Just an FYI - there's a difference between using the core/memory clock and power sliders to adjust frequency, and using the more granular voltage tools in Afterburner to under
volt (as opposed to underclock) the gpu. The controls are...not intuitive, but it should only take a few minutes to cap the frequency.
MSI has a fairly comprehensive guide to this here:
For the P330/m270q, you'll need to adjust the Voltage/Frequency curve as demonstrated by this video:
(timestamp: 20:35 in case the link doesn't work)
I don't entirely know why this works more reliably, but I suspect that even with severe under
clocking, the card will still intermittently draw more than what the 12v rail can deliver. Flattening the VF curve brute-forces this to not be the case.
Following up on my previous post:
I've tested a number of different GPUs in the P330 and P360s that I own, and there's a lot to say on the matter of using these for gaming. As long as this post is is really doesn't cover everything but in the interest of not boring everyone to death, I'm trying to keep it mostly to the more salient points.
TESTING:
I tested using a P330 and a P360, with an array of different GPUs from Nvidia, AMD and Intel. I have a decent collection of single slot cards.
Nvidia
RTX A1000
RTX A2000 (w/ single slot custom cooler from n3rdware)
RTX 4000 ADA Generation SFF (stock)
Quadro P620
Quadro T1000
RTX 3050 (6gb; single slot model from Yeston)
GTX 1650 (single slot, Yeston)
Intel
Arc A310 (ECO; single slot model from Sparkle)
Arc A380 (Asus, SFF, dual slot)
AMD
rx6400 (single slot, from Powercolor)
w6400 Pro (Actually not sure who manufactures these)
rx6500 (NON-XT; Dell OEM)
rx550 (Powercolor)
I found it interesting, that the A2000 capped to 50w performs almost identically to the A1000.
==================================================================
I spent a few days testing this collection of GPUs because...hell, why not.
In the P330:
- If you're just wanting a quick recommendation - your best bets are an undervolted RTX A1000, A2000, or rx6400/w/6400/rx6500. You can usually find the latter three on the used market for around $100. Sometimes less if you're lucky.
- With the exception of the GTX 1650 and P620, some case modification may be necessary for the cards to fit well and breathe. Pretty common mod to cut better ventilation holes into the top of the shell. Additionally, the speaker and bluetooth antenna assemblies need to be removed in order for any of the larger cards to fit in the chassis. This is pretty well known, but I figured it bore repeating.
- If you're using a 'T' Model CPU, you will need to use throttlestop to get decent gaming performance.
- As noted on page 1 of this thread, you need the correct riser, or most of these cards won't work in the P330.
Nvidia:
- The A1000, despite being factory-locked to pull 50w, does spike higher than this under load and will cause the system to crash unless the VF curve is capped to around 1500mhz. I have however, been able to push this to 1600mhz without issue, so there isn't a ton of performance being left on the table.
- The A2000 works after undervolting, but you're leaving a good bit of performance on the table by using it in this machine. Of the cards I tested, this is probably the 'best' option for the P330, considering that you can get a used 6gb model A2000 AND the single slot cooler for less than (or close to) the price of an A1000, you may as well take that option.
A1000 - Works, requires mild undervolting. Recommended.
A2000 - Works, requires aggressive undervolting. Recommended.
4000ADASFF - Works, Overkill. Requires *very* aggressive undervolting. Not Recommended.
P620 - Works without issue. Recommended.
T1000 - Works without issue, and with better performance than the power-limited 1650. Recommended.
RTX3050(6gb)- Works, requires aggressive undervolting. Recommendable...ish?
GTX 1650 - Works, requires aggressive undervolting. Not recommended.
Intel:
- Unfortunately, Intel Arc cards require ReBar to work at full capacity, and this feature isn't supported natively. However, it should theoretically be possible to add/enable this feature using various tools - but the Lenovo UEFI is less than open, and I haven't yet sussed out how to make it work...yet. The A310 in particular, performs abysmally; you're better off using Nvidia/AMD cards for now. I didn't extensively test the A380, but performance for this already modest card was less than expected. At least I only paid 50 bucks for the pair.
AMD:
- All of these cards worked without issue, however the inability to easily modify fan curves makes the 6400/6500 cards run fairly hot.
What's interesting about them though, is that the AMD drivers in Linux actually expose more control over these things, and you can actually control the fans. Wild that you can't do this even with AMD's own tools in Windows.
- It's worth noting that the 4-lane PCIE limit, paired with the PCIE3 of the slot in the P330 - does throttle performance in all of the 6000 series cards listed here, but in most cases it's not enough to make much of a difference. If the card can't handle a given title on PCIE3, it probably won't perform super well on 4 either; and if it plays well in 4, it'll play well in 3.
- The 6400/6500 cards all perform about the same on pcie3, or at least within margin of error.
- The Rx550 works perfectly, it's...just old and not very powerful.
==================================================================
Now, in the P360:
- Quick recommendations: Stick with Nvidia. Nothing else really works. A1000/2000 are solid bets;
- Kind of important to this discussion - You actually DO get the full 75w of power in the P360! No undervolting necessary! However...
I could not get any of the Intel or AMD cards to work in this machine. Machine boots, but only recognizes the onboard igpu. I can only speculate as to why this is the case. So, i'm only going to detail the Nvidia cards:
- Only minor modifications are required for most cards to fit and breathe; The ventilation in this case is good, and it's about 1mm thicker so you won't struggle to get any of these GPUs to fit...assuming they're single-slotters. Anything shorter than the A2000 (which is fairly long by SSF standards) only requires straightening the right-angle bend in the bluetooth cable bracket. Basically just need a pair of pliers to do this. However, it needs to be removed completely for the A2000 and similarly sized cards to fit.
A1000 - Works. This is almost an ideal card for these machines. Works great, keeps cool.
A2000 - Ran benchmarks with the card in this machine, and in a more powerful machine. Performance loss within margin of error, and accounted for by temperature throttling. highly recommended!
4000ADASFF - Works, Overkill. Too expensive to recommend but getting performance on par with an RTX 4060 in a machine of this size is...novel, to say in the least.
P620 - Works without issue. Recommended.
T1000 - Works without issue. Recommended.
RTX 3050(6gb) - Works without issue. Recommended.
After more thorough testing, this card doesn't perform as expected. The performance isn't as diminished as what we see in the 1650, but we're looking at some 30% degraded performance. Gonna file this as 'not recommended' until I can figure out why it's behaving this way, when the A2000 is performing more or less as expected.
GTX 1650 - Works without issue. Recommended
Works, but performance is *violently* throttled for some reason. Couldn't get the boost clocks over 600mhz no matter what I did. Might be something I'm overlooking but...Not recommended.
Guess it ONLY likes Nvidia Workstation cards.
EDIT: - Note on the degraded performance of the RTX 3050 6gb in the P360.
EDIT EDIT - The 3050 6b and 1650 both work fine, I just had a defective CPU in one of the test machines.
