Product Listing

ASUS ENGTS450 DirectCU TOP - Cooler & Faster

By Kenny Yeo - 15 Jan 2011

ASUS ENGTS450 DirectCU TOP - Cooler & Faster

ASUS' Mainstream Attack

Packing 192 CUDA cores and specifically engineered by NVIDIA to tackle the popular 1650 x 1050 pixels resolution, the GeForce GTS 450 is NVIDIA's mainstream warrior and it replaces NVIDIA’s aging mainstream stalwart, the GeForce GTS 250. To further entice mainstream users and gamers, NVIDIA has set a very attractive US$129 launch price for the GeForce GTS 450, and thus far, the GTS 450 has been positively received.

Many customized versions of the GeForce GTS 450 cards have since hit the market, as seen in two of the earlier roundup articles (Part 1, Part 2) that we’ve done, and we have just received the latest custom edition from hardware giant ASUS.

This is the ASUS ENGTS 450 DirectCU TOP, and as its name suggests, not only does it comes with ASUS’ custom-designed DirectCU cooler, it is also their flagship card. For the uninitiated, the DirectCU cooler is unique because its copper pipes are in direct contact with the GPU core, which ASUS says makes for faster transfer of heat from the GPU core to the heatsink array, making the cooler more effective than traditional fan and heatsink combo designs.

And as befits a flagship card, the ASUS ENGTS450 DirectCU TOP comes with one of the highest clock speeds we have seen on any GeForce GTS 450 - 925MHz at the core, 1850MHz at the shaders and 4000MHz DDR at the memory is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.

Here’s a quick look at the card.
 

The DirectCU cooler is used extensively across many of ASUS' cards and is fast becoming a familiar sight.

The ASUS ENGTS450 DirectCU TOP has DVI, VGA ports as well as a full-sized HDMI port.

This is where the magic happens. See how the heat pipes are in direct contact with the GPU core?

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8.5
  • Performance 9
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 8
The Good
Outstanding performance
Efficient cooler
Impressive overclocking potential
The Bad
Slightly higher than average power draw
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