GT240 - nvidia's flagship for this holiday season

[v8envy]

No review on the main site yet, with good reason. An intensely ho-hum performer, with overclocked versions performing close to but not quite up to 8800GT standards. This bad boy will probably wind up replacing the half dozen nearly indistinguishable 9600 and 9800 SKUs.

You can find a review at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-240,2475.html

Tom's crew managed to put a positive spin on things by contrasting factory overclocked versions vs. the slowest clocked 4670 they could get their hands on. In a no holds barred battle of $35 vs $115 graphics cards it was a decisive answer to the question nobody asked.

On the bright side we don't need to worry about yet another G92 rebadge. On the downside, with the EOLing of the 260 on up, this part will be NV and their board partner's bread and butter performance part possibly well into Q2 2010. Combine this with the disappearing 4830 and rapidly shrinking supply of 4850 and 4870s, this holiday season you get the choice of entry level cards or an impossible to find high end from one supplier only.

Sucks to be us.

 

[videogames101]

Lulz.

 

[edplayer]

Sucks to be us.

Speak for yourself

 

[GaiaHunter]

On the downside, with the EOLing of the 260 on up, this part will be NV and their board partner's bread and butter performance part possibly well into Q2 2010.

Shouldn't it be the GTS 250?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

At $97 for the cheaperst GDDR5 version, I don't see this going over very well. The 4850 can still be seen going as low as $75 every couple weeks.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Not bad performance for the power use, but that looks to be all it has going for it. While it's a good deal faster than the 4670, the cheapest 4670 is $45AR on Newegg. I don't see the GT240 as near fast enough to justify that price difference. 8 channel audio and DX10.1, other cards have been available for quite some time (looking the 4670's way again) with those features. The GT240 is built on a newer process, both it and the 4670 use just the PCIE slot for power and according to the Tom's link are seperated by only a few watts. It seems like it took Nvidia too long to get some features that have been available by the competition for quite some time now, and now that they have this part it's so very 'meh'.

 

[Wreckage]

This looks to be the best bang for the buck card right now.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Zotac-GeForce-GT-240-AMP-Edition-Review/?page=7

It handled all of the games we tested at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x aniso (where applicable) without issue, and nearly put up playable framerates at 2560x1600, which is no small feat for a mainstream graphics card.

 

[edplayer]

This looks to be the best bang for the buck card right now.

Not even close!

using the same article, the GTX260 has around twice the performance yet does not cost twice as much. Not saying the GTX260 is the best bang for the buck, but it sure as hell isn't the GT240!


BB4TB is usually some card on sale like the Asus 4670 at newegg for $45.

 

[kpo6969]

Shouldn't it be the GTS 250?

+1
Picked up an MSI GTS 250 for $83 (open box) from Newegg.

 

[BFG10K]

This looks to be the best bang for the buck card right now.

LMFAO. How did you arrive at such a nonsensical conclusion?

For an extra $10 you can get a 4770 which offers about 35%-45% more performance:

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...240/18/#abschnitt_performancerating_qualitaet

 

[AzN]

Why do they keep releasing the same old cards on g92 architecture and give them a different label?

 

[BenSkywalker]

For an extra $10 you can get a 4770 which offers about 35%-45% more performance:

For the same price as the 4770 you can get a GTS250 which is 20% faster then the 4770. For ~$30 less then the GT240 you can get a 9600GT which is ~10% faster then the GT240.

Why do they keep releasing the same old cards on g92 architecture and give them a different label?

This one is updated a bit over the G92 based cards, but the larger issue is that all the G92 based cards seem to be EOLd along with the 4xxx parts. This quarter is showing larger demand then anyone was expecting- the big spike in Q3 demand had people thinking that Q4 was going to be soft, didn't work out that way. Until we get the mid range DX11 parts ramping up we aren't going to be looking at good values in the market unfortunately.

 

[SlowSpyder]

For the same price as the 4770 you can get a GTS250 which is 20% faster then the 4770. For ~$30 less then the GT240 you can get a 9600GT which is ~10% faster then the GT240.

Nvidia's pricing of this card and the GT220 just doesn't make sense. Both AMD's cards and some of Nvidia's own cards offer so much better bang for the buck, in some cases are even faster for less money.

Why would anyone buy a GT210 over a 4670? The GT210 is more money, but slower.

As you pointed out, the GT240 vs. it's own big brother just doesn't make sense. The cheapest GTS250 is $5 more than the cheapest GT240 on Newegg, given the large clock speed differences and how much more 'stuff' is in the GTS250 core, I can't imagine the GT240 even is close to the GTS250 in performance. Unless the 7.1 audio and DX10 is that big of a deal to someone, the GTS250 is just such a better buy.

So for someone to suggest that the GT240 is the "best bang for the buck card right now" (when referring to the GT240) would mean to me that that person is either a troll or dellusional.

 

[nemesismk2]

The main problem the GT240 OC has is the price which makes it sometimes more expensive or the same price as the 4770 which is much faster.

Still atleast Nvidia has something to generate some income from and it's giving some good performances for a cheap video card.

