NVIDIA GeForce GT 710: Trying The Newest Sub-$50 GPU On Linux

[caligula]

This is a silly viewpoint, just because something does not fit your requirements does not mean it won't suit someone with differing requirements.
For instance, I have an old desktop PC with SSD which I am thinking of passing on with a fresh install of Windows 10 on it.
Buying a cheap quiet passively cooled card like this makes sense, the recipients would get a perfectly decent productivity, light gaming computer that'd seem faster than a new budget PC with HDD only.

If the card is as hot as this one, it will contribute to the ambient heat inside the case. You'd anyways need a fan to remove the hot air. So the passive cooled isn't really passively cooled for these faster cards. It's also obviously the same with some passively cooled Atom CPUs. If you read their manual, you'll see that they actually recommend a fan if the case isn't properly ventilated (e.g. 2 x 120mm fans). The mid range GPUs with a semi large fan can be quiet too. They slow down the fan when idle.

[wallacoloo]

Even if this card is slower than your iGPU, it does still have a few use-cases. The new intel iGPUs are plenty good for basic gaming at low resolution. As a Linux user, though, I don't have access to all games I want to play. In theory, if I had two GPUs, I could make use of QEMU's pass-through feature to give a Windows VM full & direct control over the superior one and actually be able to play some of those Windows-only games.

The alternative approach, for when you have only one card, is to dual boot & that just absolutely kills my workflow.

[drSeehas]

only amd have cpu without igpu, ...

Intel has Xeon CPU models without iGPU too!

[rayjaymor85]

I actually bought this card (intentionally) so there is a market for it...

I have an older Core i5 system that is still perfectly viable. It doesn't have an iGPU (or if it does, I can't get it to work) and I want to have three screens.

I've been getting by with a GTS 250 and a USB to VGA adaptor for the third monitor. Works great in Windows but this solution is unusable on Linux. (it works, but it's really really laggy).

My CPU would choke the hell out of a GeForce 750 or higher, so I don't see the point in spending the money on it.

The 710 presents a perfect solution for me. Only been running it for a day now and haven't looked back.

Definitely not a gaming card but for graphic design work or a screen hogging programmer it's a great cheap card to patch up an older system to squeeze more life out of it