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

While running several OpenGL benchmarks and having the Phoronix Test Suite monitor the GPU core temperature as exposed by the NVIDIA proprietary driver, this passively-cooled ASUS GeForce GT 710 had an average temperature of 59.5°C and a peak of 66°C.

For those wanting to run their own performance comparison or analyze a lot more OpenGL/OpenCL data points, I uploaded some additional standalone results of the ASUS GeForce GT 710 to this OpenBenchmarking.org result file. To compare your own Linux system's graphics performance against the range of low-end NVIDIA cards tested in this article, simply install the Phoronix Test Suite and then run phoronix-test-suite benchmark 1602062-GA-GEFORCEGT37.

This obviously isn't a graphics card even for light gamers, but should at least be a step-up from most integrated graphics systems. The GeForce GT 710 should be powerful enough for desktop use-cases where running a composited desktop and desiring OpenGL acceleration, wanting video acceleration on the GPU via the VDPAU API, or it may get by just enough as a passive graphics card for a HTPC box, but that wasn't the focus of this initial testing for the lack of demanding VDPAU benchmarks. Even if you are a light gamer, the GeForce GTX 750 or GTX 950 should be considered the absolute minimum to consider. At least though the GeForce GT 710 is much faster than the GT 610 / GT 520.

With regard to my planned usage of the GT 710 just as backup inside of a 2U system, my only complaint with regard to this ASUS GeForce GT 710 specifically is that it doesn't include a low-profile PCI-E bracket with the graphics card.

Stay tuned for my fresh AMD/Intel Linux integrated graphics round-up on the latest kernel/Mesa drivers coming soon plus other Linux graphics benchmarks from this low-end card are surely to come in the future on Phoronix. If you have any other test requests, as a Phoronix Premium member, be sure to let me know and will try to make the tests happen.

If you are interested in the GeForce GT 710, you can find several different models in stock at Amazon.com.