Nvidia GeForce GT 640 Review: Cramming Kepler Into GK107

By Don Woligroski
published

Afox sent us its rendition of the new GeForce GT 640, based on Nvidia's GK107 GPU. This one slots in under the existing GeForce GTS 450 to do battle with AMD's Radeon HD 6670. Does the Kepler architecture deliver, or is a $100 price target too high?

Benchmark Results: Aliens Vs. Predator

Aliens Vs. Predator isn’t cutting-edge any more, but we still like to include it as an example of a GPU-bound game that generally isn’t affected by the rest of the platform.

Charting frame rate over time gets messy as a result of the way AvP’s benchmark captures data. We do see a few events that warrant mention, though. For example, the Radeon cards achieve more consistent performance, while the GeForce-based boards fluctuate a lot more. We also see that the minimum frame rates on the minimum/average chart don’t tell the full story, since most of the graphics cards drop performance for only a short moment at the start of the benchmark.

At any rate, Nvidia’s GeForce GT 640 DDR3 doesn’t perform that well at 1680x1050 and above, dropping below 30 FPS for a significant portion of the test. The Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5 handles this game better, although we think we’d recommend 1280x1024 for smoother performance. At 1920x1080, only the Radeon HD 7750, 6750, and GeForce GTS 450 stay above 30 FPS for the vast majority of the test.

Don Woligroski
116 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Would like to see a GDDR5 version of this card. Be interesting to see the performance difference.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    At least we now have a card from Nvidia that can be called min gaming card and be installed on machines with low power PSU's.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Darn... nVidia, step up the game in this segment!

    This doesn't even get close to the card placed just 10 bucks above.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    The DDR3 is without a doubt holding this card back. With a maximum memory bandwidth of just 28.5 GBps I'm surprised the card performed as well as it did. I'm just not sure what Nvidia was thinking. At 900MHz, GK107 would probably be capable of easily outperforming the GTS450. Was it cost savings, or perhaps a TDP limitation that made them choose DDR3 over GDDR5? If keeping below a 75W TDP was the problem, why not just use 1GB GDDR5 instead? Or even slightly lower the core clock if necessary? It probably still would've resulted in better performance.
    Reply
  • Onus
    Almost, nVidia, almost!
    1. With the GT440 and GT240 offering it, I can't believe someone won't quickly release a GDDR5 version. With such an obvious improvement that would be, it does not bode well for yields or other costs that DDR3 had to be used, and the card still has a $100 initial price. Can it come down to where it needs to be without becoming a "loss-leader?"
    2. Pretty decent settings were used in the charts. Considering how good most modern games look even cut down to "medium" settings, that HD7750 at or near the top of the charts makes people who insist you need a $300 graphics card to play games look silly. This makes me wonder all the more what this new card could do with GDDR5, assuming it's economically feasible. Of course if it isn't, then this card simply loses except in that niche market that wants to run three monitors.
    3. I think the word you were looking for in reference to the absence of a PCIE power connector is "eschew."
    4. Interesting, I noted that the box image is of a Seraphim from the game Sacred 2. Might that game be included with the card, is it meant to advertise that the card supports PhysX (which Sacred 2 will use), or is there a copyright lawsuit on the way?
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    If this card retails for the $100 this article is implying then its a really tough sell. The 7750 outperforms the 640 in every way except loaded power consumption and for a meager $10 more....
    Reply
  • cumi2k4
    where's the 6770 in this benchmark?
    Reply
  • bin1127
    wow... is this card going to sell for $75?

    I think nvidia doesn't want to kill amd outright and comes up with these really bad products.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    cumi2k4where's the 6770 in this benchmark?6770 is slower than 7750. It is also older gen. Why put that?
    Reply
  • songorocosongo
    As always Nvidia only makes good products for the high-end market and forgets about low-end or just makes crappy ones. This shouldn't surprise anyone
    Reply