GeForce G310 - NvidiaBloggo - All the latest Nvidia news! 2010

Conclusions - Part 1

As we could see from this review, nVIDIA offers an interesting solution to the market range below €100: satisfying performance, low energy consumption and more importantly, a great margin of customization, according to each partner manufacturer’s needs.

This last point is exactly what’s perhaps the most fundamental point in the final evaluation. GDDR5 memories instead of the old GDDR3 and higher frequencies than the standard are elements that can attract the final customers, but the fact that the card keeps its low price is even more enticing.

In-Game Tests

Devil May Cry (maximum quality, AA 4x - DirectX 10) - Values expressed in FPS

- 1920 x 1200 - 43
- 1680 x 1050 - 51
- 1280 x 1024 - 60

FarCry 2 (High quality, AA 4x, DirectX 10)

- 1920 x 1200 - 26
- 1680 x 1050 - 31
- 1280 x 1024 - 38

Crysis Warhead (Airfield scene, AA 4x, AF 16, DirectX 10)

- 1920 x 1200 - 9
- 1680 x 1050 - 16
- 1280 x 1024 - 20

The performance values show an overall idea of where the GeForce GT 240 is placed on the market. The new nVIDIA card, although it brings higher values than the standard, places itself always on the lower range for the graphic cards. It is, after all, an economic proposal from nVidia, that can’t surely match the same performance as the top cards.

Test Configuration

In order to analyze the video card performance, we used an intel Core i7 965 Extreme-based platform, with the default frequency of 3.2 GHz and the Turbo Mode technology enabled. The effective clock frequency, thus, goes up to 3.33 Ghz in the moment the processor goes to full mode. As for RAM, 6 GB were used, with the frequency up to 1.600 Mhz, and Windows Vista 64-bit.

The games chosen were Crysis Warhead, Devil May Cry 4 and Far Cry 2.

Temperatures

The temperature during the idle stages was constantly around the 30°C when using the active cooling system. Once the full load session started, the temperature started rising constantly, but never reaching the 60°C. The fan speed kept itself at 35% of the maximum value, not raising the system noise in this way.

The fan’s auto-setting system makes it so the fan speed will only be raised once the temperature reaches more than 62°C. The low temperatures show that this card could possibly be seen in the market with a passive coolying system, perhaps lowering the price for the model.

The noise values during the tests were rather low, also very subtle the change between idle and full load. The increase in the system noise that we noticed isn’t due to the acceleration on the fan’s speed, but on the CPU.

As we’ll notice soon during the temperature analysis, up to 62°C, the fan’s speed remains at 35% of the maximum value.

Energy consumption and noise

In order to properly load the graphic cards, we used the game HawX with the resolution of 2560×1600 pixels in order to measure the energy consumption when in full load. When compared to the values from other GeForce solutions (more precisely the GTX models), the energy consumption values are rather low, as it was to be expected.

When compared to the ATI models, the GT 240 AMP Edition keeps its values close to the ATI Radeon 4770. The more advanced models from ATI obviously register higher energy consumptions, as it’s to be expected since the more performance the cards can offer, the more energy it’s likely to require.

The GPU used on the Zotac GT 240 AMP Edition is identified as GT215: it is part of the new 40nm process, in which nVIDIA started to work back in April/May. Also part of this family are the GT215 and GT216, both for the mainstream market. These solutions are the overall proof from nVIDIA of the optimization generated with the 40nm process, which will also be featured on the Fermi cards.

The four memory models have 128MB each, and they’re the Samsung K4G10325FE-HC04 model, also present on the Radeon HD 5000 and capable of reaching 1.25 GHz. It’s worth noticing that the heatsink covers the memories as well.

Once the small heatsink is removed, we can see the GPU and the four memory modules. The empty space in between could be used by manufacturers to customize their own models: next to the 512MB RAM, there’s enough space for more, for example, in the 1GB version.

The connection area features the same usual outputs: VGA and DVI, and a HDMI port; obviously only two of the three connections can be used at the same time. The presence of an HDMI connector makes this proposal particularly interesting and indicated for HTPC system integration.

Card Layout

The layout on the card is what we expect for a card around this price range: the cooling system is small, the same as the full size on the card. The GeForce GT 240 also does not need an extra power supply in order to work, that’s why there aren’t additional connectors on the card. Also noticeable the lack of SLI connectors: in a card that costs less than €100, it’s hard to imagine an enthusiast user will bother trying it in SLI mode.

The possibility to use this card as a PPU (PhysX Processing Unit) is still there, however. For this mode, in fact, it’s not needed to use the native connection bridge.

nVIDIA is trying with this new solution to reach the mainstream market. The GT240 is a card that leaves many choices to nVIDIA’s partners; the memory controller supports GDDR3 and GDDR5 memories, which allows manufacturers to develop economical solutions and performance-heavy solutions. Also the GPU clock frequencies is very customizable. The card should be sold in the €60-90 price range, depending on the version.

In the next few articles, we’ll be reviewing the Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP edition, featuring GDDR5 memories and higher frequencies than the refernce model. Considering the performance level of this card, the testing was slightly reduced when compared to the testing on cards featuring new architectures.