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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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.