Just recently, our
friends over at EVGA added half a dozen cards to the company’s product lineup based
on Nvidia’s mainstream budget
40nm
GT218 and
40nm
GT216 die packages, all supporting DirectX 10.1 and featuring native HDMI
1.3a input ports. In retrospect, Nvidia’s Geforce 210 and Geforce GT 220 cards
might already be familiar to some due to their prior launches a few months ago
as OEM-only parts (G210 and GT 220). This time around, EVGA and many other AIBs are receiving
their chances to capitalize on this emerging
budget-minded 40nm
segment with a broad range of product possibilities for consumers to explore.
First on the list of these new 40nm cards is the EVGA
Geforce 210 (
512-P3-1210),
commonly referred as the Geforce 9500 GT (55nm) replacement. This GPU has 16
processor cores, a 64-bit memory interface, runs at a 589MHz core clock,
1402MHz shaders, and has 512MB of DDR2 at 500MHz (respectively 1000MHz) and does not feature PhysX.
Like many similar cases of capitalism dominance in the past,
EVGA has decided to go all out on its Geforce GT 220 lineup, offering five
different flavors at marginal performance differences respectively. Logically,
this particular model is to be the 40nm successor to the Geforce 9600GT (55nm).
The EVGA Geforce GT 220 (
512-P3-1220-LR)
stock model features 48 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface, runs at a
625MHz core clock, 1360MHz shaders, and has 512MB of DDR2 at 500MHz (respectively 1000MHz). According
to a
recent benchmark performed
by PC Perspective, the GT 220 has roughly a 43 percent performance advantage in
3DMark Vantage over the Geforce 210 when both cards are ran at default clock
speeds.
For those who demand higher marginal performance, EVGA has released two additional stocked-clocked versions of the Geforce GT 220 with 1GB of DDR2
(
01G-P3-1225-LR)
as well as 1GB of DDR3 (
01G-P3-L226-LR) for
additional memory bandwidth.
EVGA also understands the demand of the enthusiast crowd and
has also released SuperSuperClocked and FTW Edition versions of the card. The
EVGA Geforce GT 220 SSC Edition (
01G-P3-1227-LR) features
48 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface, runs at a 671MHz core clock,
1458Mhz shaders, and has 1GB of DDR3 at 790MHz (effectively 1580MHz).
Finally, the EVGA Geforce GT 220 FTW Edition (
01G-P3-1228-LR) features
48 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface, runs at an incredible 720MHz
core clock, 1544MHz shaders, and has 1GB of DDR3 at 810MHz (effectively 1620MHz).
While Nvidia’s Geforce 210 and Geforce GT 220 serve as prime
examples the next technological manufacturing process advancement at 40nm, it
should be observed that these cards perform
at or below the level
of ATI’s HD 4600 series. Nevertheless, the GT 220 seems to be an ideally acceptable PhysX
rendering solution offered at reasonable price points for a large range of
budget-minded consumers, including those who simply want a low-power media
playback desktop GPU. We are looking forward more to the release of the Geforce GT 240 next month as we can expect performance more comparable to the 9800GT
(55nm) which would be ideal for tackling almost any PhysX rendering situation.