Zotac GeForce GT 640 DDR3 Review: Glacial Gaming & Heavenly HTPC
by Ryan Smith & Ganesh T S on June 20, 2012 12:00 PM ESTHTPC Aspects : Custom Refresh Rates
AMD and Intel GPUs don't offer the end users an easy way to create custom refresh rates for their displays. While Intel does offer a control panel for custom timings, it is heavily tied to the EDID, rendering it unusable for the most part. On the other hand, AMD GPUs have had a history of being close to the desired refresh rates out of the box. NVIDIA's GPUs have always needed some tweaking, and the Zotac GT 640 is no different.
As we have recounted in earlier HTPC reviews, a GPU should ideally be capable of the following refresh rates at the minimum:
- 23.976 Hz
- 24 Hz
- 25 Hz
- 29.97 Hz
- 30 Hz
- 50 Hz
- 59.94 Hz
- 60 Hz
Some users demand integral multiples of 23.976 / 24 Hz because they result in a smoother desktop experience, while also making sure that the source and display refresh rates are still matched without repeated or dropped frames. The gallery below shows the refresh rate handling for 24, 25 (x2 = 50 Hz), 29.97 (x2 = 59.94 Hz), 30 (x2 = 60 Hz), 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz settings.
The native 23 Hz setting, unfortunately, resulted in a 23.9724 Hz refresh rate.
However, with some custom timing setup, we were able to achieve 23.97622 Hz, which is off by just 0.000196 Hz. In my experience, this is the closest to the optimum refresh rate that I have ever achieved with a NVIDIA card.
The custom timing feature is usable, but not without its quirks. Adding a custom resolution is straightforward. Setting the vertical parameters to values similar to the ones in the screenshot above achieves desired results, but the 23 Hz resolution gets saved as 24 Hz. We already pointed out the details in our review of the GT 540M in the ASRock Vision 3D 252B. We hope NVIDIA fixes this annoying issue in one of the upcoming driver releases.
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saturn85 - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
great folding@home benchmark.kallogan - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
WORST GPU EVERdertechie - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Here's hoping DDR4 is cheap and cheery enough for low end cards when it comes out, because this is ridiculous. We have here a card with 50% more shader horsepower than an 8800 Ultra, and 70% less memory bandwidth. Way to ruin a perfectly good GPU by not shipping with real memory.My old 7900 GS had more memory bandwidth than this. . . in 2006.
skgiven - Saturday, June 23, 2012 - link
At GPUGRID the CUDA4.2 crunching performance of the GT 640 matches that of a GTX460.65W TDP vs 150W TDP.
The low running cost, no high end PSU, or 6-pin power cable requirements make it a good entry card for crunchers.
The 950MHz GDDR5 version (75W TDP) and the 797MHz DDR3 (50W) TDP versions should also perform well.
anac6767 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
A video card with a fan on it has no place in a modern HTPC... we're well past that. You might as well order a full tower (80's off white) ATX case and corded peripherals to go along with your noisy card.infoilrator - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Not appealing at this price.FWIW department, mITX motherboards taking single slot cards are maybe due for an upgrade.
Maybe a motherboard could mount connectors sideways to allow fitting a two slot card.
Maybe mITX cases could come with provision for two slot cards.
If the numbers are right AMD Llano/Trinity and Intel IVB HD4000 make more sense than adding a $100 discrete card with limited capabilities. At least at the moment.
I am seeing AMD Llano 3850/ A75 Combinations for $150 in mATX. Better, even though I find FM1 limiting.
Contemplating an FM1 or FM2 such a build in a couple months. Unless I go after more GPU power.
? still new at these decisions.
Felip3 - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
Look what I found ...http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=886&...
xeizo - Friday, July 27, 2012 - link
That's old Fermi and not new Kepler, rather uninteresting even though it sure is gddr5, a passive GT640 with gddr5 would be interesting but seems nonexistent. Too bad!stanislav_kosev - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link
I love me some painfully slow gaming! http://www.insightvision.biz/cd-dvd-packagingMontmac - Friday, March 1, 2013 - link
Don't expect Zotac to admit this when you call them to try and get a replacement card. One of the high ups told me they had never heard of this problem.However another in tech support told me he had and will be sending me a call tag to get the card I just bought replaced.
It has taken almost 4 weeks to get this accomplished. I'm not very impressed with Zotac at all.
When a company manufactures something wrong it shouldn't be a problem getting an exchange but it's not the case with them.