Geforce GTS 450: specifications, reviews

All users have long become accustomed to the idea that budget variants of video cards from nVidia is the culling of a more expensive segment, which belongs to the top class. However, this fate does not apply to all video adapters, there are devices that are intentionally designed for an inexpensive niche. For example, Geforce GTS 450, its characteristics indicate that it is completely independent device.

Expected replacement

If you study the evolution of video adapters from the well-known manufacturer nVidia, you can see that for several years the Geforce GTS 250 remained without a successor. After all, the 260 series was replaced by a more productive 460 model, for comparison. Naturally, the market expected the emergence of the Geforce GTS 450, its characteristics should match its line, but have better performance.

That's only the manufacturer has acted dishonestly towards customers when he started the game with the re-branding of the Geforce 8800 and 9800 video adapters, changing the process technology, changing the operating frequencies and making the appropriate markings (GT, GTS, GTX, GTX +). In fact, for several years the manufacturer has put several variants of the same video card on the market. Many users who understand the characteristics of video adapters were no less surprised after the launch of the Geforce GTS 450, which in fact was only an improved version of the Geforce 8800 GT, though with its own crystal.

Specifications

The GF106 graphics processor, belonging to the nVidia Fermi architecture, was developed specifically for the new product in the low-cost Geforce GTS 450 line. The technical specifications of this video adapter are almost half different from the older Geforce GTX 460:

• The GPU supports 192 universal processors, 24 ROPs and 32 textures;
• The kernel in the factory version operates at a frequency of 783 MHz;
• To work with the memory there are three 64-bit controller, but one of them is disabled, so the bus of the bit-rate of this video adapter is only 128 bits.

Apparently, the game with the Geforce 8800 models had a very positive impact on the manufacturer's earnings, as the Geforce GTS 450 model also had too many modifications. They flooded the market and occupied all the price niches on store shelves, up to the top devices.

About modifications

First and foremost, we are talking about the type of memory that the Geforce GTS 450 graphics card has. The characteristics of GDDR3 and GDDR5 differ among themselves in the data transfer speed, which is almost twice as high in a more technological type. But the price of devices with different types of memory differs slightly. And if you remember that the manufacturer intentionally blocked the operation of one 64-bit controller, then everything becomes clear why it was done. So in the market there was a modernized adapter Geforce GTS 450, with a width of the bus 192 bits and a volume of 1536 MB on board.

And if we test and compare all the modifications between ourselves and the closest competitors in the price category, then we can trace the trend. The most productive video adapter from the entire Geforce GTS 450 line has the same performance as the trimmed version of the top model GTX 460 768 MB.

Golden mean

As for the "price-quality" ratio, Asus Geforce GTS 450 became the market leader. The characteristics of the device are unlikely to seem attractive to real game lovers, but here the price can attract the attention of many buyers. In this video adapter, a well-known Taiwanese manufacturer only slightly increased the frequency of the core of the graphics processor, and all other characteristics are no different from the declared parameters of the manufacturer nVidia. Even the cooling system, which looks disappointingly factory-made, has not been improved.

As it became known, the manufacturer ASUS has released one more device based on Geforce GTS 450 for some foreign markets. The video adapter was positioned as an office device for creativity. The main features of the video card are GDDR3 memory, understated GPU frequency and passive cooling. Find such an interesting video card is quite real in foreign online stores.

For two hares

Palit marketers adhere to double standards . Their offspring is presented in several variants, oriented at different price niches. The expensive device is built on the basis of GDDR5 and has an increased core and video memory frequency, and a budget instance uses GDDR3 chips. But cheap devices can be purchased with different amount of video memory on board - options are available from 1 GB and 2 GB. True, many experts claim that the performance in games does not increase the amount of memory, and call improved modification by marketing.

All the rest for the Palit Geforce GTS 450 characteristics are identical. Even the cooling system, which by logic should be more powerful for an expensive device, does not have branded copper or aluminum tubes. This is very strange, considering that the manufacturer has increased the nominal frequency of the graphics core by 10%.

Game instance

But the company Gigabyte presented on the market its own vision of how the graphic video adapter Geforce GTS 450 1Gb should look. The characteristics of the device have a small factory overclocking on the core, which gives some advantages of the video card among competitors. However, the main feature is hidden in the proprietary cooling system called WindForce 2X, which has its own radiator with two tubes for heat dissipation. Naturally, there are two powerful fans, their speed is controlled by the controller built into the video adapter.

Judging by the numerous reviews of owners in the media, with a professional cooling system, the graphics card can easily be overclocked and does not shut down due to banal overheating. So, experimentally, thanks to synthetic tests and software overclocking using the utility nVidia Inspector, it was recorded an increase in productivity by 15 percent.

If you believe the reviews

Synthetic tests and device reviews in the media allow you to examine the characteristics and see a list of the closest competitors in the performance table. But this is still not enough for many potential buyers, because most of the reviews are sponsored, at the expense of companies promoting their products. Therefore, without feedback from the owners here can not do.

The advantages of a video card include low cost in the market, for a class of gaming devices. A simple cooling system significantly affected the size of the video adapter - in this version it can be installed even in the midi tower enclosure. In the factory version, the cooling system is very quiet, even in peak loads, which is very encouraging for all game lovers at night.

The drawback is the performance. Uniquely, with a 128-bit memory bus, the Geforce GTS 450 features will be underestimated compared to competitors in this price category, but with a 192-bit or 256-bit bus. For a video card that uses the type of video memory GDDR3, support for DirectX 11 and Nvidia Physx technologies is completely incomprehensible, no performance is out of the question.

Finally

Judging by the numerous reviews, it makes no sense to find fault with the GeForce GTS 450-based video adapter. The characteristics of the device are initially offered for use in the budget class, respectively, and the price is very low because of this. Those who want to have a more powerful adapter can purchase 460 series devices, which is 1.5 times more expensive than a budget employee. But if the buyer's goal is the "price-quality" criterion, then the 450 model will be just the one needed by the golden mean. In addition, as a bonus, the buyer will receive a small and very quiet device, which will not cause inconvenience to the owner both during work and during installation.