Galaxy’s GT 430 – Introducing Nvidia’s new GF108 multi-media GPU
Price to Performance
It is pretty clear from our 21 games and two synthetic tests that the Galaxy GT 430 is a potent GPU to put against AMD’s HD 5400/5500 series. In Part 2 of our testing, we shall pit a reference GT 430 from another vendor against AMD’s 4290 IG to see if it is a worthwhile $79 upgrade or not. And we shall test the GT 430’s PhysX performance as a dedicated PhysX card when paired with our Galaxy GTX 480 SOC.
Clearly AMD is confident in its own mature product with HD 5500 and HD 5400 and they are apparently going to counter Nvidia with discounted pricing. We are also aware that AMD’s new HD 6000 series will launch very shortly although it will undoubtedly take a few months to introduce their entire new lineup. Until then – and right now – it is an excellent time to upgrade as there is price competition again, something that we have not seen for a long time until recently. The Galaxy GT 430 is an excellent value compared to the GT 220 at the same $79 MSRP and even though the older card is discounted a few bucks, the GT 430 still comes out on top in every department.
Conclusion
This has been quite an enjoyable but short, hand’s on experience for us in comparing our GT 430 versus our GT 220 with thanks to Galaxy for supplying both cards. We like the Galaxy GT 430 as a mainstream gaming card and we plan to follow up with Part Two – PhysX testing and versus integrated graphics. We were disappointed that this GT 430 series misses out on the superb scaling of SLI by not offering any support for it, even without a SLI bridge.
In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like for us to focus on for Part Two testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.
Galaxy GT 430
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- The Galaxy GT 430 is much faster at gaming than its predecessor, the DX10.1 GT 220.
- There is further room for overclocking and the Galaxy GT 430 delivers much the same good scaling as the rest of the Fermi family.
- New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation for mainstream gaming and multi-media PCs.
- DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, and 3D for BluRay and games.
- GT 430 is ideal as a mainstream gaming video card and as the video basis for a HTPC or rich multimedia PC
- Galaxy’s improved VGA fan is great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cooler than the reference version and it is very quiet indeed.
- The Galaxy GT 430 is physically very short; smaller than GT 220 and ideal for small form PCs.
- Galaxy builds their own GT 430 with solid components
- Galaxy’s unique two year warranty which includes a 24-hour toll-free number where a tech support person actually *talks* to you for great support!
Cons:
- No SLI support and thus no 3-display Surround.
In our opinion, the success of GT 430 depends on its pricing compared with the competition. That’s it. For about the same price as the GT 220’s MSRP, you get DX11 and all the new features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in a very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running GTX 430. Add to this all the benefits of a premium card such as a two year warranty and great support, we feel that Galaxy has a real winner in their GT 430 to offer mainstream gamers and we are pleased to award them our ABT Editor’s Choice award.
We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Galaxy 400 Fermi series lineup. Look for GT 430 availability right away. The Galaxy GT 430 is also available at brick and mortar Best Buy stores nationwide (and online at BestBuy.com), at Tiger Direct, Amazon and other leading etailers.
This editor believes that Nvidia, although late, does bring a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming – although with a bit of a price premium. We have also seen Nvidia’s drivers improve and we also like the direction they are heading in with their simplified installations of the GeForce 260 drivers.
If you currently game on a integrated graphics or a GT 220 class of video card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a Galaxy GT 430 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway. If the many exclusive features of the new GT 430 appeal to you and you are gaming at 1440×900 or 1200×1024, then you cannot go wrong with a Galaxy GT 430. In this editor’s experience, it is also a decent budget choice if you are considering overclocking further. The competition is hot as the prices on the competing HD 5000 video cards have softened and they offer their own set of features including a way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity on a single budget card. Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT.
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while i understand that it’s nice to have gts 450 and hd 5750 scores for a bit of context, can i ask why you haven’t included the hd 5570 and/or hd 5670 as, being the gt 430’s main competitors, they are rather important in terms of how much value this card actually is…?
Thanks for your comment. As reviewers, we use what we have. I do not have HD 5570 nor HD 5670 to use for comparison.
However, as I pointed out in my Galaxy GT 430 evaluation, this is only “Part 1”. Part two will cover HD 4290 IG and using GT 430 as a dedicated PhysX card. If I can get ahold of HD 5570, I will also include it.
As I understand it, GT 430 is primarily a HTPC card first with an emphasis on BluRay 3D movies. It is a direct successor to GT 220 which serves a similar purpose in Nvidia’s lineup. As a successor, it works much better than the GT 220 which will probably get further discounted. And the GT 430 success will also depend on its market pricing.
