NVIDIA has the launch of its GeForce GT 220 graphics processor lined up for next week. Aimed to be a sub-$100 lower-mainstream offering, the GPU is one of NVIDIA's first GPUs to be built on the 40 nm manufacturing technology, which [finally] include DirectX 10.1 support. MSI already has a factory-overclocked graphics card based on the GPU, the MSI N220GT-MD1G-OC. Powered by the GeForce GT 220, it packs 48 shader processors, 1 GB of GDDR3 memory across a 128-bit wide interface, and connectivity that includes DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. While the overclocked speeds isn't known as yet, expect it to be over GeForce GT 220's reference speeds of around 615/1335/1580 MHz (core/shader/memory). The card draws all its power from the PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot, and uses a simple heatsink with spirally-projecting aluminum fins and a fan, to cool the GPU, and the memory surrounding it. It is expected to be priced under 80 EUR.