Nvidia silently launched their low entry-level GeForce 9400 GT graphics card Tuesday, priced competitively at $59.

Nvidia has updated its entry offerings in the consumer graphics market Tuesday with the new GeForce 9400 GT, which should replace last generation’s GeForce 8500 GT

With the 16 processor cores clocked at 1400 MHz, a graphics clock of 550 MHz, 512 MB of memory clocked at 400 MHz, and with a 128-bit Memory Interface Width, Nvidia claims its new GeForce 9400 GT to be twice as fast as the comparable 8 series graphics card. Manufacturing partners may of course deviate from the these reference specifications with their own offerings, including alternative cooling solutions.

While the new GeForce 9400 GT may not appeal to those looking for a serious gaming solution, considering the suggested retail price of $59, it does bring good value to those looking for an alternative to integrated graphics. The graphics card does support DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.1, CUDA general-purpose parallel computing, and hardware HD video acceleration, making it a great solution for speeding up the Windows Aero interface, Folding@Home computing, watching HD movies and more.

Early reviews of the GeForce 9400 GT online show it to be an excellent overclocker, yet not an ideal solution for dedicated gaming. With gaming performance of about half that of the GeForce 9500 GT, the GeForce 9400 GT struggles with modern graphically intensive games. Versions offering a passive cooling solutions could make for an excellent choice in a spacious HTPC, however.

Current competition based on similar prices for the GeForce 9400 GT will include the ATI Radeon HD 3650, Radeon HD 2600XT, Radeon X1650PRO and GeForce 8600 GT.

The GeForce 9400 GT is now filling retail channels.