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Nvidia’s tiny bus-powered RTX A2000 pro card delivers RTX 3050-level gaming performance
It’s a bit of a shame that current-generation Nvidia and AMD cards prioritize power efficiency and performance per watt less. Large benchmark numbers sell cards more than relative power numbers. However, there are many users who don’t use powerful power supplies or use OEM systems that can’t accommodate huge graphics cards. There is a market for low power cards.
Sadly, no current generation of GeForce or Radeon cards has a TDP low enough to omit the PCIe power connector. Not even the weak RX 6500 XT can handle it, but there is an ampere card that does. It’s a workstation-oriented RTX A2000. It has a 70W TDP, which is low enough to draw power exclusively from the PCIe slot. Can you still play? youtuber asked and answered this question Random Game HD, he ran the little A2000 through a set of benchmarks.
The A2000, despite being optimized for workstations, is fully game-ready and supports ray tracing and DLSS. It’s a low-profile dual-slot card with a blower-style cooler that integrates into any system with little or no problem.
The RTX A2000 is built with a GA106 GPU, the same as the desktop RTX 3050 and RTX 3060. It has a shader count of 3328, much higher than the 3050’s 2560. To achieve its low power consumption, the A200 is clocked at a much lower frequency than the 3050’s 1552/1777 Mhz clock, with a 562/1200MHz base/boost clock. However, the desktop 3050 has a base TDP of 130W, which is a full 60w higher than the A200.
The results show that the A2000 competes surprisingly well with the desktop RTX 3050 despite its obvious clock disadvantage. RandomGamingHD shows that if you dial back the settings, the A2000 can comfortably play games at 1080p or even 1440p. Granted, it’s not a 3090 or 6900 XT killer, but at 70w it offers excellent power efficiency, which is the main takeaway from this experiment.
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Unfortunately, since the A2000 is a workstation card, it is very expensive. The $1070 price tag is too expensive compared to the 3050 and 3060, but it’s a great example of what’s possible when power efficiency is a design goal, not brute force.
I use a 75w passive GTX 1050 in my secondary PC and I especially like it because it’s a quiet and low power option. I’m sure I’m not the only one who values these traits. Current generation GeForce or Radeon cards below 75W will win a lot of fans. I’m ready to open my wallet.