Obviously, it's becoming costly to release products with GDDR3 memory. It's high time to move on to GDDR5 that allows reducing the bus down to good old (and cheap) 128 bits, leaving the bandwidth high enough.

Thus, they made the new GeForce GT 240 GPU that has a smaller core and reduced power consumption thanks to the 40nm process technology. While it has the same 96 stream processors as GeForce 9600/9600 GSO, it has fewer texture processors and ROPs, as well as the narrower 128-bit bus that works with GDDR5 memory (though GDDR3 is still supported as well).

But you can't say that NVIDIA just renewed the 9600 GPU to sell it as something new. GT 240 has new features as well, including the fully-fledged support for CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision. Although these are probably not as critical for a card priced $99.

Most importantly, there is finally something to replace the obsolete 9600 GT in the same price range. Unfortunately, that's it for the innovations. The GPU doesn't support DirectX 11, only 10.1 (which has been supported by RADEON HD 4670 for a long time). So the novelty will have a hard time competing with products like RADEON HD 5750, if the price of the latter drops down to that of GT 240.

In this review we examined three cards with GDDR5 memory. Though initially we may only see GDDR3-equipped products (with reduced throughput) on the shelves, because NVIDIA partners are having certain issues pairing GT215 with GDDR5. It will take some time to solve them, so you should expect GT 240-based cards with GDDR5 memory a bit later. As for the reviewed cards, all of them are samples that have those memory issues fixed manually.

Card design

Inno3D GeForce GT 240 512MB
GPU: GeForce GT 240 (GT215) Interface: PCI Express x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/Shaders): 550/1340 MHz (nominal) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 850 (3400) MHz (nominal) Memory bus: 128-bit Vertex processors: - Pixel processors: - Unified processors: 96 Texture processors: 16 ROPs: 8 Dimensions: 190x100x33 mm PCB color: green RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU Outputs: DVI (Dual-Link), VGA, HDMI VIVO: n/a TV-out: n/a Multi-GPU support: Software SLI
Palit GeForce GT 240 Sonic 1024MB
GPU: GeForce GT 240 (GT215) Interface: PCI Express x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/Shaders): 585/1418 MHz (nominal: 550/1340 MHz) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 945 (3780) MHz (nominal: 850 (3400) MHz) Memory bus: 128-bit Vertex processors: - Pixel processors: - Unified processors: 96 Texture processors: 32 ROPs: 12 Dimensions: 190x100x33 mm PCB color: red RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU Outputs: DVI (Dual-Link), VGA, HDMI VIVO: n/a TV-out: n/a Multi-GPU support: Software SLI
Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition 512MB
GPU: GeForce GT 240 (GT215) Interface: PCI Express x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/Shaders): 585/1418 MHz (nominal: 550/1340 MHz) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 945 (3780) MHz (nominal: 850 (3400) MHz) Memory bus: 128-bit Vertex processors: - Pixel processors: - Unified processors: 96 Texture processors: 32 ROPs: 12 Dimensions: 190x100x33 mm PCB color: red RAMDACs/TDMS: integrated into GPU Outputs: DVI (Dual-Link), VGA, HDMI VIVO: n/a TV-out: n/a Multi-GPU support: Software SLI

Inno3D GeForce GT 240 512MB
The card has 512 MB GDDR5 SDRAM in 4 Samsung memory chips on the front side of the PCB; 1000 (4000) MHz peak clock rate.
Palit GeForce GT 240 Sonic 1024MB
The card has 1024 MB GDDR5 SDRAM in 8 Samsung memory chips on both sides of the PCB; 1000 (4000) MHz peak clock rate.
Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition 512MB
The card has 512 MB GDDR5 SDRAM in 4 Samsung memory chips on the front side of the PCB; 1000 (4000) MHz peak clock rate.

Comparison with the reference design, front view
Palit GeForce GT 240 Sonic 1024MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Inno3D GeForce GT 240 512MB
Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition 512MB

Comparison with the reference design, rear view
Palit GeForce GT 240 Sonic 1024MB	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Inno3D GeForce GT 240 512MB
Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition 512MB

All these solutions have rather simple design, thanks to the 128-bit memory bus.

These graphics cards feature audio codecs, so nothing else it required to transmit audio to HDMI. Actually, this is another difference from the previous series.

Note that these cards do not require external power.

Maximum resolutions and frequencies:

• 240 Hz maximum refresh rate
• 2048 x 1536 x 32bit @ 85Hz Max -- analog interface
• 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max -- digital interface (Dual-Link DVI/HDMI)

As for the HDTV support, a review is available here.