Nvidia GeForce GT 640 Review: Cramming Kepler Into GK107

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gondor

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All of the cards we tested are acoustically-tolerable. The Radeon HD 7750 is a little louder than the rest of the pack under load, but it’s not problematic by any stretch.

0.5 dB is "a little louder" ?

Either your noise meter is faulty or you have the best hearing in the world. Normal humans cannot detect 1 dB difference (and most people beyond their teens would struggle or fail with 2 dB as well) yet you managed to somehow notice the 0.5 dB difference ... astounding !
 

ojas

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[citation][nom]rohitbaran[/nom]6770 is slower than 7750. It is also older gen. Why put that?[/citation]
Incorrect, it's the other way around. 6770 is slightly > 7750.

[citation][nom]The Greater Good[/nom]Where the hell is the GTX 660?[/citation]
Check out the specs of the 680M. Likely what the GTX 660/660Ti will look like, if they do it like Fermi.
 

Marcus52

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[citation][nom]gondor[/nom]0.5 dB is "a little louder" ? Either your noise meter is faulty or you have the best hearing in the world. Normal humans cannot detect 1 dB difference (and most people beyond their teens would struggle or fail with 2 dB as well) yet you managed to somehow notice the 0.5 dB difference ... astounding ![/citation]

From experience and reading graphics card reviews over time, I come to the conclusion that the decibel meter doesn't paint a complete picture; it's basically one point of measurement in a sea of sounds. A graphics card might not measure louder, but it could produce a more, or less, irritating noise to a listener, or even a louder sound than what the meter registers.

Any audiophile can tell you sound is a very subjective output form; there is still no real way to tell you what the best speaker, amplifier, or pre-amp is, or source, with measurements taken in the lab. You might (or might not) be entirely accurate in implying he couldn't hear the difference in decibels, but wrong in assuming the cards sound exactly alike with one measuring a practically inconsequential amount louder.

;)
 

wmac

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I am stoned that what have they done to GT640 that with 2 times the cores it is so much slower than GTS450!!! How can this be? Is that just because of the DDR3 RAM?

I was hoping to upgrade my GTS450 and save 50% power but it seems it won't happen.
 

cleeve

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[citation][nom]americanbrian[/nom]Eschew, Don, not askew aux connectors, last page. This has been a friendly reminder from grammar police.[/citation]

Not my fault! The editor added that.

Fixed! :)
 

cleeve

Illustrious
[citation][nom]Marcus52[/nom]From experience and reading graphics card reviews over time, I come to the conclusion that the decibel meter doesn't paint a complete picture; it's basically one point of measurement in a sea of sounds. [/citation]

Exactly.

Not only that, but decibels don't measure pitch; a high pitched fan is much more annoying than a low-frequency noise.
 

SinisterSalad

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[citation][nom]Slomo4shO[/nom]That is rater poor performance at the $100 mark. Just curious to know how well these scale in SLI since its competitor 7750s seem to scale very well![/citation]
If you figure out a way to run two of the 640s or 7750s, let us know. Going to be tricky with no bridge for them. ;)
 
[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]what about the HTPC perspective?[/citation]
The only thing you need to add to the picture for HTPC is if it will play blue ray... and every dedicated GPU made in the last 5-7 years can play blue ray back just fine, and if you have a current gen CPU then the onboard GPU has more than enough power for video playback.

In other words; It is a moot point. If anything can play back video, but other cards that are merely $5 more can knock the socks off this product in other segments, then there is no point in even looking at the 640 until the price comes down a bit. Besides, until there is a fanless passive cooler for the product then there is little point in adding it to an HTPC.
 

cleeve

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[citation][nom]varun706[/nom]If only Nvidia used the GDDR5 memory, the GT 640 woulda totally smoked the 7750.[/citation]

That might be optimistic, there's a huge spread there. Probably around the GTS 450, or between the GTS 450 and the 7750.

But we'll see if they ever make it to market.
 
Its performance is what I consider very basic, but it has power draw and temperature in its favor, even against the 7750 and 6750. So for HTPC and OEM applications this looks to be just as much of a winner as the 6750 is.
 

cleeve

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[citation][nom]yannigr[/nom]384 shaders much slower than the old 192? I love marketing.[/citation]

Not marketing so much as Fermi's architecture is vastly different from Kepler's.

They aren't 1:1 comparable.


 
$100 now days buys a used GTX460/280/285 and sometimes a gtx465/470 which easily leaves this card in the dust. Was it wrong of me to have expected more from it, I don't think so given the specs of the gpu and clocks it should have been at the very least pretty close to the gts450. As for the memory GDDR3 on anything less than 256bit let alone 192 yields very desperate performance results.
 

bardacuda

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[citation][nom]yannigr[/nom]384 shaders much slower than the old 192? I love marketing.[/citation]

[citation][nom]wmac[/nom]I am stoned that what have they done to GT640 that with 2 times the cores it is so much slower than GTS450!!! How can this be? Is that just because of the DDR3 RAM?I was hoping to upgrade my GTS450 and save 50% power but it seems it won't happen.[/citation]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Not marketing so much as Fermi's architecture is vastly different from Kepler's. They aren't 1:1 comparable.[/citation]

Aww...ya beat me to it. :D
 

scrumworks

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What a piece of junk!

Even HD 7750 is more power efficient and you really should stare at idle power consumption and idle temps.

"The Radeon HD 7750 is a little louder than the rest of the pack under load, but it’s not problematic by any stretch." You think!?!? It's half a decibel! Can you hear half a decibel difference? Nicely cut graph from 41dB to 45dB btw. Lying at graphs and puffing nvidia is really the writers forté.

One must be a serious nvidia fan to buy this or a total sucker.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
[citation][nom]scrumworks[/nom]"The Radeon HD 7750 is a little louder than the rest of the pack under load, but it’s not problematic by any stretch." You think!?!? It's half a decibel! Can you hear half a decibel difference?[/citation]

Decibels do not represent frequency, as mentioned in a previous post. High frequency noises are more noticeable than low frequency noises, and the 7750 spins at a high RPM when under full load.

Nevertheless, I made a point of telling people that it's not a big deal, scrum. Not sure why you honed in on it.

[citation][nom]scrumworks[/nom]Nicely cut graph from 41dB to 45dB btw. Lying at graphs and puffing nvidia is really the writers forté.[/citation]

This completely has me baffled. You do understand the concept of ambient noise, right? The ambient noise of my lab is 41 dB. So it represents zero.

As for the top of the graph being 45dB, if I zoomed it in to the 7750's maximum it would make the AMD card look terrible. So I went out of my way to frame the chart in such a way that the top end of the range represents something that would be notably louder, and so that people could see that the 7750 isn't terrible even though its load result is slightly worse.

You interpret this as "lying and puffing Nvidia"?

You're really digging deep to find an anti-AMD conspiracy this time, to the point where all sense has been abandoned and you're actually complaining about me giving the 7750 a break and going out of my way to show it isn't that bad.

Is this honestly the best you can come up with as far as proof of anti-AMD sentiment? I think that's one of the saddest comments you've ever made, really.
 
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