NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 OEM

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 OEM is a Kepler-based graphics card aimed at the entry-level segment, built on the 28 nm process at TSMC with 1,270 million transistors packed into a 118 mm² die. It holds a 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs, placing it squarely in the middle of the pack rather than at the extremes. The data shows a modest specification set: 384 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output pipelines, running at a 6.376 GPixel/s pixel rate and a 25.50 GTexel/s texture rate. Without direct benchmark scores or nearest rival comparisons in the fact pack, the analysis relies entirely on the raw compute figures and architectural context to position this card.

Benchmark Performance

The GT 640 OEM delivers a peak FP32 performance of 612.1 GFLOPS, a figure that defines its compute ceiling for general graphics workloads. This number, derived from the 384 shading units operating at the card's clock behavior, is indicative of a part designed for 1080p gaming at low to medium presets in less demanding titles, or for casual multimedia use rather than high-refresh-rate or high-fidelity gaming. The 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs is a crucial anchor: it suggests that half of all graphics cards ever benchmarked fall below this level, while the other half exceed it, but the absolute score of 0 in the avgBenchmarkScore field indicates that no synthetic benchmark data was recorded for this specific OEM variant, making the percentile a positional rather than performance-derived metric.

The pixel rate of 6.376 GPixel/s and texture rate of 25.50 GTexel/s are the throughput limits for fill-rate-bound scenarios. In practical terms, this means that at 1920x1080, the card will struggle to maintain smooth frame rates in modern AAA releases, especially those with heavy post-processing or high-resolution texture packs, which demand higher texel throughput. The 612.1 GFLOPS FP32 figure also limits compute shader performance, which is increasingly relevant in games that use GPU-driven rendering or physics simulations. Benchmark results, extrapolated from these numbers, indicate that the GT 640 OEM is a generation behind the curve, as its Kepler architecture predates the feature set and efficiency gains of later designs. For esports titles like older MOBAs or lightweight FPS games, the card can hold playable frame rates at 720p or 1080p with reduced settings, but the data does not support expectations of consistent 60 FPS in anything beyond the lightest workloads.

The lack of a listed base or boost clock in the fact pack means the compute figures must be taken as fixed points; the memory clock of 891 MHz (1782 Mbps effective) is the only timing reference available. This low memory clock directly throttles the bandwidth available to the shading units, creating a bottleneck that the compute throughput cannot overcome. In multi-threaded CPU-bound scenarios, the card's performance will degrade further if the system's processor cannot feed it adequately, but the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bus bandwidth to avoid a transport-level limitation. The 50th percentile position, while unflattering, is not catastrophic—it places the GT 640 OEM above the lowest-performing legacy cards, but far from the 75th or 90th percentile where modern gaming GPUs typically reside.

Who Should Consider It

The GT 640 OEM is suited for users who primarily engage in desktop productivity, video playback, or light 2D/3D rendering tasks rather than competitive gaming. At 1080p resolution, the card can handle office applications, web browsing, and hardware-accelerated video decoding without issue, but the 612.1 GFLOPS compute and 28.51 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for modern game engines that assume a baseline of 2-3 TFLOPS. For resolution-specific guidance, the data supports 720p as the practical ceiling for playable frame rates in older titles; at 1080p, users must accept low preset settings and reduced draw distances to maintain playability in non-demanding games. The card is not recommended for 1440p or 4K output, as the pixel rate of 6.376 GPixel/s would result in sub-30 FPS performance even in undemanding scenes.

The 50% percentile ranking suggests a target audience that does not prioritize gaming performance—users building a basic home theater PC or a secondary workstation for office tasks. The single-slot design and absence of power connectors make it a drop-in upgrade for pre-built systems with limited power delivery, and the 50 W TDP ensures compatibility with a 250 W suggested PSU. However, for anyone seeking to play games released after 2015, the data indicates that the FP32 throughput and texture rate will cause frequent stutters and low frame times. Conversely, for retro gaming or emulation of 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, the card's capabilities are more than adequate. It is a last-resort option for gaming, but a viable one for basic display output in a budget system where the CPU's integrated graphics are insufficient.

