MAXSUN Dips Back into NVIDIA GT 730 GPU Pool

[T0@st]

Recent MAXSUN activities have been very Intel Arc "Battlemage" B-series GPU-focused—most notably, a leaked design that leverages dual M.2 slots. Earlier today, ITHome reported on the fresh retail release of two sort-of-new MAXSUN graphics cards in China (on JD.com)—MS-GT730 PH 4 GB (¥359/~US$49) and MS-GT730 PH 2 GB (¥329/~US$45). These super low budget offerings signal a dip back into technologies of old: NVIDIA's GK208 "Kepler 2.0" GPU—of 2014 vintage. This is a curious choice, given that Team Green's "Kepler" GPU generation has not received new drivers since the release of R470 (back in 2021), and the last security update arrived with NVIDIA's 473.47 WHQL driver.

ITHome reckons that MAXSUN has simply recycled its existing MS-GT730 Heavy Hammer 4G and MS-GT730 Heavy Hammer 2G card designs for an early 2025 market launch—TechPowerUp's GPU database produces another very similar looking model: the GT 730 Transformers III 2G. The online publication reached out to MAXSUN's JD storefront customer service for comment on the apparent refresh of old products. ITHome discovered that the renamed reissues are a result of demands generated by "internal supply chain management." MAXSUN stated that its production batch have changed, and it: "emphasizes that the performance (of their new models) is consistent with the old version(s)."



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[Frick]

Eh why not. A GT730 with GDDR5 (because it is that and not DDR3, right?) at a low enough price and warranty is not entirely a bad thing to have existing. For reference the cheapest GPUs I can find over here is a €50 passive GT710. And I did some lookin' and normally GT730's are like €80+, what the shit man.

 

[Vayra86]

I think you're just paying for the shroud, the PCB, the box and the ESD plastic here, the chip is worth absolutely nothing. There's a bottom and this is it.

 

[freeagent]

I think you're just paying for the shroud, the PCB, the box and the ESD plastic here, the chip is worth absolutely nothing. There's a bottom and this is it.

You can use it for PhysX with your AMD GPU

 

[windwhirl]

The only question I have is where does all the 730 stock come from... like seriously. Why are there still so many 730s around?

 

[mechtech]

but what about the Asus version??

Amazon.ca

 

[wolf]

I quite like the GT730 as an XP gaming card, especially in low profile, and especially the GDDR5 version.

I'd have thought there were plenty enough in the wild by now but they're either still finding new, or are recycling, the GPU's...

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Well, there are good deals to be had.

Like a 6500 XT and Team Group 3200mts ram for 89 bucks on newegg.

A gt 730 isn't worth 50$. I feel bad if someone gets suckered into buying that trash.

 

[Ruru]

GT 730 is a card you would except a friend just randomly to give it for you.

I mean, a ~11yr old low-end card which gets totally beaten by modern iGPUs.

Well, there are good deals to be had.

Like a 6500 XT and Team Group 3200mts ram for 89 bucks on newegg.

A gt 730 isn't worth 50$. I feel bad if someone gets suckered into buying that trash.

I guess they got mad when these were used as a base for fake cards; better sell the rest of them as legit ones.

 

[Macro Device]

Fiddy money buys me a 1060, or a 1650. Or RX 480 8 GB. Used of course but it's still leagues faster than whatever Kepler has ever existed, let alone that unmuscular 730.

 

[Visible Noise]

The only question I have is where does all the 730 stock come from... like seriously. Why are there still so many 730s around?

Exactly. Someone found a pallet of decade old GPUs forgotten in a warehouse?

Well, there are good deals to be had.

Like a 6500 XT and Team Group 3200mts ram for 89 bucks on newegg.

A gt 730 isn't worth 50$. I feel bad if someone gets suckered into buying that trash.

One thing the GT 730 has going for it over the 6500 XT is the 730 is slot powered.

 

[Ruru]

One thing the GT 730 has going for it over the 6500 XT is the 730 is slot powered.

And in reality 6500 XT still doesn't consume much, even if you'd use an adapter to power it in a cheap office prebuilt PC. Its worst thing is that x4 interface which will cripple it if you don't run it in PCIe 4.0.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Fiddy money buys me a 1060, or a 1650. Or RX 480 8 GB. Used of course but it's still leagues faster than whatever Kepler has ever existed, let alone that unmuscular 730.

Yep, I would rather use a GTX 1660 Super, even for DirectX 9 games! In fact, I have been using Arc A770 for the DirectX 9-based Halo Custom Edition!

 

[Macro Device]

GTX 1660 Super

A rather Benjie worth GPU. I was specifically talking those available for a couple twonnies.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

A rather Benjie worth GPU. I was specifically talking those available for a couple twonnies.

Sadly, even those are getting long-in-the-tooth! They will look at us like we're still using GCNs in 2025! Or like Navi1x.

And for the GT 730, even GTA V performance, probably will stink!

