Final Words & Conclusion
The Verdict
Alrighty, conclusion time. Both the GT 210 and GT220 are sufficiently enough cards for normal desktop usage. The GeForce GT 210 however is extremely stripped down and should be used for very generic PC usage (desktop work) only; you can also decode and accelerate high-definition content with it. The 16 shader cores however are not enough to do some extra shader based post processing (enhancing) at 1080P. I feel the same about CUDA and PhysX acceleration it's just not enough to something really serious with this product. Then again at 35 USD -- you can't expect that either. What's nice to see is the diversity on connectors. Overall the price is right but sure, this card will be a limiting factor the minute you want to do something more than your average desktop usage.
The GeForce GT 220 on the other hand has three times more shader processors allowing it to do manage some more. For 50 USD you get a very fair priced product. You can play the not too demanding games at mid to high quality setting at a monitor resolution of 1280x1024 -- just don't expect to use hefty AA modes. It's the pure basic stuff -- but yeah -- your average game will play at 30+ FPS if you configure it properly. Next to that, the GT220 surprised us by its overclockability, adding another 25% performance to the product. And with a massively underpowered products, 25% is just a lot. So we like the Inno3D GeForce GT 220 for what it is.
Now normally this is the card I would recommend for HTPC aficionado's. In combo with PowerDVD or Media Player Classic HC the GT220 really is a nice card to have. It has the latest revision embedded video processor allowing decoding and acceleration high-definition 1080P content, and then with the 48 shader processors (CUDA cores as NVIDIA now calls them sadly), you can post process that content really well. Now I said normally .. for Home Theater usage I unfortunately can not recommend this Inno3D card as the cooler is just a tad too noisy for a HTPC environment. Quite a missed opportunity really.
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Bottom line: So there you have it, the GT 210 is just not my cup of thee, but heck .. this is Guru3D and we do serve an enthusiast and mainstream audience, certainly not the budget audience. The Inno3D GT 220 however I find interesting enough for some low-level gaming and it's overall functionality are just charming considering is price range. So if you have very little money to spend on a graphics card, then the Inno3D GT 220 makes the most sense.
