Nvidia rolls out $80 GeForce GT 430 for HTPC enthusiasts

[Madcatatlas]

Im using that as my sig from now on Dribble. Thx!

If you want to game then get a radeon, this is fine too - different markets, different cards.

 

[Soleron]

In all seriousness nVidia has been pushing 3D technology for years and now the general consumer electronics industry has said- 'you know what nVidia, you were right!' and nVidia is out of line for making a product targetting the segment they have spent years promoting? Seriously? AV enthusiast's platform of choice is shifting over to a technology they have been working on pushing for years. Like it or not, this is a *HUGE* win for nVidia's technology. Personally, I don't like 3D tech as they do it and I never have(you can check my posting history)- it gives me a headache. That said, they have every major electronics manufacturer and almost every major studio now behind the technology they have been developing and pushing for years. Them releasing a product based around that technology seems to be an absolute no brainer. If you don't like it, like me, don't buy it. To say that they are only relying on a technology they dragged into the mainstream is out of line IMO.

Is 3D actually a market though? Sure all those companies are pushing it, but it's customers buying it that needs to happen. Adoption for TVs and monitors is slower than HD at this point in the lifecycle, and 3D films at the cinema haven't proven they can increase profits (Avatar being the only big success and not much since).

I don't think we'll see much adoption until the glasses-free tech comes out for TVs and of course the 3DS. That will obsolete Nvidia's tech generation (monitors and shutter glasses) and diminish the investment they put in.

Just the fact that not everyone likes 3D (whereas very few would say no to HD) makes it a smaller market. And that applies to everyone - console makers, camera makers, TV makers, monitor makers - not just Nvidia.

 

[ZimZum]

Not everything is about gaming. It has HDMI 1.4, combine that with low power, quiet operation and nvidia's reputation for stable drivers and it becomes the card of choice for the HTPC. This is a perfectly acceptable market to go after - not everyone cares how well it can run crysis.

Only if you ignore the fact that it has much worse image quality than the 5xxx series. Last time I checked the HTPC crowd is pretty picky when it comes to that sort of thing.

 

[exar333]

If you crave 3D, its a great buy. Otherwise, wait a few months for driver updates to help the IQ issues. It will be a great card when it matures a little bit. I agree that IQ is king to most HTPC users, and this has a few shortcomings (see the AT review).

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Because you can get a card that does what the 430 does for half its price. At its current price point you can get a 5670 which is a viable budget gaming solution. The 430 is worse at pretty much everything than the cards its competing with.

From AT review:



http://www.anandtech.com/show/3973/nvidias-geforce-gt-430/18

There are certainly better low budget gaming solutions but this card really isn't positioned as a gaming solution, it's for an HTPC. When considering parity, including the fact that the 430 is a low profile card, the price point is pretty much on the money with the 5570/5550 low profile versions. None of those cards are going to game decently at 1080p anyway.

I've been looking for a low profile card which also has PAP for use in my HTPC to replace the onboard 9300 that's currently in use. The 5xxx was the only viable solution for some time. The issue was that I didn't want to deal with the ATi drivers. Now there's a viable NVIDIA alternative. Granted, image quality isn't on parity, yet. Hopefully NVIDIA will address those issues soon.

If anything else, now that there's competiton in the low profile HTPC video card niche there will be some price drops/bargains in the months to come.

 

[Janooo]

What were the problems? Based on what I saw the 430 was neck and neck with the 5570 except on one stream where it got 0s across the board. I'd love to be able to offer something more, but I can't given the rather shocking lack of information available(we can get benchmarks for a ton of games which tells us HTPC cards suck at gaming *what a shocker!* but no analysis on something that is important?).



From the article you linked-



As far as how mainstream it is, do you honestly think HTPC setups are mainstream? People I know IRL who have a HTPC that don't post on these forums? 0

Check this link about cadence. http://www.hqv.com/index.cfm?page=tech.cadence

Right now 430 sucks at video conversion. We'll see if it gets fixed.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Why get an inferior HTPC card for more money, with lower picture/video quality than its cheaper competing products?

Its an ok card, but its being beaten out in every segment except for 3D, which is even more of a gimmick than Physx.

It it had more rops, it'd be a solid gaming card. This card is essentially useless solely because of its absurd price.

 

[Pneumothorax]

I've been looking for a low profile card which also has PAP for use in my HTPC to replace the onboard 9300 that's currently in use. The 5xxx was the only viable solution for some time. The issue was that I didn't want to deal with the ATi drivers. Now there's a viable NVIDIA alternative. Granted, image quality isn't on parity, yet. Hopefully NVIDIA will address those issues soon.

If anything else, now that there's competiton in the low profile HTPC video card niche there will be some price drops/bargains in the months to come.

There's a low-profile GTS450 that's available thats a much better gaming card than this one. OTOH, my favorite HD player TMT, still doesn't support Nvidia PAP!

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

There's a low-profile GTS450 that's available thats a much better gaming card than this one. OTOH, my favorite HD player TMT, still doesn't support Nvidia PAP!

