This Mini $109 GTX 1050 Might Be Great For A HTPC / Living Room Steam Linux PC

[dungeon]

See this RX 460 for example as low as $85 after rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131695

[dungeon]

On Amazon same $10 cut:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JGQU8WI/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

so basically, it goes from $99 now for everybody:

[lethalwp]

i was hoping to get a vega & refurbish my rx480 to my HTPC, but the opensource driver is still incomplete and the closed source forces you to use a specific kernel/distro.

It's still DAL missing (no audio on hdmi!), has problems with hardware hevc decoding, and even noticed problems with simple mpeg2 hardware decoding.
Tried hard to love AMD, really impressed by the latest accomplishements, but they're still too slow...

So i guess i'll just get a 1050 when the prices drop, it will work perfectly with closed nvidia drivers & kodi.... Welcome UHD! =)

[Passso]

On Amazon same $10 cut:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JGQU8WI/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

so basically, it goes from $99 now for everybody:

That's a good deal, must admit.

[dungeon]

Yeah quite similar to this Zotac's Mini, just 2 cm longer

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/amd-radeon-rx-400-series/rx-460-2gb-sf-rx-460p2sfg5

[edwaleni]

YES!!!! YESSS!!!!!! YESSSSSSSS!!!11111!

Even just single-slot, not necessarily just low-profile.

Sadly, yes.

Well, SFF is common in OEM desktops too, but most people buying a OEM PC are looking for laptops nowadays.

Those in the PC parts market tend to get cube-ish cases, yes, but that's not "consumer" market. People assembling their own PCs are a notch above the average "consumer" in the PC market.

A couple things in the market going on.....

To the poster objecting the use of legacy DVI ports, over 15 million monitors were sold with DVI ports, with the preponderance of them lasting longer than the PC itself. So we will still see DVI for a few more years. I concur they use too much slot space.

I agree, a single slot, even LP cards are not very available, but the LP chassis typically have small power supplies and reduced air flow. Many of these DX12 era cards are demanding more current and cooling air, which drives them away from LP form factors. I had a LP Radeon (without a power plug) on a SFF chassis, which ran Windows Aero and Linux just fine, but when a DX11 game would load the screen would go black due to insufficient power from the PSU.

So the design compromises that are needed to run current gen GPU's in smaller form factors are significant. So LP's with dual slots but no power plug, usually run hot due to the number of VRM's & caps managing limited bus power. The ones that use single slots w/ passive heat sinks have been turned way down in capability to reduce the BTU's.

I have several SFF's with MXM slots, which was supposed to be the answer (compromise) with form factors and GPU capability. They add a lot of heat to the SFF case, they tend to live a short life (probably due to reduced airflow) and are pretty much obsolete now.

Some SFF's tried to compensate by providing a full DP port (instead of DVI), but the market penetration of monitors with DP connectors is limited to Apple and high end displays. Who wants to spend dough on a DP LCD just to show an Intel GMA?

Hopefully soon, we can settle down on something. At the moment Mini-DP is what they are trying. If/when Intel puts video on Thunderbolt by default for their GMA, then another silly round of connectors will start again.

[torsionbar28]

GPUs like this are ideal for micro ATX and mini ITX cases, where physical space and other expansion slots are limited. I don't understand why this needs to take up 2 slots. This isn't (or rather, shouldn't be) power-hungry enough to demand such a big heatsink. I understand this isn't Nvidia's fault though.

The cases you mention typically have very small volumes, with equally small airflow. Hence the requirement for a larger heatsink. The other consideration is noise; single slot cards usually have smaller noisier fans.

[starshipeleven]

They're either workstation or enterprise GPUs, of course they're expensive. Same can be said about FirePro and Matrox GPUs.

Yeah, It was the post I was responding to that gave the impression that they weren't.

[starshipeleven]

To the poster objecting the use of legacy DVI ports, over 15 million monitors were sold with DVI ports, with the preponderance of them lasting longer than the PC itself. So we will still see DVI for a few more years. I concur they use too much slot space.

To the poster that cannot seem to be able to multiquote manually:
HDMI -> DVI adapters are like 3$ on the open market and work 100% fine as the ones designing HDMI made it so. Displayport ->whatever adapters also exist and cost like 15$.

So the design compromises that are needed to run current gen GPU's in smaller form factors are significant.

Let's not confuse the "OEMs don't place a powerful PSU in a office PC box" with "It's hard to run in a SFF". You can find 250 watt PSUs for most SFF if they aren't using custom affairs. (I mean flex-atx and another psu format I don't remember with the fan protruding from the case)

So LP's with dual slots but no power plug, usually run hot due to the number of VRM's & caps managing limited bus power. The ones that use single slots w/ passive heat sinks have been turned way down in capability to reduce the BTU's.

If you look, most workstation cards (bigass FirePro) are single slot with fan, sadly they are horribly expensive for a consumer.

Some SFF's tried to compensate by providing a full DP port (instead of DVI), but the market penetration of monitors with DP connectors is limited to Apple and high end displays. Who wants to spend dough on a DP LCD just to show an Intel GMA?

There are adapters, btw.

Hopefully soon, we can settle down on something. At the moment Mini-DP is what they are trying. If/when Intel puts video on Thunderbolt by default for their GMA, then another silly round of connectors will start again.

FYI: Intel iGPUs stopped using "GMA" in the name like 4 years ago, and for more recent ones it actually makes sense to use non-shit connectors as the iGPU can actually drive a 4k screen (not for gaming of course).

[torsionbar28]

If you look, most workstation cards (bigass FirePro) are single slot with fan, sadly they are horribly expensive for a consumer.

That's mainly due to usage pattern. Consumer cards are for games, where you launch Crysis 3, and your GTX 750 is brought to its knees pegged at 100% for 3 hours straight. CAD/CAM is a lot more bursty, and doesn't load the card for such long durations, so it can get away with a smaller cooler.

Secondly, CAD/CAM cards also tend to be in large well ventilated Dell/HP/IBM workstation cases, while gamer cards have to deal with getting crammed into cheapo under-sized consumer peecee's.

Lastly, 40 db is considered the ambient noise level in a residential home, while 50 db is the standard for a commercial office setting, so a smaller noisier cooler will be less noticeable in an office environment.