GeForce GTS 450 Video Card Review

NVIDIA recently earned its reputation back with the GF104 Fermi-based GeForce GTX 460; a video card that dominated the price point even before it dropped to $179 USD and completely ruled the middle market. Priced to launch at $129, the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 packs 192 CUDA cores into its 40nm GF106 Fermi GPU and adds 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Benchmark Reviews overclocked our GTS 450 to nearly 1GHz, and even paired them together in SLI. NVIDIA expects their new GTS 450 to compete against the Radeon HD 5730 at 1680x1050, but we learned from GTX 460 there's usually more performance reach than they suggest. Since the price to performance ratio is critical to this entry-level segment, Benchmark Reviews also tests the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1GB against the more-expensive Radeon HD 5770 using several of the most demanding DirectX-11 PC video games available.

The majority of PC gamers either use 1280x1024 or 1680x1050 monitor resolutions, which are considerably less demanding than the 1920x1200 resolution we test upper echelon graphics solutions at. Set to these less-intensive screen resolutions, middle-market video cards are capable of reproducing the same high quality graphics that top-end products do at the higher resolutions. Sure, the game engine matters, but it's the display resolution and post-processing effects that impact performance most. This is what makes a product like NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 450 so relevant to gamers. Of course, the massive overclock it accepts certainly helps to further sell this product into higher price segments.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 uses a pared-down version of the GF104 GPU, which is actually capable of packing eight Streaming Multiprocessors for a total of 384 possible CUDA Cores and 64 Texture Units. GF106 is best conceived as one half of the GF104, allowing it to deliver four SMUs for 192 CUDA cores and 32 Texture Units. The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 comes clocked at 783MHz, with shaders operating at 1566. 1GB of 128-bit GDDR5 video frame buffer clocks-in at 902MHz, and works especially well with large environment games like Starcraft II or BattleForge.

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Video Card

PC-based video games are still the best way to experience realistic effects and immerse yourself in the battle. Consoles do their part, but only high-precision video cards offer the sharp clarity and definition needed to enjoy detailed graphics. Thanks to the new GF106 GPU, the GeForce GTS 450 video card offers enough headroom for budget-minded overclockers to drive out additional FPS performance while keeping temperatures cool. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the GeForce GTS 450 against some of the best video cards within the price segment by using several of the most demanding PC video game titles and benchmark software available: Aliens vs Predator, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, BattleForge, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, and Metro 2033.

It used to be that PC video games such as Crysis and Far Cry 2 were as demanding as you could get, but that was all back before DirectX-11 brought tessellation and to the forefront of graphics. DX11 now adds heavy particle and turbulence effects to video games, and titles such as Metro 2033 demand the most powerful graphics processing available. NVIDIA's GF100 GPU was their first graphics processor to support DirectX-11 features such as tessellation and DirectCompute, and the GeForce GTX 400-series offers an excellent combination of performance and value for games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or BattleForge.

At the center of every new technology is purpose, and NVIDIA has designed their Fermi GF106 GPU with an end-goal of redefining the video game experience through significant graphics processor innovations. Disruptive technology often changes the way users interact with computers, and the GeForce GTS 450 family of video cards are complex tools built to arrive at one simple destination: immersive entertainment at an entry-level price; especially when paired with NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision. The experience is further improved with NVIDIA System Tools software, which includes NVIDIA Performance Group for GPU overclocking and NVIDIA System Monitor which displays real-time temperatures. These tools help gamers and overclockers get the most out of their investment.

Manufacturer: NVIDIA Corporation
Product Name: GeForce GTS 450 1GB
Price As Tested: $129.99 MSRP

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by NVIDIA.

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