Galaxy G210 and GT 220 review : Arrival of Nvidia’s 40nm DX10.1 video cards

Conclusion

Before we reach a conclusion, I would like to tell you the price points that these cards will be selling at.

G210 – $49.99 to $69.99

GT220 – $89.99 to 109.99

If you try to compare these cards to previous cards in Nvidia’s lineup, you will find that the G210 is similar to 9400 GT and GT220 is similar to 9600 GSO 512 if you go by the number of shaders in each GPU. But the new GPUs offer added DX10.1 capabilities along with reduced power consumption due to moving to the 40nm fab process.

I feel the prices are little on the higher side for e-tail, but Galaxy also sells their cards at Best Buy retail stores where prices are normally inflated on low-midrange video cards. If you compare the video card prices at Best Buy on this page, you will find that the 9400 GT is selling for $74.99 & $89.99. So the new G210 with it’s $49.99-$69.99 price point offers better value for your dollar while running cooler and consuming less power.

The GT220 after overclocking managed to overcome the HD 4650 (GDDR3) in 3 of our game tests, while remaining just a little behind in the another 2 and got badly beaten in 1. The HD 4650 selling at Best Buy for $99.99 is the DDR2 version which will offer a little less performance than the one we used in our benchmarking. As a result, the difference between the GT220 and the HD 4650 (DDR2) would be a little less. Add to that the ability to use the GT220 as a PhysX accelerator in the latest games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darkest of Days, video encoding using Mediacoder (Free) or Badaboom ($29.99) and the GT220 suddenly looks like an interesting proposition.

The best feature that I like about these cards is the addition of an onboard HDMI audio processor, which eliminates the need for connecting a S/PDIF cable from your sound card to the video card. This is a feature that other manufacturers should also adopt to make it easy to use Nvidia cards for HTPC use.

G210

Pros –

• DX10.1
• Low Power Consumption
• Runs Cool
• Great HTPC card
• Quiet
• Onboard HDMI audio processor

Cons –

• Not fit for high quality gaming

GT220

Pros –

• DX10.1
• Good performance
• Quiet
• Onboard HDMI audio processor

Cons-

• Disappointing power consumption when compared with 55nm based HD 4650

I would like to award these cards ABT’s Innovation award and Good Value award.