Palit GT 240 Sonic Review - PAGE 1

Palit GT240

Nvidia is known for being at the top of the high end GPU market. When a new card from Nvidia is released we think of some high performance beast that will kick its' competitors to the curb. What we don't realize is that new GPU's don't have to perform at the top of the charts. In fact, many users don't need the performance current video cards offer. Instead they just need something that will aid in decoding HD video, or a card to help boost performance in WoW. Plus, how often do you see a high end card in a mainstream Dell or Gateway computer?

The GT240 is supposed to perform about the same as a 9600GT. So why should anyone want the GT240? Well for one thing it's better then integrated graphics. Plus, you'll be able to utilize PhysX and 3Dvision for around $90. Users that use their computer for HD playback,  a GT240 could yield some huge advantages. Why? Because the GT240 can use its' 96 cores to accelerate HD playback. Believe it or not, the GT240 can also help out the enthusiast. How so? According to Nvidia games can run 50% faster when a GT240 is used as a dedicated PhysX card, paired with something like a GTX 275.

The 512MB version of the GT240 is set to perform about the same as a 9600GT. This of course sounds redundant, and it would have been redundant. Except Palit was reportedly able to do something that other manufacturers were not. This was of course to get 1GB of GDDR5 working in their version of the GT240. Well one of their versions that is, and it is of course the GT240 Sonic edition. This card is supposed to perform 10% better then the default version, which would put it somewhere around the performance of a 9800GT.

So just how well will the GT240 Sonic edition perform? Read on and let's find out.