The GTX 745 4GB was a graphics card I obtained on the 10th of June 2025. This is significant as the card itself was released on the 19th of February 2014, making this an 11-year and nearly 4-month-old card. The card is essentially a lite version of the GTX 750, as it has fewer shader cores. Unlike the 750, it's quite common to find 4GB variants of the 745 in online marketplaces.

This GPU is suitable for my needs. I don't play video games, so I'm unconcerned about its gaming potential even by 2025 standards. What makes this card special (for me) is that it has a VGA output (my monitor only supports VGA inputs), it has 4GB of VRAM (frankly, overkill for me), it still receives driver updates from Nvidia, it's a single-slot card (supports my motherboard), and it requires no external power (works with my PSU).

The GTX 750/Ti, on the other hand, doesn't come with a VGA output, and the card itself can be quite expensive on the marketplace.

Most GPUs around this time didn't come with VGA outputs, but the reason why the 745 did is certainly because it is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) card. It wasn't released separately but came prebuilt in some Dell computers. Looking at one of these computer models, we can see the motherboard lacks display outputs. While VGA was considered outdated for gaming, it remained relevant for general usage. For this reason, Dell/Nvidia likely found it beneficial for the OEM card to include a VGA output. Another reason might have been to avoid confusion among consumers who might otherwise accidentally plug their display cable into the motherboard, bypassing the advertised gaming experience the GTX 745 aimed to provide.

This is the back of a Dell XPS 890. Notice the motherboard doesn't have display outputs. This explains why the GTX 745 OEM card included a VGA output, as this was (and still is) relevant for general usage.