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

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G210

Straight out of the box, we see that this is a low-profile card featuring a small cooler with DVI, VGA and HDMI as output options. The cooler is really quiet as the GPU is not too complicated and doesn’t really need to be cooled a lot. In fact, it is my opinion that Galaxy could have gotten by using a passive cooling solution on this video card, making it the perfect HTPC (Home Theater PC) card. But in its current form the fan is not an issue. The card uses a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, a formality on any discrete GPU worth selling today.

A feature that NVIDIA has neglected until now and one that ATI/AMD has been using is how the audio is delivered through the video card to your home theater setup. ATI cards since the HD 2xxx generation have been able to carry sound using the DVI-HDMI adapters to your home theater setup. The audio from your sound card can be passed to the card through the PCIe connector. On the other hand Nvidia video cards have required a flimsy a S/PDIF cable to be connected between your sound card and the Nvidia video card to be able to route the audio through the video card. The cards that Galaxy are launching today have an onboard HDMI audio processor. According to my knowledge, they are the first manufacturer to add such kind of support. This means you no longer need any flimsy cabling inside your case between the sound card and the video card. This should bring even more joy to users looking to use these cards for HTPCs.

GT220

The GT220 is a much beefier GPU with 48 shaders, so a better cooling solution is in order. The fan in its automatic operation stays quiet and doesn’t need to ramp up in 3D gaming as the 40nm GT216 GPU stays cool. But if set to 100% manually, it can be quite bothersome.

The output options remain the same as on the G210; i.e. HDMI, VGA and DVI bringing joy to the HTPC users who find the HDMI output critical to their application. Galaxy has been delivering HDMI outputs on older cards like 9600 GT and GTS 250 that we reviewed here and here. Kudos to Galaxy for catering to the HTPC users.

Both of the cards do not require a power connector which should be expected since they are manufactured on a 40nm process and are lower end models.