• Zotac GT220: Graphics Card Review

    Zotac GT220: Graphics Card Review

    Roydon Cerejo, Oct 27, 2009 1815 hrs IST

    Best suited for HTPCs

    Low power consumption, DX10.1, native 8-Channel LPCM audio over HDMI, decent gaming performance

    No DX11 support, Price can be better

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A few weeks back Nvidia launched their first ever 40nm GPUs and for a change they'll be releasing the low end cards first followed by the high-end ones. The two cards launched were the GT220 and the G210, both of which are based on the 40nm version of the GT200 core. Before we go into the features let's just take a look at the specifications of these cards.





Both are entry-level cards that are strictly targeted towards HTPC owners. However, the GT220 is slightly more potent and will probably allow some level of gaming as well. Both these cards share some new features, which again is a first for Nvidia.



  • 40nm fabrication
  • DX10.1/Shader Model 4.0
  • Integrated audio controller for eight channel LPCM audio over HDMI


The DX10.1 addition is a little bit later however its better there than not. The main change is the inclusion of LPCM (Linear pulse code modulation) audio over HDMI, which otherwise wasn't possible. This means no more having to connect a SPDIF cable from your motherboard to the graphics card in order to get audio over HDMI. Also, this allows you to select the LPCM audio stream in BluRay's that give you a higher sampling frequency thereby producing the best sound possible from the BluRay. Incidentally, ATI already had support for this when they launched their 4xxx series cards a year back. Better late than never I guess.



The GT220 that we'll be reviewing today is from Zotac and comes with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. The price of this card puts it directly in competition with the ATI HD4670, which is also based on the 128-bit memory bus. Let's see what Nvidia brings to the table in terms of performance and power consumption.  

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Tag keywords
Zotac GT220 Graphics Card Review DX10.1 40nm GPU G210 ATI HD4670



Discussion Board
(3) Comments
Hariharan
,Mumbai, on Feb 08, 2010 08:38 AM
Beautiful Review. I will be getting this card instead of Ati HD4350
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madnav
,Navi Mumbai, on Oct 30, 2009 10:57 PM
wow... nvidia had launched these cards for OEM in july or something... the only dx10.1 cards from nvidia(even though dx10.1 was not important for nV)... so how exactly HTPC requirements benefit from dx10.1 over dx10 ?!!? (no seriously.. i need to know if it does help) these cards were surely to fool customers into buying nV dx10.1 cards... and 3dmark bundle proves the same lol one of the crappiest conclusions i have seen on techtree the review is an epic phail and looks nothing more than a Zotac Ad
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Sundar
,Chennai, on Oct 27, 2009 07:05 PM
Nvidia is always last but not least, even new DX11 cards from ATI is hardly competing with last generation Green Team cards... come on Nvidia we cant wait so long for Fermis. Prices should be better like paying to a Fermi card not to a Ferrari Car :)
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