NVIDIA closed the ranks of Fermi based solutions by launching their GF108 graphics processor. Today we are going to discuss the junior representative of the family – GeForce GT 430.

September 13, 2010, NVIDIA announced a new product in its Fermi-based line-up. It was the GF106 graphics processor and the GeForce GTS 450 graphics card based on it. Priced at $129, the new card was supposed to make NVIDIA competitive in the entry-level segment. We discussed it in our review called Fermi Lite: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 and were quite satisfied with both the new GPU and the new graphics card. The GeForce GTS 450 proved to be as fast as the Radeon HD 5770 and would even occasionally win some tests against the Radeon HD 5830.

NVIDIA still had one gap in its product line-up, though. It was in the below-$100 category which, according to NVIDIA’s own data, accounts for about 19% of the total graphics card market. NVIDIA didn’t have competitive solutions there because its GT215, GT216 and GT218-based cards traced its origin back to the old G80/G92 chips and didn’t support modern technologies like DirectX 11 and Protected Audio Path. The GeForce GT 220 and GT 240 did their job well enough in their time, but had become quite outdated by the end of 2010, especially as AMD offered a full range of competing DirectX 11 compatibles. So, NVIDIA needed a new product in that segment and they rolled it out officially on October 11, 2010. It is the GF108 processor, the junior model in the Fermi series.

• READ MORE (Source): Fermi Ultra-Light: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430 Review – X-bit labs