Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card

Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card

• Powered by NVIDIA Gigabyte GeForce GT 710
• Integrated with the first 2048MB DDR3 memory and 64-bit memory interface
• Core Clock: 954MHz
• Features Dual-link DVI-D / D-Sub / HDMI
• Support PCI Express 2.0 x8 bus interface
• Recommended system power supply requirement: 300W

Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB DDR3 Review

Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 Advances in integrated graphics performance have all but destroyed the market for such low-end graphics cards in new PCs. Modern CPUs from Intel, and even more so those from AMD, come with built in graphics capabilities which are more than adequate for most non-gaming purposes.

The Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 specification is most certainly that of an entry-level product. With 192 CUDA cores and just 1GB of DDR3 memory, connected via a 64-bit bus, it’s clear that this card isn’t designed for high performance. It may be considerably faster than many of Intel’s existing integrated graphics solutions, it’s still best purchased for its features rather than its speed.

The Gigabyte GeForce GT 710  gives you one each of VGA, HDMI and DVI-D outputs and, if you have the right peripherals, you’ll be able to display 3D content on supported TVs and displays with billions of colours and support for 7.1 surround sound. The card can output on all three ports simultaneously for multi-monitor setups, although sadly there’s no DisplayPort available. Resolutions at 60Hz max out at 2560×1600 for digital outputs and 2048×1536 via the VGA adapter, but you can setup up to 3840×2160 or even 4096×2160 over HDMI if you drop the refresh rate to 30Hz and 24Hz respectively. (You won’t want to do that – it’s possible but not recommended.)

Thanks to its passively cooled, fanless design, the runs completely silently and the absence of moving parts will increase long-term reliability over and above fan-based coolers which will can fill with dust and seize up over time.

One of the key advantages of this particular card, other than the price, is ability to fit in just about any PC.

Measuring only 68.8 by 114.3mm, the EVGA GeForce GT 710 is relatively tiny, and comes with full height and half height brackets in the box, making it suitable for the vast majority of PC form factors, although the thickness of the passive heat sink means it’ll take up two PCI Express slots.

Thankfully, EVGA makes six slightly different versions of this card, so if you need a single slot solution, you can opt for one with a fan-based cooler instead. You can also opt for a 2GB version of a fixed full-height board.

Nvidia claims the GeForce GT710 has “up to 10x better performance than integrated graphics”, but don’t buy it for that reason as it’s really not a sensible performance upgrade for gaming. When it comes to frame per second, you’d most likely find you’ve transformed your PC from “Don’t even think about it” to “Nope, still really not fast enough”.

Let’s keep things in perspective here. The Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 costs less to buy than a single top-tier game, so if you can afford to buy games, you really should be able to budget for a faster card than this.

However, if you’re really determined, and your expectations are low, you can get some less demanding titles to run faster than a slide show. Crank the quality settings all the way down as low as possible, stick to 720p resolution and some titles do become playable – even recent releases.

DiRT Rally, for example, averaged 76.5fps at 720p in Ultra Low settings in our tests. You can certainly play the game with perfectly smooth graphics using the GeForce GT 710, but it’s far from pretty and you’re unlikely to be happy with the low-quality version of the game these settings deliver.

The Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB DDR3 Graphics Card  Warranty 02 Years