Recently Nvidia released the GeForce GT 220 codename “GT216”, which was to be their first ultra affordable GeForce 200 series graphics card. With an average price tag of $70 US, the GeForce GT 220 got the affordable part right, but how does it deliver in terms of performance?

With a core configuration that is around 4x less complex than the GeForce GTX 260, we are not expecting much, and the 128-bit memory bus means that the GeForce GT 220 is limited to a maximum bandwidth of just 25.3GB/s for cards sporting the more modern DDR3 memory, while some will feature cheaper DDR2 memory limiting them to just 16GB/s.

In comparison, a graphics card such as the GeForce GTX 260 has a memory bandwidth of 111.9GB/s, though you can expect to pay around $100 US more for this product. On the other side of the fence we have the Radeon HD 4650 and 4670 graphics cards, priced at $50 and $65 for the 512MB versions, while the 1GB cards cost around $10 more on average.

So then in terms of pricing it is far to say that the newly released GeForce GT 220 is going head to head with the old Radeon HD 4670 which was released a little over a year ago now. Given the age difference, one could be mistaken for thinking that the GeForce GT 220 would wipe the floor with the much older Radeon HD 4670 graphics card. Today we are going to find out if this is true.

Representing the new GeForce GT 220 we have a version from Inno3D and an overclocked card from Galaxy. Then for our Radeon graphics cards we have a HIS Radeon HD 4670 with 512MB of memory and a Gigabyte Radeon HD 4650 with a 1GB memory buffer, neither card featured factory overclocking.

Although we do not consider sub-$80 US graphics cards to be ideal gaming solutions, they will provide those on a tight budget with a means to play their favorite games. That said, even when spending such a small amount of money on a graphics card, you want to make sure you are getting the best value for your money, and we are hopefully going to help you do that.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - HIS Radeon HD 4670 (512MB) 750/1000MHz - Gigabyte Radeon HD 4650 (1GB) 600/700MHz - Inno3D GeForce GT 220 (1GB) 625/1580MHz (DDR3) - Galaxy GeForce GT 220 (1GB) 660/1600MHz (DDR3) - ASUS P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 191.07 - ATI Catalyst 9.10

The Inno3D GeForce GT 220 scored 29% higher than the Radeon HD 4650 in 3Dmark Vantage at 1920x1200, giving it a clear performance advantage in this benchmark. However that said, the GeForce GT 220 was also 21% slower than the Radeon HD 4670, which delivered our best score of 1787pts at 1920x1200.

Interestingly when testing with Batman Arkham Asylum the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 was just 7% faster than the Radeon HD 4650, while it was 36% slower than the Radeon HD 4670. With an impressive 74fps on average at 1920x1200, the Radeon HD 4670 smashed even the overclocked Galaxy GeForce GT 220 graphics card with ease.

Again the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 struggles to shake the Radeon HD 4650, with both averaging 34fps at 1920x1200 in Company of Heroes. This meant that the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 was 31% slower than the Radeon HD 4670, which again wins by a significant performance margin.

Far Cry 2 was tested using maximum in-game quality settings with AA/AF disabled. This really hurt the performance at 1920x1200 and in fact even at 1280x800 these graphics cards struggled to deliver playable performance. At 1280x800 the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 averaged 25fps, making it just a single frame faster than the Radeon HD 4650. On the other hand the Radeon HD 4670 was 52% faster than the Inno3D GeForce GT 220.

The Left 4 Dead performance was more respectable, though the 1920x1200 resolution again presented problems for most of the cards. The Inno3D GeForce GT 220 was limited to 33fps, matching the Radeon HD 4650. On the other hand the Radeon HD 4670 was an impressive 58% faster than the Inno3D GeForce GT 220, as it clearly dominates yet another test.

The GeForce GT 220 graphics cards performed much better in Street Fighter IV, as they left the Radeon HD 4650 well behind for the first time. The Inno3D GeForce GT 220 beat the Radeon HD 4650 by a 39% margin at 1920x1200. However that was not enough to see it catch the Radeon HD 4670, which was still 14% faster.

The Inno3D GeForce GT 220 struggles once again, this time with S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, where it manages just 24fps at 1680x1050 using medium quality in-game settings. This made the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 just 2fps or 9% faster than the Radeon HD 4650. On the other hand, it was 12fps slower than the Radeon HD 4670, which equates to a 33% performance margin.

Like Street Fighter IV, we see that when testing with Wolfenstein the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 has a definite advantage over the Radeon HD 4650, as it beats it by a 50% margin at 1920x1200. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 4670 was just 11% faster than the Inno3D GeForce GT 220, and although the margin has been heavily reduced, this is yet another win for the Radeon.

The only real advantage the new GeForce GT 220 graphics cards have over the older Radeon HD 4670 is their 40nm design opposed to the larger 55nm design of the Radeons. This means that when placed under full load the GeForce GT 220 will consume around 27% less power when compared to the Radeon HD 4670. When compared to the slower Radeon HD 4650, the GeForce GT 220 uses around 14% less power.

Consequently the extra power required by the Radeon HD 4670 also means that the GeForce GT 220 does run cooler, around 27% cooler based on our findings. This also allows graphics card makers to build slightly quieter GeForce GT 220 graphics cards.

However having said that, consuming 27% less power is not going to earn Nvidia any bragging rights, as they were consistently over 27% slower than the Radeon HD 4670. So all things being even, we feel that there is really very little difference between the operating efficiency of the Radeon HD 4670 and GeForce GT 220 graphics cards.

In terms of performance the Radeon HD 4670 easily outclasses the GeForce GT 220, and again it delivered considerably more performance in five of the seven games tested. Furthermore, out of the seven games tested the Radeon HD 4670 was superior in every single one of them at all three tested resolutions.

Looking at the pricing on line we found that the average price of a GeForce GT 220 graphics card was $70 US, while the Radeon HD 4670 was slightly cheaper at $65 US. Furthermore, the Radeon HD 4650, which was able to match the performance of the GeForce GT 220 in five of the seven games, weighs in at just $50 US, making it almost 30% cheaper.

The much newer GeForce GT 220 fails to deliver any new features that are not present on the Radeon HD 4670, and both products support DirectX 10.1, though having said that neither would be powerful enough to take advantage of DX11 anyway. Therefore, in short your best option within an $80 US graphics card budget is without a doubt still the Radeon HD 4670.

Reviewed By Steven Walton