14 DAY TRIAL // The new graphics card that NVIDIA released, the GeForce GT 740, is officially a low-end(ish) board, but it's more like a mid-range adapter because there are no entry-level add-in cards anymore.
After all, that area is covered by the integrated processors and GPUs in Intel CPUs and AMD APUs. Add-in cards have to be significantly better than them.
Anyway, PNY, one of NVIDIA's many OEMs, has introduced its own version of the card, one that has a low-profile PCB (printed circuit board).
That means that the card is half the height of the normal board, making it even better suited for HTPCs and nettops than the original.
Not that there are many nettops and other mini PCs with PCI Express video slots, but it's nice to know the option is there.
It's a good thing there seem to be so many mini-ITX mainboards with PCI Express3.0 x16 slots these days.
In PNY's press release, the GeForce GT 740 is described as 9 times faster than integrated graphics in web browsing, and with 4X better game speed.
There's no indication of which integrated graphics are being referred to though. Not that it's hard to infer. Since some AMD APUs actually have mid-range Radeon 7000 or 8000 GPUs, they can probably match the GT 740. Thus, the comparison must imply the Intel HD iGP series.
It's a pretty ironic twist really. Intel's iGPs are the weakest, but all its consumer CPUs have them, which usually puts Intel in the lead in terms of graphics sales.
But we digress. The PNY GeForce GT 740 graphics card has a Kepler graphics processing unit, a GK107 to be precise, with 384 CUDA cores. The core frequency is of 993 MHz, and the memory interface is of 128 bits.
Unfortunately, the 1 GB of memory is not GDDR5 like on the standard board, or most of the OEM cards unveiled so far.
Instead, it's DDR3 clocked at 1,728 MHz. Quite a bit behind the 5 GHz of the reference adapter, but at least it ensures a much lower price: £69 / €84.90 / $115.74 (the others ship for 10-20 more than that).
Finally, for connectivity to any monitor or TV set, the PNY GeForce GT 740 video card has DVI, VGA and HDMI connectors.
"As PC multimedia becomes increasingly visually demanding, it is more important than ever before for consumers to choose the right graphics card to fully enjoy their media content. The PNY GeForce GT 740 is an ideal solution, providing improved performance for multimedia consumption of every kind and real value for entry-level consumers," said Pauline Monin, PC Components Product Manager for PNY EMEA.