Thursday, April 5th 2018
NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Shipping with DDR4 Instead of GDDR5
Low-end graphics cards usually don't attract much attention from the enthusiasts crowd. Nevertheless, not all computer users are avid gamers, and most average-joe users are perfectly happy with an entry-level graphics card, for example, a GeForce GT 1030. To refresh our memories a bit, NVIDIA launched the GeForce GT 1030 last year to compete against AMD's Radeon RX 550. It was recently discovered that several manufacturers have been shipping a lower-spec'd version of the GeForce GT 1030. According to NVIDIA's official specifications, the reference GeForce GT 1030 was shipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 6008 MHz (GDDR5-effective) across a 64-bit wide memory bus which amassed to a memory bandwidth of 48 GB/s. However, some models from MSI, Gigabyte, and Palit come with DDR4 memory operating at 2100 MHz instead. If you do the math, that comes down to a memory bandwidth of 16.8 GB/s which certainly is a huge downgrade, on paper at least. The good news amid the bad is that the DDR4-based variants consume 10W less than the reference model.
Will this memory swap affect real-world performance? Probably. However, we won't know till what extent without proper testing. Unlike the GeForce MX150 fiasco, manufacturers were kind enough to let consumers know the difference between both models this time around. The lower-end DDR4 variant carries the "D4" denotation as part of the graphics card's model or consumers can find the denotation on the box. Beware, though, as not all manufacturers will give you the heads up. For example, Palit doesn't.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
Will this memory swap affect real-world performance? Probably. However, we won't know till what extent without proper testing. Unlike the GeForce MX150 fiasco, manufacturers were kind enough to let consumers know the difference between both models this time around. The lower-end DDR4 variant carries the "D4" denotation as part of the graphics card's model or consumers can find the denotation on the box. Beware, though, as not all manufacturers will give you the heads up. For example, Palit doesn't.
59 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Shipping with DDR4 Instead of GDDR5
less than half performance of original gddr5 gt 1030, and it costs the same price... even at 720p resolutions btw... lolol.... how Nvidia gets away with this, oh wait thats right, 70% market share for several years running and no competition, they can mess up as many times as they won't and no one will blink an eye.