- Saturday, 21 November 2009
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Politics is more dangerous than war, for in war you are only killed once - Winston Churchill
Nvidia 40nm GPU parts reach retail
WHILE NVIDIA is still dragging its Fermi GPU to the launchpad, kicking and screaming we hear, it’s fired off a couple of retail parts based on TSMC’s 40nm process, the GeForce G210 and GT220.
Bound to send gamers reeling into total indifference - and possible mockery - the new 40nm parts are re-spun G92b-silicon-made-DX10.1-compliant. We won’t get too much into this, as Nvidia has made no attempt to hide what it is. We understand Nvidia's need to play at the low-end of the graphics food chain with MacDonald’s lite snack meals, although everyone really is asking it, "Where's the beef?"
Still, every launch has its buzz and there was some speculation as to what the G210 and GT220 were actually capable of, but the official specs show all:
The G210 comes clocked at 589MHz / 1402MHz, with 512MB of 500MHz DDR2 over a 64-bit memory interface. The G210 boasts 16 ‘CUDA-cores’. VGA, DVI and DisplayPort are included, although you can stick an adapter on the end bit and get HDMI too. Costs about $50.
The GT220 has 48 ‘CUDA-cores’ that come clocked at a manlier 625MHz / 1360MHz, with 512MB or 1GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit memory interface. VGA, DVI and HDMI included, with HD Audio and SPDIF too. Currently selling in $80-range.
Both cards are DX10.1 compliant and support GPGPU by way of CUDA. PhysX is available on the GT220.
As you can imagine these are anything but high-end cards. These are low-profile launches as far as Nvidia is concerned, with no reference cards distributed to the press, but according to our contacts the AIB partners did make some noise – in particular Galaxy, Zotac and Palit. Review sites have upped their attempts at figuring out heads from tails with these cards, which you can see here at PC Games Hardware, Tweak Town, Tom’s Hardware, Guru of 3D, Tech Power Up, PC Perspective and Overclockers Club.
Some merits of the GT220 do appear. The 40nm process does allow a rather low TDP and you can overclock it handsomely. Of course any attempts at passing these off as gaming cards will provoke gales of laughter. The G210 provides just enough power to get your Windows 7 visuals up and run some low-end 3D gaming, while the GT220 looks like it’s on a par with an aging 9600 GT unless you heavily overclock it and get 9800 GT-like performance, but then again, why “upgrade”?
These cards will come into their own when the AIB partners start getting creative with these babies. Making a card with a TDP of 30.5W (G210) and 58W (GT220) under load should enable them to make either passively cooled or factory-overclocked SKUs that can be sold under some “elite” brand naming.
Certainly Nvidia didn’t do this to steal the spotlight from AMD's Radeon HD 5770 launch, but you can’t help but feel that there is nothing much on Nvidia's table for now, other than a really really cheap alternative to a companion PhysX card. µ
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"but you can’t help but feel that there is nothing much on Nvidia's table for now"
What about Nvidia winning the contract for the next gen nintendo ds?
....with a light garnish of DX10.1 to hide the stale taste.
Can we have something new please?
I think he meant in the PC graphics department... and if you're talking about the rumours at BS News, it would indeed be a great achievement for Nvidia, but Nintendo has always been a "closed" architecture, as have Xbox and Playstation. Let's wait and see...
That's a rumor, heard from sources at nVidia, which make the rumor even more unreliable, by the way.
Other article from the same site that gave this news: "GT300 was a dummy, does it really matter?". Something says that there is a lot of fanboism in it.
A DVI to HDMI Adapter should NOT cost more then 3 Euro or you are getting ripped off.
Examples here:
http://www.reichelt.de/?;ARTICLE=60294
http://www.reichelt.de/?;ARTICLE=74798
Oh and gold plated HDMI cables should cost much more then 2.20 either:
http://www.reichelt.de/?;ARTICLE=88069
Raven, could it be that he referred to the whole G210-card with the 50$ ? Yes I think so.
10.1 at last, thats a step forward, suddenly
When I want to read great Nvidia bashing, which is totally deserved by Nvidia pitiful attitude/execution/honesty as of late, I tune to The Inquire or Semi-accurate.
Note that I don't give a shit about any manufacturers, I only despise the one acting like Nvidia. ATI, or any other, just give 1 good reason to jump at your throat and I will gladly.
Those G210-G220 parts are like 9-10 months late because of Nvidia catastrophic transition to the 40nm process.
Both the 4670 and 4850 beats the laughable Nvidia offering at roughly the same price. The DX11 low end Evergreen/Juniper replacement will make them irrelevant in just 2-3 months from now.
3 months life span in the OEM market is not enough time to justify to even put them in stock. As it is, they're doomed parts, already obsolete before even hitting the shelves.
I guess Nvidia figured: "What the heck, we finally made them, we will at least sell a couple of them" or some other looser thinking.
Anyone here want to take a bet as of when the GT300 will be available? And I don't mean a stupid paper launch, mock-up or some other attempt at deception. I'm talking about mass availability. I'm putting a little 20.00$ on March 19 2010. LoL And that's a safe bet! :)
What a joke Nvidia has become...
Ramon
#1: Just the other day I saw an ad in the local newspaper touting a $500 PC as provided with a "powerful graphics card". The problem was/is that the GT210 is anything but powerful...
#2: In the retail market these cards are overpriced for their low performance.
I'd buy a cheap nVidia card for PhysX to sit alongside my ATI card, but nVidia don't want my custom so I won't bother.
Nvidia haters crack me up. OEM's demanded that DX10.1 be on cards sent to them this xmas. Nvidia only did what they were told to keep AMD from having the lionshare of xmas crap PC's they'll be flogging with windows 7. These cards are NOT being sold at retail for that reason. Why would you send something out to reviewers that we will likely never be able to buy? It's not for us get it? It's for DEll, HP, etc.
Now, what is late (in my mind) is 40nm versions of 260/275/280/gtx295. That should be what they concentrate on for xmas. Shrink them, upclock them, add faster memory and lower pricing a bit because of the cost savings. Those would match up well against AMD's new cards until GT300 comes in Q1 2010. Lower temps, another 15%-20% across the board because of gpu clock hikes and faster memory with them and they'd change the picture quite a bit. Just don't rename them please...LOL. Put a + on the end and call it a day.
You NV haters had better hope AMD starts making money soon or we'll all be looking at GT210/GT220 coming to shelves for us at $300...GTX295 would suddenly rise to $999. :) Both sides need to raise prices across the board. Pricing each others stuff to death we'll hurt all consumers in the end. AMD hasn't made money since 2006!
Here are retail versions of 220, so JIAN talks crap.
http://www.komplett.se/k/kl.aspx?bn=10488&mfr=&filter=A00247.K181420.A03616.K144543.
And i f you scroll down on this site there are both 210 and 220 retail cards.
http://www.dustinhome.se/lp_5301_312.aspx
These cards exist because they're demanded by OEMs. They've been shipped to OEMs for quite a while.
Now the cards are also being made available to end users through regular retail.
They're all in the low end to low mainstream segment and will never cost a fortune, even though they're overpriced at the moment.