14 DAY TRIAL // If you have set your mind on building one of those small-sized home-theater PCs, graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA might have something for you, coming in the form of two new NVIDIA-based video cards, specifically designed to fit the tight space in HTPCs. The two new low-profile cards are based on the company's GeForce 9500 GT and GeForce 9400 GT, offering performance in a smaller package, suitable for low-end, small-sized computer systems, or HTPCs.
HTPCs are generally built inside low-profile chassis, which means that the components used for said systems are also required to boast a small form factor. This is where Galaxy's latest graphics cards come into play, providing users with a choice for an NVIDIA GeForce GPU inside their own low-profile entertainment-ready computer systems.
As you might expect, the cards aren't all that different from their reference models, aside from a smaller PC and a custom cooling solution. Both the GeForce 9400 GT and the GeForce 9500 GT have been featured with a total of 512MB of DDR2 memory and provide a clock speed of 550MHz. There are 32 shader processors on these cards, clocked at 1375MHz, while the memory is clocked at 800MHz on a 128-bit interface. As far as connectivity goes, these cards provide a D-Sub, DVI and TV-out connector.
In addition to the aforementioned specifications, users will be able to take advantage of some of the features generally available for NVIDIA-based cards. More specifically, these new ones support Microsoft's DirectX 10 and OpenGL 2.1 API and NVIDIA's PureVideo technology, for a true HD experience.
Unfortunately, the company is yet to disclose the details regarding the cards' pricing and availability, but you should be able to find them in stores in the next couple of weeks.