GT 1030 and Quadro T400 in tandem in a small factor PC build

As the subject implies, I have built a small factor PC with an mATX board and Ryzen 1600X to take "on the road". I planned to use my old GTX 960 4GB in it but, unfortunately, it is too wide i.e. the PCB and plastic shroud extends too far from the edge of the standard bracket and prevents the PC case's side panel to be closed. So I thought of using a GT1030 that I had which is "half width" PCB and heatsink. However the heatsink is double height i.e. occupies two brackets' height vertically so I thought of slipping another low profile GT1030 under it to get a dual GPU setup to spice up Resolve speed a little. Alternatively, I tried to find a more powerful GPU with less "body" but all extend too far from edge of the bracket.
Then I found out about the new NVidia Quadro T400 Turing graphics card that is not much more expensive than a GT1030, same-ish performance, but features 10 bit output and 2x NVENC units (!) that GT 1030 lacks.

I guess I'm asking: would a GeForce and a Quadro live happily together or there would be clashes between them since they probably need different drivers (no NVENC in Resolve or similarly disastrous symptoms )? I intend to use the Quadro as compute-only, and the GT1030 as compute and display. Has any one tried a similar setup? If a NO would be too resounding, there is also an OEM RX 550 2 GB available with AMD reference design (low profile blower design that everyone seems to hate) and VCE encoder that may not interfere with GT1030. Both would run OpenCL in Resolve, of course.

I'm ready and waiting.

[Peter Chamberlain]

This is sounding like a world of pain and support.

I'd suggest only one GPU, the fastest with the most VRAM you can get for the size you want to allocate.
4GB vram is ok for HD and few effects..is that the plan?

Even if this might scream heresy, did you consider a Mac mini M1?
Even the current entry-level model might outperform that box and be very stable.

Thx. The idea was to use the parts that I already had to build a rig at as little expense as possible that I could take places for basic HD/proxy editing and as a stationary Fusion render node to help out the main rig. The Quadro would also serve for building 4K HEVC 10 bit deliverables since AMD VCE only does 8-bit and it really takes a very long time in software.
I do have that GTX 960 4GB but it also can't do HEVC 10-bit.
M1 is nice, sure, but out of budget... Especially where I live.

Sent from my Mi 9T using Tapatalk

Been there and done that. Not worth it. Why? The 1030 doesn't do much with Resolve. No NVENC encoding.

I bought a used MSI 1070 ITX Aero for $300. Selling my 1030 now for $115. I kept it just in case the new/used one didn't work right.

Big difference and well worth it in terms of time, let alone having 8GB of VRAM. Huge deal right there.

Sell both your cards and buy at least a used GTX 1050.

Been there and done that. Not worth it. Why? The 1030 doesn't do much with Resolve. No NVENC encoding.

I bought a used MSI 1070 ITX Aero for $300. Selling my 1030 now for $115. I kept it just in case the new/used one didn't work right.

Big difference and well worth it in terms of time, let alone having 8GB of VRAM. Huge deal right there.

Sell both your cards and buy at least a used GTX 1050.

NVENC is why I want to add a Quadro as well. I need a low profile GPU in any case, even if it is going to be a single more powerful card. All I can think of is a GTX 1650 or 1050 (Ti) for low profile (unfortunately, your 1070 ITX extends substantially beyond the bracket's width, and PCIe power connector adds even more protrusion, besides 1070s are $500 and up used here). In that case I'd rather have a new Quadro T600 since it's slightly more expensive...

I've done some extensive testing with the GT 1030 and it's happy to render out 4K footage in 1080p projects. Also using 1080 proxies and/or proxy resolution playback while working can run at real-time 60 fps with LUTs and color correction. Windows Shared GPU memory feature obviously helps here.

However, the RTX drivers meant for Quadro refuse to recognize the GT 1030 and won't install which means I can only run Quadro GPU as single card. So it seems a T600 is my most sensible option. And try to sell the GTX 960 and GT1030.

I'd go for the T600 package without the bundled miniDP-to-DP converter cables since it's quite a lot cheaper and I don't need 4 cables, but I absolutely need one, however I'm sure if I can use an of-the-shelf adapter other than those certified by Nvidia:

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers ... y-adapters

Also there is not a single productivity software review of T400/600, let alone Resolve, only gaming reviews (!).

A quick report!

I have not given up to the uncle Scrooge in me and I acquired a PNY Quadro T600 OEM.

It turns out to be a sweet spot, it was the equivalent of $250 and it scores 22 GPU marks in Puget Benchmark vs 1050Ti's 16-18 (cca similarly priced used), while T1000 scores 25 but is almost twice the price. The system actually beats my main rig in the sig in 4K media and Fusion scores (???)

Needless to say I do get HEVC Main10 encoding and better gradation in Resolve viewers when set to SDR 30-bit (while the viewers are obviously not 10 bit).

Interestingly, I got several fps better Candle benchmark Blur scores with GT1030 as a display GPU using it's Game drivers rather than Quadro drivers and the Quadro running in PCIe x4 2.0 slot, while I get better TNR scores when the T600 was all by itself. Of course, using Game drivers didn't quite support the Quadro-specific features, while using Quadro drivers just plainly didn't work with GT1030 so I ended up removing it.

T600's 4GB VRAM handles 4K projects OK, probably due to shared GPU memory usage. It only reported GPU memory full with 6 TNR in Candle benchmark UHD version.

Overall it feels smooth to work with even thought it's really not very powerful. It can draw 48 W peak while steadily overclocking to cca 1650 MHz, capped by power draw, the temps reach up to 80 C. It seems the best choice for my smallish PSU of 250W, it's small and doesn't require additional power connector...