 

[Wreckage]

The main problem the GT240 OC has is the price which makes it sometimes more expensive or the same price as the 4770 which is much faster.

Still atleast Nvidia has something to generate some income from and it's giving some good performances for a cheap video card.

The cheapest 4770 at Newegg is $109, while the 240 is $89.

You can always get a GTS250 which is faster than a 4770 and costs the same.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The cheapest 4770 at Newegg is $109, while the 240 is $89.

You can always get a GTS250 which is faster than a 4770 and costs the same.

You mean the $90 GT 240 with DDR3 memory, which is going to perform even worse than it already does with GDDR5?

Get the fuck out, troll.

 

[yh125d]

So its a $100 card that performs worse than the $90 9800GT I bought over a year ago?


Now that's proper innovation right there



Also, LOL wreckage. You have hit a new low. And don't try to flame us back by calling us zoners, saying GT240 is anywhere close to best bang/buck is absolutely ridiculous and even nvidia fans can see that

 

[BernardP]

I can give you reasons why I will buy a GT220 or GT240 videocard, despite the fact that they are a bad value and not DX 11:

--- they are about the maximum lenght that will fit in my crowded case
--- I can use the Nvidia Control Panel to create and scale correctly just about any custom resolution (a priority for me). Try to do that with Catalyst.
--- I'm only a light gamer
--- I'm keeping my Win XP/DX9 machine for another two and a half years
--- My system is already running on GF8200 integrated graphics.

I repeat: I agree the GT220 and GT240 are too expensive for their performance. But considering my own variables I'll reluctantly accept paying more for an NVidia product.

 

[yh125d]

4670 is a shorter card


Why do you need to create and scale a bunch of custom resolutions?

 

[RussianSensation]

This looks to be the best bang for the buck card right now.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Zotac-GeForce-GT-240-AMP-Edition-Review/?page=7

What are you on?

It couldn't produce solid 60 frames in any game. But even if we disregard that, it was more than 2x slower than GTX 260 for $50 less. Not to mention you can get 9800GT, GTS 250 or even 4850 which will all smoke this card in the $95-$110 range.

NV should stop selling garbage that's 2-3 year old in terms of tech.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Actually, I am glad to see nVidia making a card that has decent performance (for the low end segment) and does not require an external power connector. Agreed, the price is too high but that should come down. I have an off the shelf system with a weak power supply and am looking for a card that does not need an external power connector. Hopefully the next batch of AMD cards (I dont remember the codename) will offer even better performance without the need for a 6pin connector.
I know the 4670 is a better deal now, but I dont know how much longer that card will be available. At least the GT240 will keep the low power segment alive for a while.

 

[yh125d]

Considering these cost $90+ to get a card without a power connector, and you can get a whole new PSU with a pci-e connector for $40ish (400cx) , paying much of a premium for a connector-less card has its limits



Well you can still buy new geforce 6/7 series cards, and radeon 9/1k cards (although limited) and its a popular card so it should be around awhile. What does it matter how long after you buy it it is available anyways?

 

[Denithor]

You guys do (I hope) understand that this GT 240 is simply a refresh of the 8800GS/9600GSO with GDDR5 bolted on (if you pick the right model)?

Consider:
8800GS/9600GSO (original version)
96 Stream Processors
550MHz core/1340MHz shader/800MHz DDR3
192-bit DDR3 (38.4 GB/s bandwidth)

GT 240
96 Stream Processors
550MHz core/1340MHz shader/900MHz GDDR5 or 800MHz DDR3
128-bit GDDR5 (57.6 GB/s bandwidth) or DDR3 (25.6 GB/s bandwidth)

Short answer: these cards were worth it at $38AR last year, not so much at $100+ this year. And stay far, far away from those DDR3 models - their balls have been completely removed.

 

[PingviN]

I don't get these cards at all.

They are horribly off target when it comes to pricing
They don't really compete with anything (due to the price)

If someone can give a decent reason for buying one of these over 9800GT, HD4470, HD4850 and GTS250, please let me know.

And by the way, Wreckage, did you even see what cards were in the review? Doesn't exactly look like hothardware.com included the cards in the sweetspot (mentioned above).

 

[v8envy]

I'll give you a reason.

The better SKUs are going away. It won't be long until the various flavors of 9600, 9800 (including the 'low power' 9800GT editions) are gone. Low priced 4850 or 4870 are getting few and far between, I looked.

So, fast forward a month. Fermi nowhere to be found. 5850 and 5870 are still sold out the moment they hit the shelves. The GTX260, 4870 and better are sold out except at the original $300 price level. The GT250 moves back up to the $200 range, and voila. A $120 GT240 is suddenly an entry level card that's holding down the performance spot between the $40 4670 (which is a better performer than the 210/220 and comprable performer to a DDR3 240) and the $200 GT250.

TL;DR - With 40nm production problems and ramping down of the 4 series ATI is leaving a giant gap between the entry level 4670 and the 5 series. NV swoops in to sell parts at prices and performance their fans richly deserve.