Depending on how much the VRAM and/or bus is affecting it, for all I know, the common variant of GT 730, possibly don't perform better than a GeForce 9500 GT! (Those get decimated by a GeForce 9600 GT!)
In that case, you will be lucky to enjoy some 768p games from 2004 or around there!

OTOH, if they perform like GeForce GT 640s, then that's at least light years better than a GeForce 9500 GT. That was the case with an eVGA model that I got in the mid-2010s.

 

[Macro Device]

for all I know, the common variant of GT 730, possibly don't perform better than a GeForce 9500 GT! (Those get decimated by a GeForce 9600 GT!)

I am yet to see a Kepler 730 that is worse than a 9600 GT. I own the latter, I have a reference point. 730s, 'least those I've witnessed thus far, are about twice as fast in worst case scenarios.

 

[Chrispy_]

The pool of GT730s is almost as large and deep as the pool of RX 570s

A decade from now people will still be here asking which GT730 is the best and where can they find an RX 570 BIOS.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Exactly. Someone found a pallet of decade old GPUs forgotten in a warehouse?



One thing the GT 730 has going for it over the 6500 XT is the 730 is slot powered.

It was more about bang for buck.
Slot powered, look for rx 6400 for 50 bucks.

Perhaps the gt 730 will sell well in China. I can't see this making sense for US residents.

 

[wolf]

GT 730 is a card you would except a friend just randomly to give it for you.

I've literally give a few away to friends hahahah

One thing the GT 730 has going for it over the 6500 XT is the 730 is slot powered.

Slot powered and readily available in low profile too.

But really I see it's biggest strength is for XP gaming as it's fully supported and performs well against some era greats, and has a lot of versatility in the form factor / no external power for all manner of prebuilts and ex corporate boxes that are Haswell or older that you can build a sick XP machine from. A couple of Quadro's are even better if you can get hands on, but could be more pricey and require (very simple) driver modding to work.

For anyone interested, here's a quick indication of the GT730 relative to some era cards, and some other similar if not more costly options.

 

[Ruru]

If someone wants a somewhat fast yet low-powered XP card from the Kepler family, just grab an used 660. They're fine for that.

Hell, even get an used 660 over this ancient "new" card.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I've literally give a few away to friends hahahah

Slot powered and readily available in low profile too.

But really I see it's biggest strength is for XP gaming as it's fully supported and performs well against some era greats, and has a lot of versatility in the form factor / no external power for all manner of prebuilts and ex corporate boxes that are Haswell or older that you can build a sick XP machine from. A couple of Quadro's are even better if you can get hands on, but could be more pricey and require (very simple) driver modding to work.

For anyone interested, here's a quick indication of the GT730 relative to some era cards, and some other similar if not more costly options.

View attachment 380788

I still don't get it. Wasn't there even GT 750/ti slot powered cards? Why the 730? Lol.

Good point for XP though!

 

[Ruru]

I still don't get it. Wasn't there even GT 750/ti slot powered cards? Why the 730? Lol.

Good point for XP though!

Wasn't majority of 750/750 Ti slot-powered, and having a connector didn't even help in overclocking at all. And it's even newer generation (Maxwell 1.0)

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Wasn't majority of 750/750 Ti slot-powered, and having a connector didn't even help in overclocking at all. And it's even newer generation (Maxwell 1.0)

I think so yeah. Just don't get the whole 730 chip deal. What is so significant other than having a bunch of stock? Can't be really all that profitable unless these are all recycled pcbs or something.

I think so yeah. Just don't get the whole 730 chip deal. What is so significant other than having a bunch of stock? Can't be really all that profitable unless these are all recycled pcbs or something.

Oh yeah duh. Literally says that in the original post. Imma dummy...

 

[wolf]

I still don't get it. Wasn't there even GT 750/ti slot powered cards? Why the 730? Lol.

Good point for XP though!

You're not wrong, the 750/Ti did have some LP models, and iirc all or at least most are slot powered, the issue there is price and availability. They're much rarer, and much more expensive, at least where I live, and of course if LP is actually what you want or need. If looking at that tier performance in LP I'd say the K1200 is the one to go for as availability and price make them considerably more desirable imo and the K1200 is basically a LP professional GTX750 non-Ti

What it might boil down to is what kind of games you want to throw at it. My 3Dmark numbers are entirely just to demonstrate the relative performance against some higher end options over the years that are suited to XP rigs, so for such a cheap/available card the 730 can basically crush DX9 gaming, even the DDR3 version is almost excessively performant for 125 of 130 games on my XP rig.

Windows 7 and beyond rigs IMO would necessitate faster / newer cards, DX10/11 titles as well as typically starting to look at higher 16:9 resolutions rather than lower 4:3 ones.

 

[eidairaman1]

Well, there are good deals to be had.

Like a 6500 XT and Team Group 3200mts ram for 89 bucks on newegg.

A gt 730 isn't worth 50$. I feel bad if someone gets suckered into buying that trash.

Nothing but a display adapter now.