NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 240: The Card That Doesn't Matter
by Ryan Smith on January 6, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Meet the Asus 1GB DDR3 & 512MB GDDR5
Asus sent us 2 of their GT 240s: the 1GB DDR3 version and the 512MB GDDR5 comparison. This makes for an excellent look at the difference between DDR3 and GDDR5, as the two cards are nearly identical save for the RAM.
Both cards are stock clocked, which means a core clock of 550MHz, and a shader clock of 1340MHz. For the DDR3 card, the RAM is clocked at 1580MHz effective, while the GDDR5 card is clocked at 3400MHZ effective. The DDR3 card is equipped with 1600MHz Hynix RAM chips, while the GDDR5 card is equipped with 4000MHz Samsung RAM chips.
The Asus GeForce GT 240 GDDR5
The amount supporting logic and power circuitry required differs between DDR3 and GDDR5, meaning that the two cards are not perfectly identical. The DDR3 card is slightly shorter than the GDDR5 card, coming in at 6.625”, while the GDDR5 card is 6.875”
The
Asus GeForce GT 240 DDR3
Both cards are equipped with the same cooler. In this case it’s a double-wide cooler composed of a sizable aluminum heatsink with a not-quite 80mm fan latched on top. The cooler partially covers some of the RAM chips, but only makes contact with the GPU itself.
Finally, both cards are utilizing the same port layout we saw with the GT 220 series - that is an HDMI port, a VGA port, and a DVI port. There are no adapters included in the box, so you’ll need an HDMI to DVI adapter if you want to drive a second digital monitor.
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cweinheimer - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
The review of the Asus 240 ddr5 card leads me to believe it could be a great HTPC card for HD content and some casual gaming. Does it support multichannel audio well enough?AznBoi36 - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
AFAIK Nvidia cards doesn't pass audio over HDMI without a SPDIF pass-through, and as far as I can tell the GT240/220 doesn't have it.MadMan007 - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
I might be fuzzy on remembering this but I could swear that some of the 'newer' NV cards (maybe the GT 210 and 220 which are similar to this card) can pass audio over the PCIe connection. So they still need an external sound source but not a connection.MadMan007 - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
Ah yes here we go: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3657...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3657... They support LPCM and lossy digital passthrough but not lossless digital passthrough. I assume that this GPU does as well.uibo - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
Another rebadge? Nothing new here...klatscho - Thursday, January 7, 2010 - link
done already -> GTS260M/GTS360M;see here: http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/03/nvidia-mobi...">http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/03/nvidia-mobi...
wh3resmycar - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
goodness gracious, a 4730 eats this card alive, for breakfast, lunch, dinner etc.Leyawiin - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
An HD 4730 can't beat anything if you can't find one for sale. I dare you to."For the price of the GT 240 it performs too slowly, and for the performance of the GT 240 it costs too much. We cannot under any circumstances recommend buying a GT 240, there are simply better cards out there for the price."
Its faster than an HD 4670, uses less power than a "green" edition 9800 GT, runs cool and quiet and is physically small. A great many pre-built PCs with weak power supplies would benefit not to mention its uses for HTPCs.
KikassAssassin - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
The funny thing about the vendors not wanting to send you cards knowing that they'd get a poor review is that this actually gives me more respect for Asus and EVGA.AznBoi36 - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - link
Not really. ASUS is pretty big, so such a review probably won't change anything. EVGA well, we all know EVGA.The one that pulled out is probably a small, less well known partner. If that is the case, then it's understandable that a low performing product might hurt the brand value in the eyes of (average joe sixpack).