WHAT DO YOU get if you cross Nvidia and 40nm? A stinking mess, with chips delayed from the purported late June to August.
Yes, the soap opera that is Nvidia production took another turn for the sad with the NV216 and 218 are delayed again by about two months. If you were expecting one to help with Carpenter Ant Awareness Week celebrations, don’t wait, plan your party around a different card. The first 40nm chips from Nvidia won’t be on shelves until August.
The NV218 is the smaller of the two, and it will get the brand name GT210. The NV216 will similarly be branded as the GT220. Since both are basically shrinks of the G9x line, the GT2xx series name is about as apt as the GT250. When you don’t have products, spin, spin, spin.
If you are thinking they will be well worth the 10 month delay, prepare to be disappointed. Fast, capable and feature ridden are words that can be used to describe many cards, but not these. The 216 and the 218 are strictly entry level parts.
The GT210 will have 512MB of DDR2 on a 64-bit bus, and the GT220 will have 1GB of DDR2 on a 128-bit bus. The prices from the AIBs will be in the low $30s and mid-$50 range, and end users will end up paying more when distributors and retailers take their cut.
Both cards will only feature DX10, Nvidia can’t even seem to do the extra .1 after more than a year of trying. Luckily, they won’t have to worry about DX11 until 2010, they dodged that technical bullet with their usual flourish.S|A
Charlie Demerjian
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