News Single slot, low profile cards by XFX and ASL

https://videocardz.com/68901/xfx-and-asl-launch-low-profile-graphics-cards

XFX and ASL have revealed low profile versions of the RX 550 and GTX 1050 Ti respectively, and are also single slot. I'm not sure about ASL one coming to North America but at least hoping for XFX's cards. The RX 550 seems like a very promising budget card in particular, though I don't see it being talked about here a lot.

 

[Mortis Angelus]

Has anyone tried driving a 4K monitor with one of these cards? I don't expect to game using the cards, but are they able to drive a desktop at 4K, 120fps?

Considering I moved up to 1440p already back in 2012 with a Radeon 6870, I am fairly sure this can push at least 4K 60 fps (probably more) for non-gaming purposes. Sorry if I sound blunt, but why would you need 120 fps for non-gaming purposes?

 

[zovc]

Eh, the term need is pretty extraneous. It does make a difference in how your desktop experience looks and feels. Not enough to justify a premium in most cases, but using a 1050 is not necessarily paying premium in most cases.

All I can say is, using a 1080, going from 1080p to 1440p just using the desktop was enough to cause the fans to go from idle to audible. Which made me skeptical of lower-end video cards driving high-resolution desktops. And made me second guess getting mobile devices with higher-resolution screens.

But the reason I was asking is because I'm interested in using "looking glass" frame buffer copying, where I could do gaming on a second video card in a Windows VM and copy the frame buffer to the "primary" GPU. (A single slot GTX 1050/RX 550 in this case.) The long story short is, I could use G-Sync or Freesync on a video card from the opposite team, and I could do gaming in a Windows VM, but leave the VM "headless" and display things in a window (or full screen with adaptive sync) on the Linux host using the low-end GPU. This lets you totally turn off the gaming GPU when you're not gaming and save power, similar to Nvidia Optimus in laptops.

That's all theoretical, but there's a bunch of moving pieces that are very close to the point of making it possible. Using something like a GTX 1030, GTX 1050, RX 550, or RX 560 with a bunch of video outs (more than any iGPU, there are low-profile single-slot cards that have 4 mini-DisplayPort outs...) is becoming a really versatile VM host.

Sorry I rambled. It's like 4am here.

 

[Windfall]

Eh, slightly slower than a 750ti, with the same VRAM limitations. It is more power efficient though, and I've considered getting one for that reason.

I stand corrected.

 

[Gripen90]

I got my ASL GTX 1050Ti Battle Flag 4GB (G1504) yesterday. Everything works fine, however I also have the fan noise "issue". I would have purchased a resistor to mount also, but can't find any available ones, so for the time being I'll deal with the noise.

I have the card mounted in an Emachines EL1352 which is a pretty tiny machine and only room for low profile single slot cards. It's my parents old machine I've gotten and used as a small htpc. Originally it came with 4GB DDR3, Onboard GeForce 6150 graphics, AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9GHz CPU, 220w Chicony PSU. Since then it has been through many upgrades, and the final upgrade configuration is now 8GB DDR3, AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz (95watt version), 250watt Delta PSU.

Before the ASL G1504 card I had a Gigabyte GT 1030 2GB Low Profile card, it really has served me well - I had it overclocked to it's max. I have played Fortnite, Overwatch, Doom (2016), GTA V, COD MW2, COD B.O etc. wil no issue in a mix of medium/high details.

Going to ASL G1504 gave a 85% performance boost across all games and benchmarks vs the GT 1030 2GB !

3Dmark11 compare https://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/12698280/3dm11/12765947
3Dmark Fire Strike compare https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/15337828/fs/15459806

Unigine Superposition 1920x1080 Medium
GT 1030 2GB = 2800 point
GTX 1050Ti = 5258 point

Fortnite 1920x1080 Medium settings
GT 1030 2GB = 62 FPS
GTX 1050Ti = 114 FPS

Overwatch 1920x1080 High settings
GT 1030 2GB = 53 FPS
GTX 1050Ti = 112 FPS

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 1920x1080 High multi-player.
GT 1030 2GB = 82 FPS
GTX 1050Ti = 153 FPS

 

[CC Ricers]

I have the ASL G1502 (GTX 1050 2GB) and decided to buy a resistor cable to reduce the fan speed and loudness. You can follow the link here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/112975607528?ViewItem=&item=112975607528

There's one cable left so the seller may re-list if they get more in stock.