@arcade flyer,
Since the HD5670 card costs the same as the 430 (79.99 on newegg), and typically beats it by a large margin (from the other review sites ive seen). I agree it makes little sense that its not compaired with the 430. Even the HD5570 should beat it by a little bit, and be selling cheaper. The 5670 in the benchmarks at tomshardware/HardOCP/Anandtech, is almost pulling twice as much frames pr secound in most of the tests (games).
@apoppin,
if its emphasis is on bluRay 3d movies, why isnt in the review? instead of 21 games tested. Also could you test out ATIs blueray 3d? in 10.3 I believe they added support for it, and that “middleware vendors” now have glasses out for it too.
You seem to miss that there is a “Part Two” part of my GT 430 review coming. And although I do not have a HD 5570 or HD 5670 (Leon has them in Jamaica; there was no time to get the GT 430 to him for his evaluation). I will also save this card for evaluation when the HD 6500/6600 series is out.
There are many ways to evaluate a product and my approach focused on the GT 430 as a successor to GT 220. The GT 220 was not a strong gaming card; the GT 430 is much faster, yet GT 220 had a solid and successful place in Nvidia’s lineup. In this way, the GT 430 succeeds. And as I stated, “price” and market positioning will determine its level of success. It also appears to excel at 3D BluRay playback which leaves it in a rather unique position for now.
Now this is a tech site where each editor has his own interests and specialties. My evaluations and BFG10K’s reviews are from the perspective of a gamer. MrK is very interested in video playback and encoding and you will always see that featured in his evaluations.
Soon we expect to receive a 3D vision kit from Nvidia and we will be very happy to evaluate 3D video playback and 3D games in future reviews. We are always looking to bring more to our readers.
@apoppin
thanks for replying. i appreciate that you can only use what you have. of course the gt430 is a light/mid card geared towards hd media decoding and casual gaming rather than hd gaming. anyway, i look forward to part 2 for a more complete picture.
quotes from AnandTech:
“..GT 430 simply isn’t competitive with AMD’s 5570 and 5670 in gaming performance..”
Some games the 5670 has almost twice the fps rates, like in Battlefield bad company 2, at 1280×1024 medium quality settings Chase bench. The 430 is scoreing around 36 fps vs the 5670s 62 fps.
Thats a HUGE differnce, for 2 cards priced the same.
“..If image quality absolutely matters to you, then the Radeon 5570 is definitely the card to get for the time being”
HQV 2 benchmark for image quality, the 5570/5670 cards score ALOT higher.
“So if NVIDIA stumbles on image quality, where do they excel? 3D stereoscopy.”
so… 430 is a card for people that want 3d Steroscopy, only how many people actually have a tv that has 120+ mhz refresh rates?
To answer your question,
Improvements in technology and content availability will lead to “tremendous growth” in 3DTV sales in the next few years, according to a study out of DisplaySearch. The research outfit forecast 3DTV sales of 3.2 million this year and a whopping 90 million by 2014.
-Source: TWICE (10/13) Home Media Magazine (10/13)
GT 430 is a great successor to GT 220 – which was no flop. I am certain any IQ issues will be fixed in drivers and it will serve as an excellent HTPC videocard that can do light to moderate gaming.
I am very interested in this card. I like the lower memory speed and the large fan. The gaming performance does not interest me. A 20 or 30 dollar price difference is not a big deal either. What this shopper wants to know is which has more reliable drivers, Nvidia or AMD. My needs are for HTPC. Mostly Internet TV and Video Streaming. People with new HDTV just want somting to get an HDMI connection with audio going on. I mostly look at the power consumption,heat and noise specs.I am not familar with Galaxy but it is so far the best design I have seen for my needs.
Nvidia’s and AMD’s drivers and support are both top notch. You can’t go wrong with either company for your needs.
I had recently called Galaxy’s “US” support line in regard to Xtreme Tuner HD. Not only was the person on the phone unfamiliar with the program, but for being the North American support line he was not the most fluent in English. I can speak 3 languages unfortunately, I’m not well versed in Hindi.
I later emailed Galaxy support with a simple and specific question. It’s now been over a week and I have yet to hear back.
I’ve also read on numerous websites that support for Galaxy is horrible and pointless. When you called and spoke with them, what was asked?
I can certainly call Galaxy tech support again.
However, there is a Galaxy representative that responds to our forum member’s issues. I would be glad to put him in contact with you. Why not sign up on our forum and post your issue there?
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