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 : Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks
We introduced our HTPC decoding and rendering benchmarks in the ASRock Vision 3D 252B review, and also used it in the 4K decode and display section of this review. In this section, we will look at how the system responds to the various test streams under various renderers and decoders. You can roll the mouse over the various entries in the first / last rows of the table below to compare the resource graphs.
Resource Usage Comparison - Software Decode vs. DXVA2 vs. LAV CUVID / EVR-CP vs. madVR
The GT 640 can be made to effectively work with madVR without issues. Unlike GT 540M, it is not necessary to carefully configure madVR to avoid dropping frames. With the queue sizes at the maximum, we were able to go through our rendering test suite in both full screen exclusive and full screen windowed modes without dropping frames.
Starting with this review, we also want to look at the power consumption profile of the system when subject to the rendering benchmarks.
| Zotac GT 640 HTPC Testbed Power Consumption (W) | ||||
| Idle | 51.4 W | |||
| Benchmark Stream | CUVID | avcodec | ||
| EVR-CP | madVR | EVR-CP | madVR | |
| 480i60 MPEG-2 | 67.5 | 70.9 | 58.9 | 69.3 |
| 576i50 H.264 | 67.5 | 67.1 | 58.8 | 57.7 |
| 720p60 H.264 | 69.9 | 74 | 67.9 | 77.8 |
| 1080i60 H.264 | 74.5 | 77.2 | 80.4 | 83.1 |
| 1080i60 MPEG-2 | 73.9 | 76.2 | 71.6 | 77.7 |
| 1080i60 VC-1 | 73.8 | 77.1 | 80.5 | 84.6 |
| 1080p60 H.264 | 72.7 | 76.3 | 74.3 | 85.7 |
madVR does carry a bit of a power penalty. As expected, software decode is more power efficient for lower resolution streams (up to 720p60) / MPEG-2 encodes. CUVID based hardware decode turns out to be more efficient with the 1080i and 1080p streams. Note that the benchmark streams were played off the local primary hard drive. The power consumption (measured at the wall outlet) also includes the hard drive activity.
As our coverage of the Zotac GT 640's HTPC aspects comes to a close, we would like to underline the fact that it is one of the best HTPC cards available in the market right now if madVR capability is a must.
For the general consumer, Intel's HD 4000 based system should be more than enough. However, in terms of looking into the future as well as current software infrastructure available, it is hard to go wrong with the GT 640. If it were not for the shortcomings of the NVIDIA drivers, we would have had no hesitation in crowning the GT 640 as the next undisputed HTPC king.
We are aware of the fact that AMD 7750 is a competitor to the GT 640 in more ways than one. We already covered AMD 7750's HTPC performance here. However, we will shortly be carrying out a review of the Sapphire Ultimate 7750 passively cooled edition using the same metrics considered in this review and the latest drivers from AMD.
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Joe H - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
This is the type of review that other hardware sites can't even imagine, let alone write. Thanks for putting this and the other HTPC articles together. It's great to see a hardware review site taking HTPC enthusiasts and their needs seriously. Excellent review.n0b0dykn0ws - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
Is there a chance of a follow up once a few driver updates have been released?I would love to see if the card gets even better after a few releases.
I have a Radeon 6570 right now, and I've found it to be palatable for HTPC purposes.
n0b0dykn0ws
Taft12 - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
They haven't done it before, I don't know why they'd start now.Ryan Smith - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
What specifically are you looking for? Gaming performance or HTPC functionality? Gaming performance isn't likely to improve; even with the newer architecture it's not Kepler that's the limiting factor. HTPC functionality on the other hand can easily be improved with drivers.n0b0dykn0ws - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
HTPC only. For gaming I would get a 670.Sometimes drivers break HTPC performance/quality though. At least in the AMD world.
n0b0dykn0ws
Kevin G - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
If they're going to release a DDR3 version, why not just offer a version with no onboard memory and two DIMM slots so that users can add there own? You can get a DDR3-2133 kit which would boost bandwidth limited scenarios by roughly 15%. While I don't see the need, such a card could be upgraded all the way to 16 GB of memory.MrSpadge - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
Sockets- are unconventional (I don't think nVidia likes this word)
- introduce a little cost (GPU manufacturer doesn't like it)
- make the board larger (GPU manufacturer doesn't like it)
- make the bus timing worse, so it's harder to clock them as high as directly soldered chips (wouldn't matter with DDR3, though)
- introduce another point of failure (GPU manufacturer doesn't like higher RAM rates)
- add cost to the overall product, as the end user wouldn't get as sweet a deal on RAM as the GPU manufacturer (this would eat into the GPU manufacturers profit margin)
Stuka87 - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
Sounds like unless temps are really important to you, the 7750-800 is by far the better choice. It outperforms the GT640 (And by a wide margin in some cases) in what looks like, every single test.And they are priced the same, which makes the GT640 kind of worthless for its intended price point.
cjs150 - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
Great review.It is too noisy, and the HDMI socket is an epic design fail. As a card for an HTPC what were Zotac thinking of? This is so badly wrong.
Now onto frame rates. Nvidia, AMD and Intel really are total and utter idiots or they have decided that we the customers are total and utter idiots. There is simply no excuse for all IGPs and video cards not to be able to lock on to the correct frame rate with absolute precision. It is not as though the frame rate specs for film have changed recently. I cannot decide whether it is sloppiness, arrogance or they simply do not give a rats a##e for the customer experience.
Stuka87 - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
God forbid there be a technical reason for it....