Introduction

Currently NVIDIA is releasing new versions of their lower end graphics card series. All new cards are based on NVIDIA's first 40 nm graphics processors. The GeForce GT 220 uses the GT216 GPU, while the G 210 uses the GT218 processor. This week marks the release of the GeForce GT 240 - NVIDIA's first GDDR5 memory card. It uses the GT215 GPU which is made in a 40 nm process at TSMC Taiwan. While the G 210 and GT 220 were positioned in the low-end segment, the GT 240 will offer performance similar to the GeForce 9600 GT, yet considerably below the aging GeForce 9800 GT.

NVIDIA lets partners build a wide range of different configurations, 512 MB or 1 GB of memory, GDDR3 or GDDR5, choice of DVI, VGA, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. Axle has designed their own PCB and uses a custom cooling solution on their Axle GeForce GT 240 Sonic. In addition to that the card uses 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. The clock speeds are unchanged from NVIDIA's reference design with 550 / 1700 MHz.