The remaining two military class components are the Solid Capacitors, and the SSCs. The Solid Capacitors have an aluminum core, and a 10 year lifetime. They will also operate and lower temperatures, with low ESR. Now let's move on to the SSCs. SSC stands for Solid State Choke, and they all have pure iron cores. Unlike ring chokes, the coil of the SSC is completely buried inside the SSC. This prevents any vibrations being generated, plus it means they won't produce any buzzing noises. These chokes have a higher maximum current output, and will better protect you from a power surge. Plus, they were designed for overclocking.
Speaking of overclocking, the N240GT was designed to be overclocked. It actually allows you to control the voltage, which should allow the user to reach higher core clocks. Will get into more detail on this a little later on. For now, let's take a closer look at the card!
After playing around with the Palit GT240, I was a little disappointed when I first saw the MSI N240GT. Not because it was an entirely different card, but because the heat sink did not look impressive at all. This isn't a reason to dislike a video card, so I immediately put that thought aside. The N240GT is roughly the same size as Palit's offering, and uses a nice black PCB. We can also see that the memory modules are all located on the front of the card.
Flipping the card over reveals a rather empty backside. Like the Palit GT240 the N240GT's cooler is mounted to the card via four screws. Unlike the Palit GT240, the N240GT doesn't have a warranty void sticker located on top of one of these screws. This is, once again, an unimportant fact. However, it's nice to see that you can remove the cooler without voiding your warranty.
The N240GT, like all GT240's, was designed with the HTPC user in mind. For this reason it's equipped with three display ports. These include a DVI port, an HDMI port, and a standard VGA port. The three, arguably, most important ports are located on the card itself, so no adapters were included in the packaging. Right above the display ports is the N240GT's rear vent. Usually this is a plain and boring part of a video card. However, MSI decided to make their name part of the vent as well.
The GT240's are able to draw all the power they need straight from your motherboards PCIe slot. The N240GT is no different. The power connector isn't the only thing missing. If you're looking to SLI then the GT240 is not the card for you. However, if you want to use it as a PhysX card then go for it. According to Nvidia a GT240 used as a PhysX card while paired with a GTX275, can increase performance up to 50%.
Scattered around the card are the military class SSCs. There are three in total, and each is conveniently labeled SSC. Removing the N240GT's cooler is extremely easy. Simply unscrew the four screws located on the back of the card, and pull.
 
The MSI N240GT's cooler is extraordinarily basic. It consists of a decent sized chunk of aluminum, and a sexy black fan with the MSI logo. The aluminum is finned in order to provide more surface area. The surface of the cooler is very flat, so it should provide good contact with the GT215 chip. Hopefully this cooler will be able to keep the N240GT nice and cool.
With the cooler removed we can more clearly see the four memory modules. These four modules make up the N240GT's 512MB of GDDR5 memory. Located in the center of these memory modules is the GT215 core. The N240GT's GT215 core is stock clocked at 550MHz. The memory clock is 1800MHz, and the Shader clock comes in at 1340MHz.
Specifications
The GT240 offers PhysX, 3D Vision, and Cuda for around $90. Unlike other Nvidia cards the GT240 has unboard audio, so users looking to use an HDMI cable will not need an SPDIF cable as well. When the GT240 is used as a PhysX card with a GTX 275 games can run up to 50% faster. The GT240 is equipped with a GT215 chip, which is built on a 40nm process and uses 96 Stream Processors. The card is equipped with 512MB of GDDR5 memory on a 128Bit bus.
 
Smallest of The Bunch: 4870 X2, GTX 260, 5750, N250GT
Slightly Different: Palit GT240 Sonic, MSI N240GT
So what does the N240GT offer you, that other GT240's don't? Well for one thing it allows you to increase the voltage. Actually, the N240GT is the first GT240 that supports over voltage. That and it's military class components should make for some great overclockablity.
Box
What would a video card be if it didn't come with a box? Probably a card that got damaged in shipping. For this reason the packaging is important. The MSI N240GT arrived in a slightly smaller box with a picture of a plane on it. The front of the box sported MSI's logo, as well as a few minor specifications of the video card. The MSI N240GT came with a driver CD, a users guide, and a manual.
Overclocking
The N240GT was the funniest card to overclock I've ever used. At first it was a little strenuous, because the card didn't like having the Core Clock increased while the Shader Clock stayed the same. Any increase of the Core Clock by itself, would result in instability. In order to combat this problem, I simply increased them both at the same time. The N240GT allows you to adjust the voltage, so I was expecting some pretty big increases out of it.
