Following a picture of the actual graphics chip itself, a product shot of an unannounced GeForce GT 1030 graphics card recently surfaced. The image includes box art and a very slim graphics card sporting one cooling fan, one HDMI 2.0b port, and one DVI-D port. The card in question is the GT 1030 Exoc White manufactured by KFA2, which already offers a huge lineup of GeForce GTX 10 Series cards spanning from the GTX 1080 Ti to an overclocked GTX 1050.
Here is what we know about this specific card so far:
| Graphics chip: | GP108-300 |
| Graphics architecture: | Pascal |
| Manufacturing process: | 16nm (?) |
| CUDA cores: | 384 |
| Base speed: | 1,252MHz |
| Turbo speed: | 1,506MHz |
| Memory amount: | 2GB GDDR5 |
| Memory speed: | 6,000MHz |
| Memory interface: | 64-bit |
| Memory bandwidth: | 48GB per second |
| Dimensions: | 6.37 x 4.76 x 0.86 inches |
| Power consumption: | Up to 30 watts |
| Price: | ~$87 |
As the numbers show, the card appears to be overclocked and this speculation is backed by a heatsink that covers around 60 percent of the card’s surface, and the included white cooling fan. We presume that the base GT 1030 cards will have a cooling solution similar to the older GeForce GT 740 card, which the GT 1030 will likely replace.
As previously stated, Nvidia typically reserves the GT prefix for its entry-level graphics cards ( under $100) whereas the GTX prefix covers its mid-range and high-end lineup (more than $100). We really haven’t seen a new GT model since the release of the GT 740 in May 2014. Nvidia did not even bother offering a GT model with its GeForce 800 and 900 families of cards.
Previous reports surrounding the GT 1030 saw the card packed with 512 CUDA cores, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units. They also speculated that Nvidia used 14nm FinFET process technology to create the GP108-300 chip.
However, this latest report claims 16nm manufacturing, which Nvidia uses for its GeForce GTX 10 Series products save for the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti cards. Here is a brief breakdown with the GT 1030 tossed into the mix:
| GP108 | GP107 | GP106 | GP104 | GP102 | |
| Process node: | 14nm FinFET (?) | 14nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET |
| Die size: | 132mm2 (?) | 132mm2 | 200mm2 | 314mm2 | 471mm2 |
| Transistors: | 3.3 billion (?) | 3.3 billion | 4.4 billion | 7.2 billion | 12 billion |
| Found on: | GT 1030 | GTX 1050 GTX 1050 Ti |
GTX 1060 3GB | GTX 1060 6GB GTX 1070 GTX 1080 |
GTX Titan X GTX Titan Xp GTX 1080 Ti |
With the upcoming GT 1030, Nvidia is not only replacing the GT 740 released in 2014, but is targeting a sub-$100 market currently dominated by AMD. Team Red currently offers the Radeon RX 560 (via third-party partners) for a base price of $100 and the Radeon RX 550 for a base price of $80. The only card Nvidia currently sells in this segment is the $100 GeForce GTX 1050.
That said, the unannounced GT 1030 will likely target the esports arena. Unfortunately, the card’s 2GB of onboard memory leaves it out of the 4K UHD Netflix streaming club that opens its doors to GTX 10 Series card owners very, very soon.
