Nvidia Geforce 240 GT graphics card

[mikkh]

I was given an Nvidia 210 and I knew it was the lowest of the low budget cards, but I thought it might replace my ancient Radeon HD 5450
It's basically as bad as I thought, but it got me wondering what other cheap card I could use instead. After a bit of research I decided the 240 model would fit the bill for my limited gaming needs

My research revealed there could be a hidden gem or two in the 240 range with some having DDR5 RAM and double the graphics power in effect

A lot of these lower end cards come with passive cooling (no fan, just a much bigger heatsink to compensate) and I'm not really a fan (no pun intended) of them because they generate a lot of heat
So when I found an XFX version with an oversized fan and DDR5 RAM, I thought I'm having that. It was on Ebay for 29.99 or make an offer, so I made an offer of 25 and it was accepted

Just fitted it and downloaded the latest drivers and then set out to find out how good (or bad) it was.
First test was the Windows Experience Index, it's pretty basic but gives a general idea and in the important area of graphics it previously had scores of 4.1 (aero graphics) and 5.2 (3D graphics) with my old HD 5450 card

I was pleasantly surprised to see that rise to 6.8 in both categories, more than surprised actually because 7.9 is the highest score possible.

It plays my Facebook and Bluestacks games effortlessly as the numbers would suggest and I know it outperforms any modern budget card in the sub 50 bracket, so I'm pretty pleased

It also highlights what I think is basically fraud in the graphics card market - a mid range card of years ago (like this 240) will always perform better than a brand new cheap card

[jojo]

mikkh. Have a look at what this guy does.

He is right up your street.

[elvis]

H! Jojo,

Some will go to any lengths for a quiet Computer i did it was costing me a fortune i now stick with my Laptop it's quiet

I now have box’s of PC stuff i don't want

[jojo]

Agreed. But like most very clever people, Perks is a bit of a fanatic.

Notice how clean and tidy his house is?

But his videos are all interesting and he knows his stuff. Many of his projects are really quite fascinating. Computer, Lighting, sound and so on.

Personally, I would never do what he has done here, but it does show that these cards are not necessarily the autonomous entities we have come to assume. Some video card fans are tine and make a lot of noise. We don't have to put up with it and these sort of videos suggest ways we can deal with things.

For my won part, I got water cooling for my CPU when I bought this PC. Cost 100 bucks or so and made a terrible noise that annoyed even me. I now use a stack with a fan, bought for less than £20 and the temps are fine.

[elvis]