The cable currently sits outside the GPU as you can see. I might be able to put most of it inside which will require detaching the cooler from the PCB and then re-applying thermal paste to put it back together.

 

[Gripen90]

I have the ASL G1502 (GTX 1050 2GB) and decided to buy a resistor cable to reduce the fan speed and loudness. You can follow the link here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/112975607528?ViewItem=&item=112975607528

There's one cable left so the seller may re-list if they get more in stock.

The cable currently sits outside the GPU as you can see. I might be able to put most of it inside which will require detaching the cooler from the PCB and then re-applying thermal paste to put it back together.

Looking good !
Yea I wrote to the seller after following your original link yesterday, and I asked if he had any more of them. He replied and made the listing for pair more (sets of 2), and I went ahead and bought a set. I also bought a VGA 2pin to 3pin fan header adapter, because I was thinking of perhaps hooking the fan to a Zalman Fan Mate 2 fan controller I have laying around to no use

 

[CC Ricers]

That's an interesting adapter, and might be better to use. It does mean your GPU will be tethered more to the motherboard, but you will have far more control of the fan with the fan controller.

 

[Gripen90]

That's an interesting adapter, and might be better to use. It does mean your GPU will be tethered more to the motherboard, but you will have far more control of the fan with the fan controller.

How hot does your G1502 get with the noise adapter attached under load?
I tried testing my G1504 with Unigine Superposition in High detail and the temperature maxed out at 81°c. In 3Dmark Fire Strike and normal gaming it would hit around 76°C.

 

[CC Ricers]

How hot does your G1502 get with the noise adapter attached under load?
I tried testing my G1504 with Unigine Superposition in High detail and the temperature maxed out at 81°c. In 3Dmark Fire Strike and normal gaming it would hit around 66°C.

I usually hit high 60's to low 70's C playing Overwatch. Keep in mind also this is an open-air setup, and I'm waiting for parts for my custom case to arrive so I can build in it.

For Superposition I tested in 1080p Medium detail since High detail would be well past the GTX 1050's vram capacity. Got 31°C minimum and 77°C maximum, with a score of 4814 and average FPS of 36.

 

[Biowarejak]

I usually hit high 60's to low 70's C playing Overwatch. Keep in mind also this is an open-air setup, and I'm waiting for parts for my custom case to arrive so I can build in it.

For Superposition I tested in 1080p Medium detail since High detail would be well past the GTX 1050's vram capacity. Got 31°C minimum and 77°C maximum, with a score of 4814 and average FPS of 36.

Tangential question: how long is the PCB of the card?

 

[CC Ricers]

Tangential question: how long is the PCB of the card?

It's 190mm

 

[Gripen90]

I usually hit high 60's to low 70's C playing Overwatch. Keep in mind also this is an open-air setup, and I'm waiting for parts for my custom case to arrive so I can build in it.

For Superposition I tested in 1080p Medium detail since High detail would be well past the GTX 1050's vram capacity. Got 31°C minimum and 77°C maximum, with a score of 4814 and average FPS of 36.

Arh I see, yea open test bed does help temperature wise. In this tiny case and with limited airflow to the card I did a couple of hours Overwatch gaming at epic settings and it hovered around 82°c.
I then to experiment took a USB 100mm fan as set it to the side of the air intake to the GPU fan, and load temperature dropped to around 65°c when airflow is directed to the card.

So as a project I now had ordered 2x 50mm Gelid and 2x 60mm Gelid fans along with several cables (3pin extension, noise adapters) and also a 4-channel fan controller that can be used externally. My goal is to be able to control all fans and the GPU fan via this controller.