I began by overclocking in my usual manner. I would first increase the Core/Shader Clock by an increment of 5, and do a quick run of Crysis to ensure stability. Then I would move on to the memory clock. After a few hours of doing this the N240GT had surpassed the clock speeds, I gained by using the Palit GT240 Sonic. The only thing I thought was strange, was that I didn't need to increase the voltage. I did however, start to notice the frame rates rapidly decreasing. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I increased the voltage. Sure enough the FPS jumped back up.
I continued doing this until I had maxed out the clock speeds in MSI's Afterburner. The voltage was set to +40, and I was still noticing a slight drop in FPS. The FPS I was getting, was more then what I had at stock, but slightly less then what I was getting a few Mhz lower. Instead of reverting back to the clocks that brought more performance, I decided that what I had was good enough, and moved on to the stress testing. In order to ensure that my overclock was stable I ran OCCT for a few hours. Once that had passed, I ran an hour of Furmark and a few runs of 3DMark Vantage. That and my hours of playing Crysis made me decide that the overclock was stable.
So without further adieu, I present you the clock speeds. The Core Clock jumped from 550MHz to a whopping 825MHz. The Memory Clock increased from 1800MHz to 2340MHz, and last but not least. The Shader Clock weighed in at 2010MHz, up from 1340MHz.
Hardware
- CPU: Core I7 920 @ 3.2GHz
- Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum
- Memory: 6GB Mushkin DDR3 1600
- Chasis: Thermaltake Xaser VI
- Video Card: Palit GT240 Sonic
- HardDrive: 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
- CPU Cooler: Water
- OS: Vista Ultimate 64-Bit
Comparison Cards:
- VaporX 5870
- VisionTek HD 4870
- Sapphire HD 5770
- Gigabyte GTS 250 OC
- Leadtek GTX 260 Extreme+
- Gigabyte GTS 250 OC
Software
For the drivers, all the ATI cards used the Catalyst 9.10 drivers, and all the Nvidia cards used Forceware 190.17 drivers.
Benchmarks:
- 3DMark Vantage: This popular synthetic benchmarking program was run in 'Performance' mode, and only the two GPU tests were used.
- Bioshock: For this benchmark, all of the Detail settings were set to 'High'. All of the graphic option switches were set to 'On', with the exception of the following three settings: Vsync, Windowed mode, and Force Global Lighting. We used FRAPS to measure frame rate performance. The FRAPS run was 138 seconds, triggered from pulling the switch in the sub at game's beginning. The sub's dive involves many big models moving around, which should strain the GPUs and be a good measure of the game's engine.
- Resident Evil V: Capcom's latest zombie smasher has a great 'Fixed' in-game benchmark. We ran it at top quality at 2560x1600 in DX10 mode, with and without AA .
- Crysis: Warhead: Games don't get much more demanding than Crysis. We used the 'Gamer' pre-set level of details, which is the middle level setting out of 5 options. We ran the benchmark on the 'avalanche' map, using the FrameBuffer Crysis benchmarking tool, version 0.29, in DX10 mode.
- Far Cry 2: This open-world FPS is great looking game that really puts the strain on a gaming rig. We used the built-in benchmarking tool, and the overall 'Very High' quality setting was used.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum: Gotham's Greatest Detective makes for a good benchmark. We used the in-game bench, running at 2560x1600, with the highest quality settings possible. We chose to only test without AA as there has been some controversy that AA is unnecessarily handicapped in this game for some video cards.
- FTL_Blunderbuss: This is a demoscene demo by the group Fairlight, which came in second in competition in October 2009. It makes very heavy use of particles, and is a good GPU workout. We used FRAPS to measure the average framerates of a run through the program, running at 1680x1050, with 4xAA, and 'high' detail.
- Furmark: This intensive, synthetic benchmark models a ring of fur. We benched at 1680x1050.
- Unreal Tournament 3: We tested the game using a fly-through of the vehicle capture-the-flag map 'Suspense.'ShangriLa (map) running for 90 seconds. Details were set to 'High', and a AF setting of 16x was used.
- World In Conflict: We used the built-in benchmark of the demo version of this game. We ran the benchmark in DX9 rendering mode, with a 'High' level of quality. For the AA testing, we used a setting of 4x, and a setting of 16x for AF.
If you would like any further information about our benchmark settings, feel free to ask us in the forums.
Crysis Warhead is one of the most graphically intensive games on the mainstream market. It's graphically breathtaking, and can bring any system crashing to it's knees.
The N240GT performed slightly under that of the Palit GT240 Sonic. Keep in mind that the Palit card is clocked slightly higher, and has more memory. In other words, it makes sense that the Palit GT240 performs slightly faster.
Bioshock is an older game, but it can still stress the heck out of your hardware. This game combines a thrilling story with beautiful graphics. This combination makes for an overall great benchmark.
Once again the N240GT performed slightly under that of the Palit GT240 Sonic. The frame rates throughout the game were very playable, which just goes to show any GT240 could help make a decent gaming rig.
