Hello,

the Quadro nvs 450 is a 35W card. If staying on the quadro line, you could go to a P600 easily ( 40w ). P1000 ( 40W ) or T400 (30W) or T600 (40W) , without actually having to care about the psu.

They give decent results unless you want 4k gaming

Moreover this form factor allows to install only half length gpu cards

Thank you for the quick response.  With due to the half length gpu.  Are there any you would recommend that can outperform the quadro line that is acceptable in the SFF case?  That will still not effect the psu?

Thanks

I'll try to brainstorm a bit. The issues with the form factor are two, first the space constraint , and 2nd the fact that I don't think the psu allows for external power to a gpu. So the limitation is to cards that don't require to feed them with a power cable.

The choices are less due to these 2 factors.
Maybe something like this would fit

https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1650IXOC-4GD/sp#sp

as form factor / no extra power required ( even if they mention 300W psu, prob would not be an issue )

Thanks again for the great response.  I'd like to take it a step further because I cannot find any information regarding it.  In my precision 3431 sff.  Can I take the guts out and put in an optiplex 7010 to increase the psu to accommodate a larger gpu by any chance?

That's an interesting question... I don't know. There are various factors :

are the screw holes of the mb matching the other case ?

Then, all the ports on the back are in different positions, so they would not match unless cutting away all the metal and opening a big rectangular hole

And lastly, the psu connector may easily not match at all.

It can be done ? everything can be done. Is it worth it ? imho, is not worth and would not look nice.

At that point it's simpler and less painful to just add a pci-e flex extender, move the gpu externally , block it somehow and rig a small dedicated psu just for the gpu

I like the way you think.  I do have an optiplex 3020 with an i5.  I may just add ram, psu and an upgraded gpu with an SDD.  I've been reading that the i5s can hold par with some i7s in respect to gaming.  Just trying to stay under $600 for a better gaming experience.

Maybe peek at ebay to see if there's some good bargain at the price that factors all those changes

I decided to go with the RX 6400 RDNA2.  Does not need external power and from what I have been reading it has been a pleasant surprise for the users.

If your 3020 is the MT with 290w PSU, it'll certainly have no trouble with a 53w RX 6400.  It can handle up to 75w cards.  As for a Precision 3431 with 200w PSU, that might be a stretch.

3431 does have optional 260w PSU.  Precision 3431 Spec Sheet.pdf