Shootouts

GeForce GTS 450 Roundup Part 2 - New Additions Reviewed

By Kenny Yeo - 15 Oct 2010

Conclusion

To Each His Own

Overall, the performances of the cards were pretty much what we expected with the EVGA and Gigabyte cards turning out to be the quickest, followed by the ECS and Leadtek duo, and finally the low profile Palit card. But before we offer our analysis of the individual cards, here’s a quick summary of the card’s clock speeds and price. 

Cards Core Clock Speed Shader Clock Speed Memory Clock Speed Price
ECS GTS 450 Black 850MHz 1700MHz 4000MHz DDR  ~US$150
EVGA GeForce GTS 450 FTW 920MHz 1840MHz 4100MHz DDR  US$147
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC 930MHz 1860MHz 4000MHz DDR  US$149
Leadtek WinFast GTS 450 Extreme 850MHz 1700MHz 3600MHz DDR US$135
Palit GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile 783MHz 1566MHz 3608MHz DDR  US$129

 

Detailed Ratings Breakdown

Cards Performance Features Value Overall
ECS GTS 450 Black 9.0 8.5 8.0 8.5
EVGA GeForce GTS 450 FTW 9.0 8.0 7.5 8.5
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC 9.0 8.5 8.0 8.5
Leadtek WinFast GTS 450 Extreme 8.5 8.5 8.0 8.5
Palit GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile 7.5 9.0 8.0

8.5

The EVGA GeForce GTS 450 FTW is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing, because despite its stock-looking cooler, it actually sports one of the most aggressive clock speeds. Hence as far as performance is concerned, it is first rate, along with the Gigabyte card. However, that has come at a cost to operating temperatures as it was one of the hottest GeForce GTS 450 cards that we’ve tested. And at US$147, we don’t think it’s really good value for money either.

Why? Because the Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC, which is as quick as the EVGA card, costs only a tad more at US$149. And between the two, the Gigabyte card is the one we would go for because it also sports Gigabyte’s Windforce 2x cooler, which we found to be rather effective.

The ECS GTS 450 Black is an intriguing proposition considering its massive cooler from Arctic Cooling, which allowed it to record not only the lowest operating temperatures, but also achieve the highest overclocking state. It many ways then, it closely resembles the previously reviewed Sparkle Calibre X450G, since the latter also sports a similar cooler from Arctic Cooling. Although we couldn’t get the exact price at the time of writing, the custom cooler, as we understand, costs around US$40 on its own so we would expect the ECS card to retail around the US$150 mark. This makes it a bit pricey considering its performance, but the cooler is very effective and quiet, so if a cool card is your priority, then this might just be the card for you.

The Leadtek WinFast GTS 450 Extreme is a quick card, and offers substantial improvements in performance when compared to a bone stock GeForce GTS 450. It’s about as fast as the ECS GTS 450 Black, but loses out slightly because of its lower memory clock speeds. Furthermore, at US$135, it’s the cheapest custom designed GeForce GTS 450 we’ve reviewed and all things considered, it offers the best bang for buck if you are not too concerned about having the quickest card.

The Palit GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile is an interesting card, because despite its average performance (no thanks to reference clock speeds) it is impossibly small even for a mainstream card. Kudos to Palit for squeezing a GF106 into such a compact and tiny form factor, which will easily fit SFF systems and HTPCs. Coupled with the GeForce GTS 450’s modest power requirements, this Palit card offers the best graphics horsepower to size ratio. Only our concern is the slightly higher than average operating temperatures, but we guess that’s unavoidable given its small size. Nevertheless, its small size makes it the most interesting GTS 450 in our roundup.

Overall, the cards performed up to our expectations and each has its own appeal. That said, if you are only interested in outright speed, our recommendation is the cooler to run Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450. The ECS and Leadtek cards are pretty evenly matched in our books, but the Leadtek gains a slight advantage because of its cheaper price. And if you are looking for a powerful mainstream card to power your SFF or HTPC, the Palit GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile is an excellent choice.

 Final Ratings



The Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC

 

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