Impressively ignorant post, it all depends on what you want it for.

If want HDMI 2.0, 4k60hz, onboard h265, low profile, fanless and very lower power usage for an HTPC you won't do any better for any money.

If you want it for gaming, yes, you probably should be looking elsewhere.

I knew it would attract posts like this lol. This is not my only rig, nor is it my main one. Its so frustrating that comments like this put people of PC gaming all together and push people in to the console market. 28 years I've been a PC gamer and the attitudes never change (for some).
My main rig cost me just under £1200 in the past 2 years, I wouldn’t recommend a beginner spend that kind of money.
Get on ebay and buy an old HP or dell third gen or above i5 or 17 and you'll get a capable, all be it modest gaming PC for about £150. Less than a mid range GTX 1050ti.
Once you've discovered the fun of tinkering under the hood of a PC and found out it’s not quite as brutal as some make out, you'll realise why so many of us are hooked.
Voice of experience says start cheap, have fun then spend some real money.

That would be my dream but my ZX80 is still going strong.

My main computer is a ZX81, no room for a graphics card upgrade.

Now exclusively for Prime members....at £8 more!

Maybe he got it cheaper than the straight version, my lad's 6600k was cheaper than the non k when I bought it.

7700K isn't target market for that. It's an unlocked chip for overclocking/gaming. "Number crunching" use is catered for by the 7700 non-K or Xeon E3 v6 which enables extra processor features disabled on the K SKUs and/or ECC memory.

Anyone know of any sites benchmarking graphics cards, I am particularly interested if it can compare performance to the onboard i7-7700k graphics - I'm not a gamer, but I guess I'd need something more if I did want to play a game sometime.

Why on earth are you running a 7700k without a discrete graphics card?

It's obvious that the only reason anyone would own a computer is to do 4K video encoding while playing far cry at 60fps 1080p and using [email protected] and mining bitcoin so if you aren't spending £500 or more on a graphics card then you are a n00b and may as well set fire to your house and live as a hermit in the mountains.

Now excuse me while I eat tesco value pot noodle from my 1 bedroom shoebox while I browse facebook on my £2000 gaming rig and take selfies on my iphone 7 plus.

Good for 4K HEVC hardware decoding for your HTPC.

You should be warned that if you plan to use the video encoder found in pascal GPUs, Nvidia has artificially blocked its usage on the GT1030.

It's there, you can use it under linux with the open source driver (which nvidia can't control), but on windows you are denied access to it by the driver; nvidia wants to milk more money from you.

Oh well, didn't need it yet but got lured in by a used - very good of the fanned version on the marketplace for £43.40 after the prime day 20% off.

My main computer is a ZX81, no room for a graphics card upgrade.

While it's absolutely worth stretch another £20 for an RX 460, this card is quite a bit better than bottom-end cards from previous generations. It's built on Pascal and it uses proper GDDR5 video memory, it's not going to be breaking any benchmark records but it's sure as hell better equipped than its predecessors, which were not a whole lot more powerful than an iGPU with a stick of RAM soldered on. I was actually surprised to see the benchmarks it achieves when paired with a Pentium G4560 or older Core i3/i5. Again, for a purpose-built gaming machine, no matter how budget, I'd stretch to the £80-£120 space for something in the region of a 1050/1050ti to ensure smooth 1080p performance in modern titles, but if you've got an old pc you want to breath a little bit of life into for as cheap possible, you could do a hell of a lot worse.

Fair comment though a more expensive/extreme solution, this is for those that want a video card.

I'll be putting a 1030 in my Microserver Gen8 when my old GT520 finally dies, although it has a decent i5 the Microserver doesn't use the integrated graphics.

Well, arguably Intel's integrated graphics are ahead for HTPC use so a new CPU/Motherboard might be a better money-no-object choice.

These are finally coming down into the price range where they'd make sense as an upgrade for an existing system for those who want cutting edge video technology, especially those with more powerful CPUs that would be more expensive to replace.

There wasn't really any "building". Came as a complete unit and just needed to hook up the cables to the telly. Although I remember a year or some later they brought out a RAM upgrade that just plugged into the back.

I remember seeing it in the high street shop window and I had no idea what it was capable of or what I would do with it but I just knew I needed it.

I digress.

Back to this card. I have a cheap HP ex corporate machine that I was looking to put some graphics capability into. At the time I looked into it I was looking at a low profile GTX 750 Ti (I think at the time the most powerful card that didn't require extra power).

How does the GT 1030 compare to the GTX 750 Ti?

I've installed a GT1030 at full price (£70) into a Dell OptiPlex 790 which I use as an HTPC. That machine requires a low profile (half height) card, and has a stated 35W PCIe slot power limit so the GT 1030 is perfect.

If you've got the room and power then a GT 1050 is undeniably better bang per buck, but for a small HTPC that does a bit of undemanding gaming on the side this card is perfect. Performance is similar to the older 750Ti, but with added H.265 decode and half the power consumption.

I knew it would attract posts like this lol. This is not my only rig, nor is it my main one. Its so frustrating that comments like this put people of PC gaming all together and push people in to the console market. 28 years I've been a PC gamer and the attitudes never change (for some).
My main rig cost me just under £1200 in the past 2 years, I wouldn’t recommend a beginner spend that kind of money.
Get on ebay and buy an old HP or dell third gen or above i5 or 17 and you'll get a capable, all be it modest gaming PC for about £150. Less than a mid range GTX 1050ti.
Once you've discovered the fun of tinkering under the hood of a PC and found out it’s not quite as brutal as some make out, you'll realise why so many of us are hooked.
Voice of experience says start cheap, have fun then spend some real money.

Not worth at all, there is a one thing about getting any computer part, sweet spot.
If you bu too low end you will waste your money, if you will buy way tooooooooo high end it will get discounts as well (wasted money?). If you dont have money, dont go full cheap, this card is a waste of money, it's way better for performence/price ratio to invest into older generation 9XX of nvidia or go for radeon graphic card. Don't waste your time and money on this level of cards.

It looks nice.