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Conclusion
Does the Job, But is that Good Enough?
Let’s begin our conclusion with the new GeForce GTS 450 SKU and then we’ll evaluate the individual cards.
Judging from our benchmarks, the GeForce GTS 450 delivers on its promises. Priced at around US$129 to compete directly with the Radeon HD 5750, it is convincingly faster than its ATI rival, by around 5% to 15%, especially when tessellation is enabled.
NVIDIA said it’ll handle 1680 x 1050 pixels resolution nicely, and it does. It manages to put out playable frame rates even with maxed out settings on newer games like S.T..A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and Battlefield Bad Company 2, which is certainly impressive. And we’re sure that if users don’t mind turning down the graphics settings a notch, the gaming experience with the GeForce GTS 450 will be even smoother.
That said, the GeForce GTS 450 is surprisingly lackluster compared to the GeForce GTX 460. Even factory overclocked versions don’t come close to it. The GeForce GTS 450 is also some way off the mark compared to the Radeon HD 5770, but custom edition cards like the four we have here are be able to tackle and at the very least match the Radeon HD 5770 easily.
In the end, the GeForce GTS 450 is much less impressive than the GeForce GTX 460. Unlike the latter which could punch well beyond its weight, the GeForce GTS 450 is a bit more reserved in the performance stakes, although we are pleasantly delighted by its readiness to overclock. Also, improvements in power consumption and operating temperatures (with custom coolers) have been much improved. But given that both the Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 are already almost a year old, we would have expected nothing less from NVIDIA.
The GeForce GTS 450 is a solid card for gamers on a tight budget, but it doesn’t blow us away like the GeForce GTX 460 did. In all, it does the job which it set out to do well, but is that good enough? Because word on the street is that ATI (or AMD rather) is already prepping their new generation of cards, codenamed Southern Islands. Although nothing is concrete about Southern Islands at the moment, we’ll be surprised if AMD doesn’t release new cards by the end of this year, and hence we can’t help but feel that it might just be too late for NVIDIA.
Now on to the individual cards, but first a quick summary of its clock speeds and price.
| Cards | Core Clock Speed | Shader Clock Speed | Memory Clock Speed | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy GeForce GTS 450 Super OC | 888MHz | 1776MHz | 4000MHz DDR | $150 |
| MSI N450GTS Cyclone | 850MHz | 1700MHz | 4000MHz DDR | ~$140 |
| Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum | 930MHz | 1860MHz | 4000MHz DDR | $150 |
| Sparkle Calibre X450G | 850MHz | 1700MHz | 3700MHz DDR | $149 |
| Cards | Performance | Features | Value | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy GeForce GTS 450 Super OC | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| MSI N450GTS Cyclone | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| Sparkle Calibre X450G | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
Like the other Palit cards with the “Sonic Platinum” moniker bestowed on them, the Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum is super fast. Running at a stunning 930MHz at the core, the card is capable of going head to head with the Radeon HD 5770 and is over 10% faster than a reference GeForce GTS 250. We also liked its selection of video output ports as it’s definitely more user-friendly than NVIDIA’s reference twin DVI and single mini-HDMI offerings.
Unfortunately, it also suffers the same problems as other Sonic Platinum cards, and that is heat. Although nothing to be worried about, Palit should revise the cooler, because right now, it is one of the hotter GeForce GTS 450 we have tested.
The Galaxy GeForce GTS 450 Super OC is a good match for the Palit card all round. The card might be slightly down in terms of clock speeds, but actually, it didn’t amount to much in terms of raw frame rates, so the two cards are actually very competitive. The Galaxy card also matches the Palit in terms of video output connectivity variety (but is short of a single DVI port) and also operating temperatures - both are just as hot to run. Finally, at US$150, the Galaxy card is also priced exactly the same as the Palit card, which makes it very hard to pick between the two. That said, the Galaxy does stand out with its unique easy to clean cooler and really, in the end, we think its really a matter of personal preference if you had to pick between the two.
MSI has decided to ditch introducing a reference version and went straight with a customized one and the MSI N450GTS Cyclone is a decent performer. It offers appreciably more performance than a reference card, but was no match for the Galaxy and Palit card. However, it redeems itself with its cooler, which was remarkably effective, maintaining the card at a cool 49 degrees Celsius even under load. And at a price of around US$140, it is also slightly cheaper.
Because the Sparkle Calibre X450G has comparable clock speeds with the MSI N450GTS Cyclone, the two cards were almost even matched in the performance stakes. But thanks to its massive custom cooler from Arctic, it was the coolest card in our roundup, recording an unbelievable 45 degrees Celsius at load. Because the card runs so cool, it was also our best overclocker, as we managed to get it to run at 1GHz at the core and 4000MHz DDR. But the massive cooler comes at a price, as the card costs considerably more than a stock card at US$150. Also be reminded that you'll need to keep three full expansion slots clear at the very least to accommodate this card into the system.
To sum, the four cards are very evenly matched. The Palit and Galaxy cards sacrifice thermal considerations for outright performance, whereas the MSI and Sparkle cards are incredibly cool to run, but are a tad slower. In the end, it really depends on what you want.
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