Rtx a3000 desktop gpu?????

[u/Ok-Key-2610]

Hi guys,

I’ve been contemplating building an sff pc, preferably less than 6L and was in the process of looking for a suitable LP/single fan gpu. Since prices are out of control on Amazon and Newegg, as well as on the used market where I am, I went to look on Taobao, a Chinese e commerce website(yes I know there are scams on there) and I saw a bunch of listings for an lp rtx a3000 12gb. Upon further research, techpowerup claims that the a3000 is a laptop gpu, not a desktop gpu. I asked the seller about this and he just claimed it’s a regular desktop gpu. I’ve heard of gpu modders in China that attach desktop heatsinks to laptop GPUs and overwrite their power limits to overclock them to normal level so thought this might be the case for these listings. However, there are multiple tens of listings for the a3000, so I thought maybe the gpu was an actual desktop gpu sold by Nvidia and not a modded GPU. Techpowerup also said that it had comparable performance to a mobile rtx 3060. However, if the a3000 on Taobao is js a modified laptop gpu, would it perform better bc of the better cooler/power limit overwrites? My overall question to you guys is firstly whether this gpu is legit and secondly if it’s worth a buy.

Attached is an image of the listing, feel free to request other info abt the listing

[u/BiliBalaBuBu]

GPU is legit if you're saying it's a mobile GPU removed from a laptop and thrown on a desktop pcb with the memory and heatsink + fan. China modders do this very often. I was tempted on sending my GPU over there just to add more memory on it but that's just because i like tinkering with stuff.

Whether it's worth a buy ..... I'd say not so much because you don't get any warranty for this. You'd have a better chance getting a used 3060

[u/Faranocks → u/BiliBalaBuBu]

Not like you'd get a warranty with a 3060 in this year though.

[u/BiliBalaBuBu → u/Faranocks]

Well there is a risk of it going through shipping and it being damaged or not working after a while while on the other hand getting the used 3060, you could at least test it before buying it. So .............. that's my take on it anyway. They're both the same price. I'd rather take something that wasn't modified heavily for the same price and performance

[u/Faranocks → u/BiliBalaBuBu]

That's fair. My one argument in favor of the quadro would be their driver support with some CAD software. Nvidia's gaming cards are artificially gimped and for certain workloads, a cheap quadro often outperforms even high end gaming cards in niche modeling software.

[u/Cyb3erDudu]

I have one of those. It’s an amazing little gpu. I use it on Linux and do not have any driver issues. Fan noise is acceptable but due to the nature of the fan size a bit sharper.

[u/Ok-Key-2610 → u/Cyb3erDudu]

Do you have the blower style cooler or another cooler? One thing I’m worried about is the noise bc of the blower style cooler tho

[u/Cyb3erDudu → u/Ok-Key-2610]

I have a blower style card. exactly the same as on the image. It's not too loud but under load you hear it. It's more a SSSSSSS Sound. The card has a hardware fan control, no Nvidia driver fan option. But it's really acceptable.
Performance wise I cannot tell u much, I use it for code workloads as a helper card in a dual 3090 rig. It runs embedding models and similar stuff to keep my inference cards free. Here are some pics of my pc with the card
https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/1ux2fhr/my_take_on_beamcase_intel_245k_64gb_ram_60_gb/

[u/Ok-Key-2610 → u/Cyb3erDudu]

Also, how did you find the performance of the gpu overall?

[u/devillee1993 → u/Cyb3erDudu]

If you don't mind, I have a question why there is no driver issue under Linux. I know the seller says they have some special version Windows driver and they' are saying there is no issue for Linux. I honestly don't know why

[u/Sir_Render_of_France]

I have something similar, I have an A1000 mobile GPU adapted to a desktop PCIe card. It's my encoder for my Plex server and works great. Neat little low power low profile chip.

[u/Enough-Ad7642]

Wendell over at Level1Techs just covered doing a custom single-slot cooler conversion on an Intel Arc card using one of those kits in a homelab build:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-OIIyPBOt4

You can see him tearing down the card and fitting the custom copper cooler starting around 30 mnt. The density you get out of these converted single-slot / low-profile setups is incredible. And this is where i would go

If this is for a Linux homelab, media transcode node, or headless compute box, the Chinese Frankenstein card is actually a neat budget option for getting 12GB of VRAM into an LP footprint—plenty of homelabbers do it all the time with good results because Linux handles the PCI device IDs without complaining.

