Nvidia GeForce GT 220 512 MB

On the market since October 2009, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 512 MB is an entry level model with no great pretension. The card sits opposite the ATI Radeon HD 5450 in terms of pricing.

Not for gamers!

Like the competitor from ATI, you shouldn't expect to do much gaming with the GT220. Throughput in recent games is so weak that you have to lower all graphics settings to a minimum to hope to have a fluid display. In spite of everything however it does give slightly better performance than the HD 5450 at 1280 x 1024 pixels.

You can find all our readings in the graphics card face-off. And while there's not much point bothering with recent games, the card will handle titles such as Counter Strike Source or Team Fortress 2 - you do still need to lower your graphics settings. Note that the card is not DirectX 11 compatible, just DirectX 10.1.

Energy consumption: not as impressive as the competition

The GT 220 isn't without interest. In particular it'll take the load off a lower end processor or one that you're asking too much of during playback of HD films. It isn't however perfect for your home cinema PC. We were disappointed with its power consumption that is higher than for the Radeon HD 5450. In standby, the GeForce is at 113W as against 72W on the competition.

This graphics processor can be found in various makes of card, some of which are at full height, while others, much more expensive, are in "low profile" format. If you're looking to put it in a home cinema PC, you'll probably want to go for a large casing, which isn't necessarily compatible with such usage.