Zotac GT 430 PCI slot GPU info

[John P. Myers]

Specifically, i'm talking about this card here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500221

***Please note this is a PCI card, not a PCIe card. It is the fastest PCI card available***

I highly recommend this card for anyone who has an open PCI slot - especially in the older Pentium 4 systems where that's probably the only options there are, and anyone with any system where you're out of PCIe slots or are too near your power supply's wattage limit to risk another PCIe GPU. This card does not have any additional plugs. 100% of the power is drawn from the motherboard's PCI slot (25W, give or take), and because it has such a low power requirement, there's a 99% chance you won't even have to consider upgrading your power supply to run it.

The card only takes up 1 slot, and has no cooling fans to add additional noise to your system. I was a bit skeptical about how well the heatsink would perform, especially when overclocked and right next to an ATI 5870. Was also concerned about how much it might increase the temp of the 5870 with a heat source near it, but i found there's nothing to worry about. With an ambient temp of 75F (~24C), the overclocked GT 430 raised the 5870 @ 900MHz by 1C (74C to 75C). Increasing the fan from 40% to 41% brought it back to down to 74C.

Stock Specs:
Core Clock: 700MHz
Shader Clock: 1400MHz
Memory Clock: 1200MHz

My Overclocked Specs:
Core Clock: 839MHz
Shader Clock: 1678MHz
Memory clock: 1320MHz
GPU temp @ 75F ambient: 65C
Credits/day @ DistRtGen: ~87,580 http://boinc.freerainbowtables.com/d...state=3&appid=

87.5k credits/day from a PCI slot using 25W? Damn right. Over 3x the performance of the 9500GT PCI cards and cost $25 less than the 9500GT i had. Unbeatable.

Also, if you're a gamer, this card is perfect for dedicated PhysX

EDIT: one more thing, the length of the card is more than short enough that it won't block the air intake on most GPUs.

[kaptainkarl1]

John

Awesome stuff! This is the type of thing that people like me don't even know about and have been wondering about how to stuff lots of cards in all the slots. I know that I will be buying a few of these for my old slow rigs that I have no intention of upgrading other than sticking one or more of these in.

Thanks!

[trigggl]

So, it's roughly the same as a 9800GT? I'm getting about the same times when I leave a core open for the GPU.

[John P. Myers]

So, it's roughly the same as a 9800GT? I'm getting about the same times when I leave a core open for the GPU.

Correct, except the 9800GT was PCIe, 2 slots wide (in most cases) and used more than 2x the power.

[trigggl]

Correct, except the 9800GT was PCIe, 2 slots wide (in most cases) and used more than 2x the power.

I missed the "PCI" part.

My 9800 does happen to be a single wide, but it does require the extra power connector.

That is actually pretty spectacular for a regular PCI slot.

[spingadus]

Any idea how that would compare to a gtx 260-216. If it's better I may get one for my brother and co-opt is machine for boinc.

[Al]

Aye agree thanks for all the info but the project i have atm is trying to see if i can use the x1 PCIE slot like someone else was doing on the hydra project, sorry can't recall off hand which team member but it really sounded cool to think i could fit a few extra decent cards on those x1 slots that are just collecting dust. So I purchased a few x1 extention cables and will let ya know how it goes not sure if the x1 will be enough bandwidth but since its for older cards im hoping it will work.

He who uses pcie x1 slots is Al...that's me! Crunching requires very little bandwidth. I've run a 6950 and a 560ti without a problem.

[John P. Myers]

He who uses pcie x1 slots is Al...that's me! Crunching requires very little bandwidth. I've run a 6950 and a 560ti without a problem.

I too have run a GTX 460 from a PCIe x1 slot with a cable. Works perfectly.

BTW, some MB's disable the x1 slot when the x16's are full. Gigabyte boards in particular.

Not true. All motherboard manufacturers disable it equally. The reason has nothing to do with the motherboard itself, but the CPU/chipset. If AMD/Intel only make a CPU/chipset that can handle 32 lanes, then these 32 lanes have to spread out across all (up to) 7 PCIe slots, so you have no choice but to run some of the x16s at x8 and some of the x8s at x0 when too many cards are present.

Also remember that as of socket 775 (Core 2), your internet connection also uses a PCIe lane, as do some of the SATA 1/2/3/eSATA connections, firewire and some of the USB plugs. There's no one to blame for the PCIe bandwidth reduction but Intel and AMD. Motherboard makers simply have no choice.

On very few of the high-high-end motherboards (usually $350+) you may find a Lucid Hydra chip which adds a few additional PCIe lanes, but you're gonna pay through the nose for it.
The Big Bang Marshal from MSI has one. When all 8 PCIe x16 slots are filled, the bandwidth is this:
Slot Speed
1 ----8x
2 ----1x
3 ----8x
4 ----1x
5 ----8x
6 ----1x
7 ----8x
8 ----1x

If it wasn't for the Lucid Hydra, all of the x1's would be x0, which is how it is on nearly every motherboard, regardless of brand. Even though this motherboard is now obselete, MSI has yet to produce one that is more expensive, or even equal to the price of the Big Bang Marshal. Even the Big Bang XpowerII X79 board is cheaper. Nvidia's NV200 chip also adds additional lanes, but again, it'll never be found on cheaper motherboards. Every motherboard, regardless of how high-end it may be, loses at least 4 PCIe lanes to the functions mentioned above.

[Al]

JPM, Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't trying to knock Gigabyte in particular, I have 2 and I find them very easy to setup and very well made. Thought it was by choice that they disabled the x1, guess I was wrong. That said, I guess you really need to check the specs before planning to use the x1 slots because you may find it disabled.

[Crazybob's Son]

We got this put into my dad's atom which only has a PCI-e x1 slot and PCI slots. He previously had a PCI video card in there, but it went out. We got it installed, installed the drivers and then the issues started.

We can get the video to post to the PCI card, but then after it posts the video signal switches over to the onboard video, which would be fine if boinc recognized the PCI card but it does not. Looked for a spot in the bios to disable the onboard video but no luck. Any ideas?