NVIDIA Lists New OEM-Only GeForce GT 440 SKU

[btarunr]

NVIDIA slipped in a new OEM-only consumer graphics SKU, the GeForce GT 440. This development closely trails the market-wide launch of the GeForce GT 430, which in turn was an OEM-only SKU earlier. Hence there is some scope for the GT 440 to make a retail appearance soon. The specifications, according to its product page, leads us to believe that this could be a GF106-based SKU, with all 6 of its memory paths used (192-bit), albeit with DDR3. Partners have the option of installing either 1536 MB (1.5 GB) or 3072 MB (3 GB) of memory.

The Fermi-derived GF106 core is configured with 144 CUDA cores, 594 MHz core clock, 1189 MHz CUDA core clock, and either 800 or 900 MHz of DDR3 memory, providing memory bandwidth of up to 43.2 GB/s. The card supports 2-way SLI, its display connectivity consists of one each of DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub. Maximum board power is rated at 56W.

[Jstn7477]

I don't understand why they would put 3GB, or even 1.5GB, of memory on such a weak card. GTX 460 probably blows it out of the water with 1GB. Gotta lure in the Best Buy impulse buyers I suppose (just watch board partners might release GT 440s through retail like G210/GT220 were).

[newtekie1]

That has always been the reasoning behind sticking huge amounts of cheap memory on a low end cards. It gets the suckers that think memory is all that matters on a card, they are the same suckers that think clock speed is all that matters on a processor.

[erocker]

Plus, it reduces the piles of leftover GDDR3 they have laying around.

[blibba]

900mhz of DDR3 memory. Overclocked to 3GB no doubt.

[freaksavior]

zomg now I can run crysis. Finally! thank you nvidia for adding excessive ram to a piece of crap video card

[Completely Bonkers]

With nVidia's new x86 CUDA compilers we MIGHT soon be able to get our favourite application/encoder/video rendering engine running ON THE CARD. How about that? Just need a rudimentary CPU to "host" the parasite.

I do agree though, for most users that is a total memory overkill for a weak card. It could help HD decoding though... decode a few frames in advance and leave it in memory buffers making for a much smoother playback experience... At the moment GPU acceleration is used to *help and assist* in the decode for each frame. With massive amounts of onboard video ram, and the right x86 CUDA compiled media player, you could have the whole file, codec, decoding and media player on the card. "instant" search, frame speedup/slowdown etc.

[[Ion]]

I'd buy one for ~$90 or less, it should do ~10-11k PPD in FAH based on how the GTS450 and GT430 are performing

[Bo$$]

8800gt level dx11 card much?

[Frick]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

That has always been the reasoning behind sticking huge amounts of cheap memory on a low end cards. It gets the suckers that think memory is all that matters on a card, they are the same suckers that think clock speed is all that matters on a processor.

Yes. Suckers. They're not suckers. They're really not.

[zsolt_93]

Oh, not again. Another ruined videocard. This is awesome. 3GB of memory ,even more than the GT420 and even more useless.
And OEM only. Why? Does ATi-AMD have stuff like that, or they sell the lower end ones for OEM? Otherwise it wouldn't be a bad one i think, the GT240 will loose against it.
Just hope some company picks this up and start to sell in retail too with some good GDDR5 memory fitted.

[Cheeseball]

The huge amount of RAM is probably good for running multiple videos at the same time. Running five 1920x1080 (through DXVA of course) videos already strains out my HD 5770.

[Bo$$]

Originally Posted by Cheeseball

The huge amount of RAM is probably good for running multiple videos at the same time. Running five 1920x1080 (through DXVA of course) videos already strains out my HD 5770.

that would be CPU + GPU horsepower rather than VRAM actually

[meirb111]

The gt 240 was weeker then 5670 this card may be little better but i will wait for
the 6670 or what ever rebranding card and choose. For now its oem only so will see

[_JP_]

Nobody noticed it can be SLI'ed to 6GB DDR3 of PURE AWESOMENESS! derp derp derp...

[wolf]

interesting to see a 192-bit memory bus used, Nvidia should get cracking on a fully utilised GF106 already, 24 ROPS, 192-bit GDDR5 and 192 sp's should murder a GTX260 at the appropriate clocks.

[u2konline]

3GB wow.
440's ddr3 should cost 50 bucks period. 2 of those SLI, my guess = 9800GT?

I still await a gddr5 440 or 430.

[niceone]

Originally Posted by zsolt_93

Does ATi-AMD have stuff like that, or they sell the lower end ones for OEM?

AMD doesn't have dedicated card models for OEM markets, but they have "special" editions of their retail cards. They are using ATi's old HyperMemory technology: These cards have some amount of slow memory onboard and then if necessary they can use some of computer's ram for their own usage.

For example this local store is advertising this HP computer with text like:
"HD5450 graphics card with up to 2815MB of memory!!". They have special mention about this computer to be good for gaming. They have small mention that it has 1024MB of memory onboard.

What this advertisement forgets to say is that this memory is GDDR2 and it has 64-bit memory channel. It has whopping 6.4GB/s memory bandwidht. Compare it to current high end models like Geforce 2 Ultra with 7.4GB/s memory bandwidht.

[Red_Machine]

Ah, I have a GF2 Ultra. Excellent card.

[Meizuman]

This is purely for those "high-end gaming" super-mart PC's.