NVIDIA has after a painfully long wait finally launched the entry level version of GT200 now that the GeForce GT 210 and GT 220 are finally available for consumers. The cards sport a radically reduced version of GT200 GPU that offer really lower power consumption and emits minimal heat. The first tests shows that performance is also really low.
Even if the cards are in no way intended for performance users they can’t keep up with AMD’s last generation graphics cards, Radeon HD 4670, which is in fact cheaper than NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 220 card(~$60 vs. ~$70).
The top model GeForce GT 220 ships with 48 Stream processors where the 40nm GT216 GPU is clocked at 625MHz. The graphics circuit is paired with 1GB or 512MB DDR2 memory over 128-bit memory bus. Both cards support DirectX 10.1, but as expected no DirectX 11.
NVIDIA is hoping that CUDA support, HDMI outputs and Blu-ray playback will attract buyers. NVIDIA’s new budget chips is in for a rough ride as AMD is will bring in the next generation budget cards with DirectX 11 and much better performance early next year. More information on NVIDIA’s first 40nm GPU for retail can be found at PC Perspective.
GeForce 9800GTX+ vs. GeForce GT 220