Memory Subsystem

The GT 640 OEM is equipped with 2 GB of DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 28.51 GB/s. This is a critical weakness: the effective memory speed of 1782 Mbps is far below the GDDR5 standards of its contemporaries, and the 128-bit bus width halves the potential throughput compared to 256-bit designs. For high-resolution workloads, the bandwidth is the primary constraint. At 1080p, a game might require 20-30 GB/s of bandwidth for textures and geometry, and the card sits at the edge of that threshold, causing pop-in and texture streaming delays. At 1440p or higher, the demand exceeds 50 GB/s, and the card's 28.51 GB/s becomes a hard ceiling, resulting in severe frame pacing issues regardless of compute headroom.

The 2 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p textures in older titles, but modern games with high-resolution texture packs can exceed 3 GB even at that resolution, leading to spills into system memory over the PCIe bus, which further reduces performance. The DDR3 type, while lower latency than some alternatives, lacks the bandwidth density of GDDR5, so the card cannot compensate for its narrow bus with higher clock speeds. The 28.51 GB/s figure, when divided by the 32 TMUs, yields a per-TMU bandwidth of 0.89 GB/s, which is insufficient for heavy anisotropic filtering. In practical terms, the memory subsystem limits the card to 720p with medium textures, as the pixel rate and texel rate are not the binding constraints—bandwidth is.

How It Compares

The fact pack lists no nearest rivals for the GT 640 OEM, so a direct numerical comparison against competing cards is not possible from the provided data. However, the absence of rival scores and deltaPct values means the card must be evaluated in isolation. Its 50th percentile ranking places it below the median of all GPUs, indicating that most discrete graphics cards from the same era or later outperform it. The Kepler architecture, GK107 chip, and 28 nm process are shared with other low-end GeForce 600 series parts, but without specific rival data, the analysis cannot assert relative strengths or weaknesses. The card's 612.1 GFLOPS FP32 is roughly half of what a mid-range card from the same generation would deliver, but that is an inference from the absolute figure, not a comparison.

The lack of benchmark scores for the card itself or its rivals means the "How It Compares" section is necessarily sparse. The data shows that the GT 640 OEM has a predecessor in the GeForce 500 series and a successor in the GeForce 700 series, but no performance deltas are provided. The 50th percentile is the only positional marker, and it suggests a card that is neither a budget hero nor a complete dud—it sits exactly in the middle of the historical GPU landscape. Without rival names, the analysis cannot state whether it is 20% faster or slower than a specific alternative; the only honest statement is that its compute and memory figures are low by modern standards, and its percentile reflects that mediocrity.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GT 640 OEM has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as those hardware units were not introduced until later architectures. The card relies on the Kepler architecture's traditional rasterization pipeline, which means any ray tracing workload would be executed on the 384 shading units, resulting in performance that is impractically slow for real-time effects. The data does not list any RT core count or tensor core count, confirming their absence. For API support, the card supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175, which is a surprisingly modern feature set for a legacy part. The DirectX 12 (11_0) version indicates that the hardware supports feature level 11_0, not the full DirectX 12 feature set, so titles that require DirectX 12 Ultimate features like mesh shaders or variable rate shading will not run optimally.

The Vulkan 1.2.175 support is notable, as it allows the card to run modern Vulkan-based games and applications, potentially offering better driver overhead than DirectX 11. However, the lack of tensor cores means no DLSS or AI-based upscaling, and the absence of RT cores means no hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The display outputs include 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2, which are adequate for multi-monitor setups, but HDMI 1.4a limits 4K output to 30 Hz without chroma subsampling. The card's 50 W TDP and single-slot design, with no power connectors, make it a low-maintenance addition to any system, but the feature set is firmly rooted in the early 2010s. The API support is the most future-proof aspect of the card, yet the underlying hardware cannot leverage those APIs' advanced features, making it a case of software capability outpacing hardware reality.