Introduction

We were wondering when Nvidia was going to replace the aging Geforce GT 220 series. Well, it looks like they've done it ... just before the end of the year with their latest release of the Geforce GT 430. This leads us to believe that we'll be seeing something new from Nvidia as early as Q1 2011 ... Geforce 500 series perhaps?

With the release of the Geforce GT 430, NVIDIA is bringing their DX11 GPU to the desktop channel to replace the older Geforce GT 220 series. The Geforce GT 430 is based on the GF108 Fermi GPU, of which a mobile version is already available on many notebooks today. These GPUs are primarily sold through distribution to system integrators and PC builders, which will give them the best-in-class price/performance. Furthermore, according to Nvidia the Geforce GT 430 offers the an all-round integrated graphics solutions, which provides the horsepower needed to power today’s digital media experiences. These include photo and video editing, watching Blu-ray 3D movies, mainstream gaming, and experience the next generation of GPU-accelerated Web browsers. What's more, with the Geforce GT 430 and 3D Vision, you can also experience your HD media in stereoscopic 3D. 

The above information was brought to you by Nvidia and boy! ... don't they make it sound good. In short ... the Geforce GT 430 is a direct replacement for the aging Geforce GT 220, which we all know isn't really up-to-scratch when it comes to some mild 3D gaming. Zotac being one of Nvidia's board/launch partners are among the first to release the Geforce GT 430. Let's see what it's really made of ...

Zotac (the company) is what you would refer to as a 1st-Tier manufacturer. They've been one of Nvidia's graphic board and launch partners for many years, and the two work very closely with each other. So it's only natural for Zotac, to be among the first to release new graphic cards that feature Nvidia's new GPUs. In fact, Zotac have been very busy lately ... not only are they releasing new graphic cards, but also mini PCs and nettops that uses Nvidia's ION graphics platform/chipset. For those who are not familiar with Zotac or their products, here's something taken from their website ...

Today we take a look at the Zotac Geforce GT 430. The card is more or less based on Nvidia's reference design, and features a GPU that's clock at the default speed of 700Mhz, but with only 96 processor cores. It uses a 128-bit memory interface and comes with 1Gb of DDR3 ram, which runs at an effective speed of 1800 MHz (2 x 900Mhz). As with all Geforce 400 series, the GT 430 GPU comes with some of the Nividia's 3D technologies, which includes CUDA, DX11, OpenGL 4.0, PhysX, Nvidia's 3D Vision, as well as HD hardware video decode acceleration. However, there's no support for SLI.

As we've mentioned before, the Geforce GT 430 are primarily sold through distribution to system integrators and PC builders, where profit margins are extremely important. In other words, it's a budget card ... aimed at the lower-end of the market. So with this in mind, don't except mind-blowing graphics performance from the Geforce GT 430. It will interesting to see what kind of performance it will produce during our DX11 tests, and to see where it actually stands in terms of the graphics card market.

We'll be testing the Zotac Geforce GT 430 (1Gb DDR3) on our test rig, which consists of the following ... Intel Core i5 - 650 (LGA 1156), Gigabyte P55 USB3 motherboard, 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer, Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler and a Silverpower 650w power supply. It's the same system we've been using to test all our graphics card.

Right, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the specifications and features of the Zotac Geforce GT 430 (1Gb DDR3) ...

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