NVIDIA GeForce 210 OEM

The NVIDIA GeForce 210 OEM is a 40 nm entry-level GPU from the GeForce 200 generation, built on the Tesla 2.0 architecture with a GT216 chip. It packs 486 million transistors on a 100 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 4.9M per mm². The card was released on September 3, 2009, and is now end-of-life. It is a single-slot, 168 mm (6.6 inch) board with no auxiliary power connectors, drawing a maximum TDP of 31 W. The memory subsystem consists of 1024 MB of DDR2 on a 64-bit bus, providing 6.400 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU offers 16 shading units, 8 texture mapping units, and 4 ROPs, with peak pixel and texture rates of 1.900 GPixel/s and 3.800 GTexel/s respectively. Floating-point performance is rated at 35.20 GFLOPS. The card supports PCIe 2.0 x16 and outputs 1x DVI, 1x DisplayPort, and 1x VGA. In terms of API support, it lists DirectX 11.1 (with a 10_1 feature level), OpenGL 3.3, and no Vulkan support. The database assigns a 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs, but the average benchmark score is 0, reflecting the absence of recorded performance data.

Who Should Consider It

The GeForce 210 OEM is not a candidate for modern gaming or GPU-accelerated workloads. With only 16 shading units and 4 ROPs, the card's compute capability is minuscule; its 35.20 GFLOPS of FP32 throughput is a fraction of what any contemporary GPU offers. The pixel fill rate of 1.900 GPixel/s and texture rate of 3.800 GTexel/s further underscore its limitation to basic 2D rendering and video playback at modest resolutions. The 64-bit memory interface and DDR2 memory type, delivering just 6.400 GB/s of bandwidth, will throttle any attempt to push high-resolution textures or complex geometry. In practice, this GPU is suited for systems that require a discrete display adapter for simple output tasks—such as legacy office PCs, point-of-sale terminals, or as a troubleshooting fallback. Its three display outputs (DVI, DisplayPort, VGA) allow multi-monitor productivity setups, though the low bandwidth caps the number of pixels that can be driven simultaneously. For users running static content at 1080p or lower, the 210 OEM can serve as a reliable output device. However, the absence of Vulkan support and the limited DirectX 11.1 (10_1) feature level mean that modern games and applications relying on those APIs are out of reach. The 50th percentile ranking in the database, despite no measured benchmark scores, suggests a median historical position—but that position reflects the card's age and low-end status rather than any competitive performance. In short, this is a display adapter, not a gaming or compute part.

Power and Cooling

The GeForce 210 OEM is exceptionally power-efficient. Its TDP is rated at 31 W, low enough that it requires no auxiliary power connectors—the card draws all its power from the PCIe slot. The suggested power supply is a modest 200 W unit, making it compatible with virtually any desktop system, including pre-built office machines with small power supplies. The card occupies a single slot and has a length of 168 mm (6.6 inches), so it fits into compact chassis without clearance issues. The low TDP and single-slot width indicate that cooling requirements are minimal; a simple passive heatsink or a small low-profile fan is sufficient to manage the thermal output. This combination of low power draw, no external connectors, and compact physical footprint makes installation straightforward in almost any system. There is no need to upgrade a power supply or worry about thermal buildup in a cramped case. For system integrators or users repurposing an older machine, the 210 OEM offers a drop-in solution for adding a discrete GPU without altering the power delivery or cooling infrastructure. The fact that the card is end-of-life means it is no longer produced, but its power characteristics remain a defining attribute.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GeForce 210 OEM predates ray tracing and AI-accelerated features. The fact pack lists no RT cores and no tensor cores—both fields are null. Consequently, the GPU has no hardware support for real-time ray tracing or tensor-based operations such as DLSS. Its API support is limited to DirectX 11.1 (with a feature level of 10_1) and OpenGL 3.3; Vulkan is not listed. The 10_1 feature level is particularly telling: while the driver may report DirectX 11.1 compatibility, the hardware only implements the DirectX 10.1 feature set. This restricts shader model support and excludes features such as tessellation, compute shaders, and advanced texture sampling that are standard in full DirectX 11 implementations. OpenGL 3.3 is also dated, lacking the latest extensions and modern pipeline capabilities. For any workload that relies on contemporary graphics APIs, this card is not viable. The lack of tensor cores also means no AI-based upscaling or denoising, which are now common in higher-end GPUs. The 35.20 GFLOPS of FP32 performance is minuscule by today's standards, further reinforcing its role as a non-compute part. In essence, the GeForce 210 OEM offers only the most basic 3D acceleration, with no modern feature set to speak of.

How It Compares

The fact pack provides no nearest rivals for the GeForce 210 OEM, and the benchmark database contains no recorded scores for this GPU—the average benchmark score is 0. The only comparative context available is its position within its own generation and the historical lineage of its predecessor and successor. The card belongs to the GeForce 200 generation, with a predecessor of GeForce 9 and a successor of GeForce 400. As an OEM variant, it was likely positioned as a low-cost, low-power solution for system integrators, sitting at the bottom of the GeForce 200 stack. Without measured scores, any direct comparison to other GPUs must rely on architectural attributes. The 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs is a placeholder that does not reflect actual performance, given the absence of benchmarks. Within its own generation, the 210 OEM has far fewer shading units, TMUs, and ROPs than higher-end GeForce 200 parts; the 64-bit memory bus and DDR2 type are hallmarks of an entry-level product. Compared to its successor, the GeForce 400 series, it lacks the newer features and higher throughput that a more modern architecture would bring. The data indicates that this is a minimal discrete GPU, and any comparison to contemporary or later parts would show a significant gap in every metric—pixel rate, texture rate, memory bandwidth, and compute throughput. Since no rival data is provided, the analysis must be qualitative: the 210 OEM is a basic display adapter, not a performance component.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem of the GeForce 210 OEM is one of its most limiting factors. It comes with 1024 MB of DDR2 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s. The memory clock is 400 MHz, with an effective data rate of 800 Mbps. These figures are extremely low by modern standards. The 64-bit bus width and DDR2 type are indicative of a low-bandwidth design; the 1 GB capacity is sufficient for framebuffer storage at low resolutions, but the bandwidth bottleneck will throttle any attempt to use high-resolution textures or multiple render targets. The pixel fill rate of 1.900 GPixel/s and texture fill rate of 3.800 GTexel/s are consistent with a memory system that cannot feed a more capable core. In practice, this means that even at 1080p, the card would struggle to maintain smooth frame rates in any 3D application, and higher resolutions are effectively out of the question. The 64-bit bus width is half of what was common in mid-range GPUs of the era, and DDR2 is slower than the GDDR3/GDDR5 used elsewhere. For users who need to output to a single display at modest resolution, the memory subsystem is adequate for 2D work, but it becomes a severe constraint for any graphics-intensive task. The lack of any modern memory compression techniques (not listed) further exacerbates the limited bandwidth. The 1024 MB VRAM is a marketing point, but without the bandwidth to utilize it, the capacity is largely wasted. This memory configuration is a clear indication that the GeForce 210 OEM was designed for basic display output, not for gaming or GPU compute.