Far Cry 2 Is another one of those graphically breathtaking games. The only difference is that it depicts the African desert. The intensive graphics can make for a very intensive, and stressful benchmark.
It seems as though we'll have a continuing theme throughout this review. The N240GT performed just a few frames less then the Palit GT240 Sonic. However, in the low resolution the N240GT did have a slight FPS advantage over the Palit card.
Blunderbuss is an odd little demo created by Fairlight. It's an extremely particle heavy benchmark, that features what looks like a flame flying around.
The N240GT performed just slightly under the Palit card in this crazy little benchmark.
Batman: Arkham Aslyum mixes extraordinary visuals with great gameplay, in order to make an excellent benchmark. It's not a stressful as Crysis, but it can still push cards to their limits.
The results for this benchmark were almost unfair. The N240GT lost to the GT240 Sonic by just 1 measly FPS.
World In Conflict comes with a built in benchmark that will stress any system. How does it do this? By using large amounts of smoke effects and bright lights of course!
Once again the N240GT performed just slightly lower then Palit's offering. This of course put it right at the bottom of our charts.
Unreal Tournament 3 is one of the most fast paced shooters I've ever played. It's also graphically stunning. Every single weapon has been designed to the finest of detail. This makes for not only a graphically intensive benchmark, but for a fun one as well.
As much as I'd love to say that the N240GT performed at the top of the charts, I just can't. Instead it once again performed slightly under the Palit GT240 Sonic.
Resident Evil V is the new installment of the Resident Evil series. The game comes with a built in benchmark that features a bunch of zombies walking around the center of a village. Believe it or not this seemingly simple benchmarks can push video cards way out of their comfort zone!
Without AA the N240GT was once again the bottom performer. However, when AA was added to our benchmark the N240GT managed to keep up with the GT240 Sonic.
Furmark is a very interesting synthetic benchmark. It depicts a furry doughnut object spinning around in circles. This does however give very accurate results on your system's performance.
Once again the N240GT was outperformed by Palit's offering. However, it or not it did manage to outperform the GTS 250 when AA was enabled.
H.A.W.X is one of Tom Clancy's newer games. It's also a very detailed flight simulator type game. The jet planes are extremely detailed, and the extensive dogfights make for a very stressful game.
Woot! In the H.A.W.X. Benchmark the N240GT managed to match Palit's offering in performance.
Temperature
To measure core GPU temperature, we used the hardware monitoring program in RivaTuner 2.24. The idle temperature was taken after leaving nothing running, on Vista's desktop, for a minute. The load temperature was taken after a 100,000ms run of Furmark at 1680x1050 with no AA.
I was very impressed with how cool the N240GT ran. After seeing the cooler I wasn't expecting much, but man did it perform. Even with the load temp of 61C it remained the coolest card on the charts. There are of course video cards with custom cooling that will outperform this, but man. Talk about not judging a book by its color. I had no idea that little cooler would work so well.
Conclusion
The N240GT is obviously not an ordinary GT240. I've actually never seen an ordinary GT240. The Palit GT240 Sonic was the only card equipped with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, which made it out of the ordinary. The MSI N240GT uses military class components, and allows you to adjust the voltage. There are only a handful of cards that allow you to do this, so it's obviously something special.
The performance of the N240GT is not super-high up in the charts. In fact, it's at the bottom of the charts. However, in every game, with the exception of Crysis and World In Conflict, the frame rates were very playable. This card could easily be used in a budget gaming build. Or it could be used in a very high end gaming build, only instead of using it as the primary graphics card. You'd be using it as a dedicated PhysX card. According to Nvidia the GT240's can improve game performance up to 50%, when paired with a card such as the GTX 275.
As far as overclockability this card is freaking awesome. The only downside is that you need to adjust the voltage in order to get the most out of your card. The upside to that is that it's extremely easy to increase the voltage. It might seem a little odd to purchase a GT240 to overclock it. However, if you want to overclock a video card just for fun. Pick up the N240GT. I literally spent hours overclocking this baby, and could have spent more if I wanted to farther fine tune things.
As for who I'd recommend this card to, well obviously anyone who wants to overclock a GPU. I'd also recommend this card to someone looking for a budget GPU, or for someone putting together a budget gaming rig. I know many people have a hard time deciding how much GPU power they'll need. So if you're going to be playing older games, or games like Bioshock, UT3, Fallout 3, or even AION, or WoW. You don't need a super powerful video card. A GT240 would suit you just fine, and the N240GT is fun to play with!
Key tags : N GT240, Palit GT240 Sonic, Hi-c CAP, the SSCs, Solid Capacitors, GDDR5, HTPC, PhysX |
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