630
Power Consumption: 75 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 96 GB/s
GTX 1630 is one of the newest graphics card series in this list that is intended to fill the gap between GTX 1650 and GT 1030. Unlike GT 1030, it has been equipped with DDR6 memory.
Interestingly, GTX 1630 could be the only product from GTX series that comes with 64 bit memory bus.
Moreover, GTX 1630 looks like a cheaper version of GTX 1650, but with slower memory clock and lower bandwidth.
By watching the video above, notice that GTX 1630 can perform faster than GT 1030 but is slower than GTX 1650.
Also notice that GTX 1630 is not that efficient with the power consumption which is almost same with GTX 1650 yet the performance in overall is just almost a half from GTX 1650. Moreover, the GT 1030 is the winner here in term of power consumption even though its performance is the slowest.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Power Consumption: 75 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 112.1 GB/s
You certainly know that NVIDIA released the GTX 1050 Ti to market to compete against the Radeon RX 460.
Just like its competitors, the GTX 1050 Ti is also intended for PC users who wanna play latest games on full HD resolutions with decent frame rate.
The GTX 1050 Ti i recommend you in this article is ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1050 Ti. This graphics card comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, which also you can find in ROG STRIX Radeon RX 460. This Asus card is equipped with two fans and is featured with DirectCU II technology.
DirectCU II is a two-fan cooling system that is widely used in ASUS graphics cards. Currently, the cooling technology has been equipped with a variety of other supporting technologies, ranging from Dual Wing-Blade technology which is claimed to increase air pressure up to 105 percent, but works three times quieter than regular fan, so the heatsinks are capable of distributing 30 percent more heat out of the graphics card.
Interestingly, this graphics card has a small size so it is suitable to be installed on a mini-sized PC system. However, this graphics still requires extra power in the form of a power socket with six pins of the power supply. In addition to delivering extra power for the GPU, the additional power is also used to turn on the Aura Light RGB LED system that is also embedded in this graphics card.
Just like ROG STRIX Radeon RX 460, this graphics card also comes with improved performance. ROG STRIX GTX 1050 Ti comes with base clock 1379MHz and boost clock 1439MHz in Gaming Mode. This is higher than the standard version of GTX 1050 Ti which has only 1290 MHz base clock and boost clock 1392 MHz. Interestingly again, the performance can still be improved through OC Mode.
Judging from all the features and its performance, GTX 1050 Ti ROG STRIX does look very promising especially for gamers who want to play on full HD resolutions, like mentioned above.
According to benchmark from PC world com, GTX 1050 ti is faster than its competitor like RX 460 OC when running the Division games. Unfortunately, to get stable frame rate at 60fps, you have to slightly decrease the visual quality in the game.
Click here to buy GeForce GTX 1050 Ti from amazon
AMD Radeon R7 250
Power Consumption: 65 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 72 GB/sec
The R7 250 is probably one of the most popular entry-level graphics card with the price under 100 dollars. Obviously, there are a number of gamers who are still stuck with 720p, 768p or 900p resolutions gaming computer, and yes, the R7 250 is especially designed for them.
This Radeon video card itself is powered by Oland XT GPU chip (the same GPU that powers HD 7730) with 384 shading unit and 128 bit memory bus. For the best gaming experience, AMD also provides the R7 250 with DDR5 memory type.
Click here to buy Radeon R7 250 from amazon
Nvidia GeForce GT 740
Power Consumption: 64 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 80 GB/sec
Unlike the previous variants that use 40nm Fermi technology, this time the GT 740 uses Kepler GK107 technology which has the advantage of higher performance, with higher CUDA cores and draws less power. This video card also supports a variety of features such as the technology developed by nVidia like PhysX and 3D Vision.
Nvidia GT 740, especially the DDR5 version, resembles the old GTX 650. Both GT 740 and GTX 650 are equipped with the same core and memory clock, 1058 Mhz with 5000 Mhz effective memory clock.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 ti
Power Consumption: 60 Watts
Memory Bandwidth: 86.4 GB/sec
The GTX 750 ti is one of the best gaming video card with the lowest power consumption at this time thanks to its efficient Maxwell GM107 GPU.
Among PC gamers with limited budget, the GTX 750 ti is quite popular because of its great performance. The GTX 750 ti is faster even if it's compared to its closest brother, GTX 650, and the good news, this video card doesn't need a PCI Express power connector.
With 86.4 GB/sec memory bandwidth, it can handle "heavy" games like Watch Dogs, Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 with good quality settings easily even on 1080p resolutions. Well if you are planning to build a cheap gaming computer, then GTX 750 ti is one of the best choice for you.
Click here to buy GeForce GTX 750 Ti from amazon
Thanks for reading this article...
