GT 430 appears at retailers ahead of launch date

by Pete Mason on 4 October 2010, 10:24

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Galaxy

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The focus may have shifted to AMD recently, but that doesn't mean that all is quiet in NVIDIA's camp. The graphics-card maker has plans to continue fleshing out its low-end offerings with new Fermi-based cards, and it looks like a few have already appeared at retailers.

The GT 430 is set to launch later this month to replace the ageing GTS 250 in the entry-level arena. Based on the same GF106 architecture as the GTS 450, the GPU will be clocked at 700MHz, while the 96 CUDA cores will tick along at 1,400MHz. The cards will most likely be equipped with 1GB DDR3 set to 800MHz over a 128-bit bus, though there are rumours of a GDDR5 version as well. As for outputs, the GT 430 will have the normal trio of DVI, HDMI and VGA on board.

The first appearance was reported on the EVGA forums where a Best Buy employee received a shipment that was immediately put on display, despite an October 10 release date. Shortly afterwards, a poster on the same forum reported buying a Galaxy branded card from a San Francisco Best Buy for $110 (£86 inc VAT).

Meanwhile, a similar card from Gigabyte has shown up at a Austrian e-tailer. While details are slim, the basic specs seem to line-up with what we already know about the card. The model is listed as an overclocked variant, though frequencies aren't given, meaning that we don't have any indication how hard the GPU has been pushed. Interestingly, this model has a sticker price of only €72.62 inc VAT (£63), which is significantly less than the Best Buy cards. However, retail prices are usually a lot higher than specialist e-tailers, so this shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Based on these appearances, it looks like the GT 430 is well on its way to a full retail-release very soon. We'll be sure to bring you the full details as soon as we get one of the GPUs on our test bench.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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The GT 430 is set to launch later this month to replace the ageing GTS 250 in the entry-level arena.

Seems unlikely: the GTS250 (aka 9800GTX++ ;) ) is a solidly mid-range card that - game and IQ settings dependant - can stay within touching distance of the 5750 (according to the Hexus 5750 review!). If the GT430 is to the GTS450 what the 5670 is to the 5770 (i.e. half the shaders but the same basic back end) then it's going to be replacing the GT240 (and frankly it's going to struggle to outperform the 5670).
scaryjim
Seems unlikely: the GTS250 (aka 9800GTX++ ;) ) is a solidly mid-range card that - game and IQ settings dependant - can stay within touching distance of the 5750 (according to the Hexus 5750 review!). If the GT430 is to the GTS450 what the 5670 is to the 5770 (i.e. half the shaders but the same basic back end) then it's going to be replacing the GT240 (and frankly it's going to struggle to outperform the 5670).

Exactly my thoughts, I think this is to replace the 240 rather than 250.

96 shaders ought to complete with a 5670 I'd have thought, the 192 in the 450 competes with the 720-800 in the 5750/5770, with roughly 4 times as many, therefore scaling down a 96 shader should compete nicely with a 320-400 shader AMD card depending on the clocks of both.
You guys are probably right, but we'll see. Different architecture may give it a bigger boost than shader numbers alone would suggest.

Personally, I just think they need to send the G92b out to pasture. Sure, it was a good part, but NVIDIA has milked it for all its worth. When did it originally launch…2007 as the G92? That's about 4000 GPU-years ago!
its allready been seen with the GTS450 how scaling downwards is `working` - so as mentioned above we have a good indication of how this will perform , and ofc dont forget the GT420 OEM card , comparable to a 5550
kingpotnoodle
96 shaders ought to complete with a 5670 I'd have thought, the 192 in the 450 competes with the 720-800 in the 5750/5770

My main concern is bandwidth. If they do a GT430 GDDR5 then it should give a 5670 a good run for its money (remember the 5670 has the same 128bit DDR5 memory as the 57x0, giving it oodles of bandwidth spare). If they stick to a DDR3 version only, I think it's going to end up bandwidth bottlenecked and it will be nearer the 5570 than 5670…