I will mount the 50mm or 60mm fans (whichever fits the best) on the outside vent holes on the side of the case by the graphics card and let them blow cold air directly into the card. This hopefully will help on the temperatures and perhaps even inspire me to do a bit of overclocking

I have some Arctic thermal pads and some MX-4 I will apply to the graphics card, which I'll take it apart when the 2pin to 3pin adaptor arrives.

 

[CC Ricers]

The final parts for my custom case arrived today so I should be able to build in it and put my GTX 1050 in there. The spacing will probably be very tight. We'll see how temperatures will be in very closed in areas.

 

[Gripen90]

The final parts for my custom case arrived today so I should be able to build in it and put my GTX 1050 in there. The spacing will probably be very tight. We'll see how temperatures will be in very closed in areas.

Awesome ! Do show some pictures when it's all ready - and some temperature readings of course

 

[CC Ricers]

Awesome ! Do show some pictures when it's all ready - and some temperature readings of course

Pictures and temperature testing can be looked at in this post!

 

[Gripen90]

So I got all my stuff last week to "mod" my G1504 too.
I took apart the ASL G1504 and installed some Arctic thermal pads and replaced the thermal paste with some Gelid GC Extreme thermal paste instead. Initially I had installed the fan shroud, but I found out that cooling improved by 3°c when I took it off, because the 2x 60mm side fans could cool the heatsink better. I also installed a 5v noise/rpm reduction adapter onto the graphics card so it runs a lot more silent than before. After applying new thermal paste and thermal pads the load temperature of the card stays completely the same as before, but at a much lower noise level = mission was a succes !

After this video I did a little overclocking and set +75MHz on the core and + 200MHz on the Vram, and the card still maxes out at 82°c max while keeping a boost clock around 1620~1650MHz. I am pretty happy with the results.


Next project is my Dell Optiplex 7010 which gets upgraded with new CPU core i3 3200 -> core i5 3470, Ram 4GB DDR3 -> 12GB DDR3 , SHDD and graphics card MSI GTX 1050Ti 4GB Low Profile .

 

[CC Ricers]

This is only somewhat related but I may want to downgrade to the ASL single slot GT1030 because it has a completely passive design with a true single slot heatsink. There is no protruding beyond the slot like I've seen with some other passive cooler designs.

It's completely copper too so I think it looks nice and should cool reasonably well for its 30W of power.

 

[Biowarejak]

This is only somewhat related but I may want to downgrade to the ASL single slot GT1030 because it has a completely passive design with a true single slot heatsink. There is no protruding beyond the slot like I've seen with some other passive cooler designs.

It's completely copper too so I think it looks nice and should cool reasonably well for its 30W of power.

Nice! Which card is that?

 

[aquelito]

@CC Ricers @Gripen90 : Nice job on that 1050. can you please let me know the fan amperage ?

@CC Ricers : i had a passive GT1030 and it would get eventually pretty hot without fans in a small enclosure...

 

[Gripen90]

This is only somewhat related but I may want to downgrade to the ASL single slot GT1030 because it has a completely passive design with a true single slot heatsink. There is no protruding beyond the slot like I've seen with some other passive cooler designs.

It's completely copper too so I think it looks nice and should cool reasonably well for its 30W of power.

Just be aware that the card will get hot - very hot. I had one MSI 1030 passive cooled with the "dual slot" heatsink, it quickly went up to around 88°c which was a lot of heat just dumped into the case. I switched it out for a Gigabyte GT 1030 Low Profile single slot with a 40mm fan, and it goes to around max 66°c and the card is pretty much inadible even when the gaming for several hours.

@CC Ricers @Gripen90 : Nice job on that 1050. can you please let me know the fan amperage ?

@CC Ricers : I had a passive GT1030 and it would get eventually pretty hot without fans in a small enclosure...

Thanks - the card has a 5v adapter on the fan, but I am not sure what RPMs since there is no cable for that to indicate fan speed in MSI afterburner etc.