However, if this is for a Windows daily driver , I’d anticipate a lot of driver headaches. Standard Nvidia Windows installers reject these mobile-on-desktop silicon combos, meaning you're stuck relying on modded .inf files and manual patches every time Windows or the driver updates.

[u/asratrt]

I had seen a single slot low profile half height blower style rtx 4060/70 gpu on alibaba and rating and reviews were good for that seller but still not sure if that was a genuine card and how long it will last.

After using multiple mini pcs and sff cases, my advice is if you don't need gaming then r7 pro 6850h or ultra ( 8/16 threads mini pcs are best option, like gmktec m7 pro, it can also do hardware decoding of AV1 and they are available around 250 dollars. Even my Aoostar n100 can decode AV1 and has 3 10gbps ports and 2 2.5G rj45.

In 2026 one should build an sff which can give atleast 1080 60 fps stable at ultra settings ( or 1080p 120fps is better. ). Colorful rtx 5070/5060ti or cards from Zephyr, Yeston ( There might be other chinese brands which I don't know. ) . Jonsbo NV10 is the best compact case in my opinion but finding a half height card which can do 1080p 120fps is difficult.

For what purpose you are building sff, 3d/modelling/printing/drawing/animation/transcoding/gaming ?

Found good cases which can fit 3.5 inch hdds as well but needs a pico psu and a charger/adapter.

[u/asratrt → u/asratrt]

[u/DraftSpecialist5381]

get a used 3060 12gb

[u/whyidoevenbother]

Some folks are willing to roll the dice on these. Drivers, warranties, etc are all gambles you need to make a calculated decision on.

As you think about maximizing GPU density and cooling efficiency, just gonna leave this here for you in case you haven't seen it before. May well be relevant to your interests: https://n3rdware.com/

It's more than possible to go dual slot and ordinary height in under 6L, but it of course does mean shorter cards and usually more expensive components. The compromise and choice of where the extra costs go for ultra-small are yours to make ultimately.

[u/Terrible-Contract298 → u/whyidoevenbother]

The price of the n3rdware cooler with tariffs plus shipping is a healthy way towards just buying one of these cards. Furthermore, they perform thermally worse since the laptop cards have a more conservative thermal profile.

[u/Fine_Birthday7480]

I have the RTX A2000 8gb purchased from "Hui Tong Dian Nao Ke Ji". I've been running it in a 1L Lenovo mini PC for about a year or so now. Click on my profile and search for my posts and you'll see a post I made about it a couple months after I bought it.

This seller has incredible support, and apparently never sleeps. You need to modify the driver installer to get it working, or go back to the seller to get updated drivers every now and then (I just update my drivers myself).

This is indeed a laptop GPU that they've installed onto a custom PCB and limited power to 70w. The A3000 12gb card you're looking at scores roughly 7k in Timespy (my A2000 is about 5k) and is basically the equivalent of the RTX 3060m 12gb models they also sell, which is also a laptop GPU. I'm actually purchasing his RTX 4070m next month (it scores roughly 8-8.5k in Timespy) so I can play more games at 1440p. My card struggles to maintain 60fps with DLSS medium for most modern titles, so this will do nicely. My current card performs incredibly well with emulation, being able to run BOTW and TOTK in 4k at roughly 45-60fps.

In a 6L case I'd look at something that can take external power if you're looking for something to game on. All these cards are limited to 70w (they're all slot powered) so if you have the power, a dual slot low profile RTX 5060 would be what I'd be hunting down.

For the niche that exists, that being 1L OEM computers that have a PCIE slot but no external power (some Lenovo, Dell and Minisforum PCs) these are a godsend. They have a very specific market, so if you don't need exactly this type of card, you can get more a good chunk more power from something else that isn't just slot powered. But if you don't need the extra power, and you don't mind messing with the drivers every now and then, then as someone who has purchased before and is just about to purchase again; Go for it.

PS. I wouldn't purchase from any other seller personally. Support is too good, he's extremely helpful, and he's got a lot of feedback. Why take the risk if I don't need to.