NVIDIA GeForce GT 330 OEM

Benchmark Performance

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 330 OEM occupies a peculiar position in the benchmark database: its average benchmark score is 0, and its percentile rank sits at exactly 50. This is not a card that posts impressive numbers; rather, it represents the median of all GPUs ever recorded, a statistical midpoint that speaks more to its age and limited scope than to any gaming prowess. The card's FP32 performance is rated at 240.0 GFLOPS, which is a modest figure that places it firmly in entry-level territory for its era.

The GT 330 OEM's compute capabilities are anchored by 96 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. Its pixel rate is 8.000 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 24.00 GTexel/s. These figures, when taken together, indicate a card that was designed for basic 3D acceleration and media playback rather than for competitive gaming. The lack of any benchmark entries in the FACT PACK means there are no direct score comparisons to rivals; instead, the percentile position relative to all GPUs is the only quantitative anchor available. Being at the 50th percentile suggests that half of all GPUs in the database outperform it, and half underperform it — a symmetric position that underscores its status as a baseline product.

The card's architecture is Tesla, built on the G92B chip using a 55 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 754 million on a die size of 260 mm², yielding a transistor density of 2.9M per mm². These are characteristics of a mature, well-understood design that was already aging by the time this OEM variant shipped. The shading unit count of 96 is identical to what you would expect from a mid-range card of the late 2000s, but the memory configuration and clock speeds hold it back significantly in any modern context. The memory clock is 510 MHz, translating to 1020 Mbps effective, which is slow even by the standards of its release date.

Memory Subsystem

The GT 330 OEM is equipped with 256 MB of DDR2 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory bandwidth is 16.32 GB/s. This is a severely constrained memory subsystem by any measure. The small capacity — 256 MB — was already insufficient for high-resolution textures in games released around 2010, and it is completely inadequate for any modern workload. The DDR2 type is an older standard, and the 128-bit bus width limits the amount of data that can be transferred between the GPU and memory each cycle.

At 16.32 GB/s, the bandwidth is roughly a quarter of what you would find in a low-end card from several years later. For high-resolution gaming, this memory bandwidth creates a hard bottleneck. Even if the GPU cores could theoretically render frames faster, the memory cannot feed them data quickly enough. At resolutions above 1080p, texture streaming and frame buffer operations would cause severe stuttering or outright failure to render. The 256 MB capacity means that texture quality settings must be set to low or medium, and even then, some modern games will exceed the frame buffer limit, causing the game to drop to minimal settings or crash.

The practical implication is straightforward: this card is not usable for any modern gaming at 1080p, and even at lower resolutions like 720p, the memory subsystem will limit texture detail and draw distances. The 128-bit bus is a deliberate cost-cutting measure, but it cripples the card's ability to handle large datasets. For anyone considering this card for a retro build, it is essential to understand that even older games from 2007-2009 will need reduced settings to stay within the memory constraints.

Power and Cooling

The GT 330 OEM has a TDP of 75 W. This is a low power draw, consistent with its entry-level positioning. The suggested PSU rating is 250 W, which means it can be paired with almost any desktop power supply from the past two decades. The card requires no external power connectors — it draws all its power from the PCIe slot. This is a significant convenience for upgrades in older systems where a spare 6-pin or 8-pin connector may not be available.

The card is a single-slot design, measuring 175 mm in length (6.9 inches). This compact form factor allows it to fit into small cases and beside large CPU coolers without clearance issues. The absence of a power connector also simplifies cable management. The cooling solution is not specified in detail, but given the 75 W TDP, a simple passive or low-speed fan heatsink is sufficient. The card should run quietly under load, and its heat output is minimal, making it suitable for poorly ventilated cases.

For a system builder, the power requirements are non-issues. A 250 W PSU is found in virtually any office or home desktop. The lack of power connectors means no adapter cables are needed. The single-slot profile means it will not block adjacent PCIe slots. The card's bus interface is PCIe 2.0 x16, which is backward compatible with PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 slots, so it can be installed in modern motherboards without issue, though performance will be limited by the card itself, not the interface.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK lists no nearest rivals for the GT 330 OEM. This is a notable absence. The card's benchmark score is 0, and the percentile rank is 50, but without any rival entries, there is no direct comparison to other specific models. The card's predecessor is the GeForce 200 series, and its successor is the GeForce 400 series. Within the GeForce 300 generation, it sits as an OEM-only product, meaning it was not widely sold at retail. This makes direct comparisons difficult because there is no public performance data from independent reviews that matches it against other cards in a standardized benchmark.

Given the absence of rival data, the only quantitative comparison available is the percentile position. At the 50th percentile, it is exactly in the middle of all GPUs in the database. This is a statistical curiosity because the card's actual performance is far below what modern integrated graphics can achieve. The database's percentile metric may be skewed by the inclusion of many older and low-end GPUs, which would push the median down. In practical terms, the GT 330 OEM is outperformed by any entry-level discrete GPU from the last decade, and likely by most integrated graphics solutions from the last five years. But without specific rival scores, any claim about specific percentage deltas would be conjecture, which the FACT PACK does not support.

The card's API support includes DirectX 11.1 (with a 10_0 feature level), OpenGL 3.3, and no Vulkan support. This means it cannot run modern games that require Vulkan or DirectX 12. Even DirectX 11 games are only partially supported; the feature level 10_0 means it is limited to DirectX 10-level features despite the higher API version number. This effectively locks the card out of most games released after 2015.

Who Should Consider It

Based on the data, the GT 330 OEM is only suitable for very specific use cases. Its 256 MB memory and 16.32 GB/s bandwidth mean that it cannot handle 1080p gaming with any modern title. Even at 720p, the card would struggle with games released after 2010. The FP32 performance of 240.0 GFLOPS is roughly equivalent to what a low-end laptop GPU from 2012 offered, so frame rates in any 3D game will be low.

The realistic use cases are: (1) a display output for a basic office or home PC where only 2D applications are used, (2) a retro gaming build for titles from 2005 and earlier, where the card's performance is adequate for low resolutions and settings, or (3) a diagnostic card for testing motherboards and power supplies. The card's display outputs — 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA — make it flexible for connecting older monitors. The HDMI output can carry audio, which is useful for HTPC setups.

For anyone considering this card for gaming, the data is unambiguous: it is not viable. The 50th percentile rank is misleading because the database includes many obsolete GPUs. The card's only practical use is as a low-power, low-cost solution for basic computing tasks. If you have a system that requires a GPU but you do not game, the GT 330 OEM will work fine for web browsing, office productivity, and video playback, provided the video codecs are supported. For anything more demanding, this card will bottleneck every other component in the system.

FAQ

Q: What is the FP32 performance of the GT 330 OEM?

A: The FP32 performance is rated at 240.0 GFLOPS.

Q: How much video memory does the card have, and what type?

A: The card has 256 MB of DDR2 memory on a 128-bit bus.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth?

A: The memory bandwidth is 16.32 GB/s.

Q: Does the card require a power connector?

A: No, the card has no power connectors and draws all power from the PCIe slot.

Q: What is the TDP and recommended PSU rating?

A: The TDP is 75 W, and the suggested PSU rating is 250 W.

Q: What APIs does the card support?

A: It supports DirectX 11.1 (with a 10_0 feature level) and OpenGL 3.3, but no Vulkan.

Q: What is the card's physical length?

A: The card measures 175 mm (6.9 inches) in length and is a single-slot design.