ASUS GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5 Low Profile Graphics Card for Silent HTPC Builds (with I/O Port Brackets)

I'm currently running an old Dell T710 Server in my home lab. I'm repurposing it into a movie server/media center where I can organize and edit media, so the onboard graphics wasn't gonna cut it. As a matter of fact the onboard GPU is pretty much useless unless your just running CLI. Anyway, I did some research into it and it turns out the PCIe slots are only rated for 25 watts since Dell never intended high end GPUs to be used in the early generation servers. Well that's why I found this little guy rated at just 25 watts. I'm running Xubuntu 20.04 LTS and to my surprise, the native drivers picked up the GT 730 without an issues and I didn't have to mess with anything. I'm currently running on 1920x1080 on a 27'' monitor and it's smooth as can be. I thought I'd for sure be spending hours trying to get this GPU to work with the kernel, but nope. Just plug and play. Which NEVER happens, especially with Linux. So needless to say, I'm extremely happy with the outcome of this purchase. I plan on adding another display, which I'm hoping goes just as smoothly. Just make if you're buying this, you're using it for a realistic purpose. It's lower profile and low power, which fit my needs, but it probably can't handle modern video games very well.

I do not play many games but I wanted a little more performance from my old PC. This did it and it's silent! The most difficult thing was removing the large mounting plate and installing the 2-low profile plates. That took < 5 minutes. It WILL NOT perform like a $200-$300+ card but it does well for what I need. Definitely a good value.

Plug and play works great for normal computing needs would not use it for gaming

Though this VCard is old, it doesn't do too bad. Using MSI Afterburner to OC the GPU 200+ and the Mem clk to 225+ and stayed pretty stable and never got over 41°C temp. Not ideal for high-end games, but it does pretty good for some of the simulators I have between 35-60fps. Not a bad card to have while waiting for something better one can afford.

Graphics slot at top, heat sync is on bottom of the card and covers additional pci slot. Would think the engineer would know better after 30 years. Be careful if you're running this in a micro atx case. Using it for now, but with only 2 pcie slots outside the graphics port, to have one covered is annoying. Ordered a pcie cable extended to see if I can reroute the wasted port without having to swap graphics cards

It used to be with "Plug 'N Play," that you just inserted the card and connected the outputs to your monitor and were off and running. No longer. It took me about 24 hours of wrestling to get this card to work. Initially, I could not get the HDMI port to recognize my 4K TV. In the nVidea firmware documentation, they admit that this is a problem. And also admit that "overscanning" of the HDMI port is both routine and also "a problem." There is no written documentation provided with the card [outside of a visual indicator of parts]. When I could not get the HDMI to recognize the monitor, I tried the Asus "chatline," where I was asked such questions as "What are the inputs to your motherboard?" Huh? Power? OS? Keyboard/mice? Ethernet? This proved utterly useless. Unlike many devices with an HDMI output, after much experimentation I discovered that this card absolutely refuses to recognize ANY HDMI port which is not HDMI-Arc-1. Does anyone at the factory know that? No. Is this requirement listed or printed ANYWHERE? No. Secret. Even though they admit, in the bowels of their firmware instructions, that connections to an HDMI of an HD TV cam be a "problem," they nowhere state that the HDMI-Arc-1 port of the TV is the ONLY port which will be recognized by the card. Secret. My Dell laptop does quite well on my HDMI3 port. Not here. Secondly, while it says that two images can be sent out simultaneously, this is only sorta true. The impression is that the SAME image will be sent to both. I have been unable to verify that. The VGA will transmit your Desktop. But the HDMI port will give a grossly overscanned image of "something," but nothing actually useful. However, one needs the VGA to navigate the menus to set the HDMI port settings since the HDMI output is initially useless. However, after hours and hours of messing around, finally a screen with large green arrows in the corners appeared in the HDMI monitor. When you are there, you can adjust the overscan and everything seems to be over after that. Asus/nVidea: Please have this overscan arrows screen popup IMMEDIATELY on the HDMI port. It is impossible to set the HDMI port without the VGA monitor for navigation. This should be completely unnecessary. This card is used on an HP 6000 with 16G of ram and fits the "X16PCEXP" slot perfectly. The System says that 10G of this ram is used for "video," so I have 12G of video ram. Colors are better and images sharper than with the Dell output. Most importantly, even with VPN On, I was unable to force any "buffering" while watching YT's "4K" video series. The card is like a magic carpet in that respect. For No Documentation, not telling anyone about the mandatory Arc-1 port requirements, and not having a sensible setup, I take away 1*. Wish I had those 24 hours of waste back.ADDENDUM: This product is extremely sensitive and needs a fresh 18GB/sec. or higher HDMI cable to operate properly - it most likely will appear "dead" otherwise. When booting up, if it cannot initially "handshake" with the receiving device properly, then the Output is shut off and is difficult to re-initiate. I had used an ordinary HDMI cable and found that even when I got it working properly, if I rebooted, the card would often not initiate properly and it would appear that the card was "dead." Tried an auto HDMI switcher, and could not get it to work, since the native output of this card is 4096x2160x60Hz and apparently beyond the capabilities of the auto switcher. Had to go back to my Monoprice manual switcher [no longer available]. With a new 18GB/sec or higher HDMI cable, the card should work reliably every time. So, if you have connection problems, before "Returning," try a new HDMI 18GHz or higher cable first. It worked for me.

I have a Dell Desktop that has something wrong with its integrated graphics. The monitor with VGA port flickered badly when I switched frequently between two monitors. This graphic card immediately solved this problem. I don't play games. I use this graphic card for video and music editing work. It works well with 4k monitor too. Color looks a bit warmer. Desktop seems to be faster after I installed this card.

Small, low profile, best budget card there is.