I've seen the low profile GTS450 but I'm not sure if it would fit in my case. Seems to be a bit too long and even if it did fit I'd worry that heat might be an issue. ArcSoft should be out with an update soon for bitstreaming NVIDIA cards along with fixing bitstreaming issues with the latest ATi Cat drivers.

An aside, some of the folks over at AVS are reporting that the cadence issues are not a problem in the 460 and up cards, only on the 450 and 430.

nV disabled some of the cadence detection state machines in the GF108 drivers because it was yet to be optimized for the GF108's constrained resources.

Once nV devotes time and effort to this, there should be no issue.

 

[MagickMan]

But for the time being, NVIDIA has delivered an $80 card that is slower and offers inferior image quality compared to its competition – an unenviable position indeed.

That says it all, really. HT people are all about the image quality when it comes to their KUROs and projectors. I'm not even going to comment about the performance issues, since HT buffs aren't going to be gaming much with these types of cards anyway.

 

[Will Robinson]

This card will struggle up against HD5670.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/radeon-hd-5670-price-drop-to-kill-gt430/

 

[taltamir]

80$ for an HTPC card? isn't that way too much?

This card will struggle up against HD5670.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/radeon-hd-5670-price-drop-to-kill-gt430/

60$ is easier to swallow for something that isn't even supposed to run games.

Still, with intel on CPU graphics (and upcoming sandy bridge)...

 

[Will Robinson]

80$ for an HTPC card? isn't that way too much?



60$ is easier to swallow for something that isn't even supposed to run games.

Still, with intel on CPU graphics (and upcoming sandy bridge)...

It is "supposed" to run games "as well".
Only because of its lackluster performance are we now hearing apologists for it.

 

[gorobei]

as anand's article indicates, they are paying the price for all the extra fermi compute side architecture taking up space that went to actual horsepower on the similarly sized 40nm 240 die.

htpc dont have a tremendous need for hpc compute compatibility, and if someone ever comes up with an application that calls for it, these cut down cards are unlikely to have enough oomph to power said app.

 

[MangoX]

Hmm... I'd rather pick up a $79 Low profile 5670 over this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127523

 

[Dribble]

Im using that as my sig from now on Dribble. Thx!

I'm not sure what to say, but whatever it is I'm sure you'll feel free to quote it out of context.

Only if you ignore the fact that it has much worse image quality than the 5xxx series. Last time I checked the HTPC crowd is pretty picky when it comes to that sort of thing.

Very true, but it's not across the board image problems. It's one issue (cadence) which is quite fixable in drivers. Being as this is aimed at the HTPC market I'd expect nvidia fix this, or like you say, it will hit sales.

 

[Lonyo]

To be honest, the fact that people are trying to defend this card shows you that certain people do have a preference for a certain brand.
It's just like the HD5830 was when it was launched.

It's an utterly underwhelming card which needs a price cut. There are no excuses.

 

[Skurge]

To be honest, the fact that people are trying to defend this card shows you that certain people do have a preference for a certain brand.
It's just like the HD5830 was when it was launched.

It's an utterly underwhelming card which needs a price cut. There are no excuses.

Yeah, I thought the 450 and 465 were poor, but this takes the cake.

 

[Lonyo]

Yeah, I thought the 450 and 465 were poor, but this takes the cake.

450 wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. It slotted into a small gap rather than putting any pressure on anything.
5830 was bad, 430 is bad.

 

[Bateluer]

To be honest, the fact that people are trying to defend this card shows you that certain people do have a preference for a certain brand.
It's just like the HD5830 was when it was launched.

It's an utterly underwhelming card which needs a price cut. There are no excuses.

This. The 430 performs at a 50 dollar card and should be priced accordingly. I'm sure its likely to slide down in price as the channels get full of inventory and merchants can't move the stock though.

 

[Keysplayr]

Seems to be a good card. 96 Fermi shaders. Should at least be as fast as a 9600GT was in gaming. As far as video conversion, probably just a driver tweak.

 

[Lonyo]

Seems to be a good card. 96 Fermi shaders. Should at least be as fast as a 9600GT was in gaming. As far as video conversion, probably just a driver tweak.

Maybe you think it should be, but it really isn't. It just about matches a GT240 DDR3, which is slower than the 9600GT, but since the 9600GT isn't available anymore it doesn't really matter.

 

[Skurge]

Maybe you think it should be, but it really isn't. It just about matches a GT240 DDR3, which is slower than the 9600GT, but since the 9600GT isn't available anymore it doesn't really matter.

So, if it werent for the speed, it would just be the video quality that need fixing with drivers? How long will that take? a few months? By the time it becomes any good as an HTPC card the low end 6xxx stuff will be out.

EDIT: I don't know why I quoted your post :hmm:

 

[Grooveriding]

The card has a use but does not exemplify its self as superior for the niche it fills.

Nothing to get excited about for an HTPC user I guess and certainly not for a gamer.

 

[Janooo]

The card has a use but does not exemplify its self as superior for the niche it fills.

Nothing to get excited about for an HTPC user I guess and certainly not for a gamer.

The card is very close to being useless till the video conversion is fixed.