NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 – An Even More Affordable Version of Fermi

Power Consumption

In both full load and idle conditions, the GeForce GTS 450 consumes less power than any other card in our test.

Conclusions

GeForce GTS 450 is a sub-US$ 150 Fermi that is meant to compete in the lower-mainstream segment of the market. The GPU is positioned well below the GTX 460, and, by providing a price point as low as US$ 129, NVIDIA seeks to cater to the need of budget gamers looking for a cheap, DirectX 11-capable graphic card. Over time, GTS 450 will replace its older brother, the GTS 250.

Performance – The GTS 450 performed quite well in some of our tests, especially considering the lack of processing power compared to the rest of the Fermi GPUs. It still produces sufficient amount of frame rate in most games, and if it doesn’t, lowering the graphics setting a bit should help.

Speaking of which, the GTS 450 is actually targeted for gamers who want to play their games at resolutions other than1920x1080. When running some benchmarks at that full-HD resolution, we saw poor frame rates of below 30 FPS. In some “lighter” games, such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Left 4 Dead, the GTS 450 performed flawlessly, just like it did in most of the test when we lowered the resolution to 1360×768.

To get a clearer view of its position among competing products in the similar price range, let’s compare the GTS 450 with two other offerings from NVIDIA and ATI.

Performance : NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 VS NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 – NVIDIA releases GeForce GTS 450 to replace the aging GeForce GTS 250. Both GPU are almost identical in term of performance. At times, the GTS 450 would slide forward in certain games, while the GTS 250 takes over the lead in some other titles.

If we take a closer look at some of the test results like DiRT2, we will notice that the GTS 250 excelled in higher resolution (1920×1080), while the GTS 450 performed better at 1360×768. This is likely the result of reduced memory bandwidth on the GTS 450. The 128-bit memory interface reserved to this GPU limits its performance in high resolutions. The GTS 250, on the other hand, has a 256-bit interface.

Even as it occasionally leaps ahead of the GTS 450, the older GTS 250 simply could not compete with the newer Fermi-based GPU when PhysX features are enabled. This is evident in the Batman: Arkham Asylum benchmark. Aside from that, DirectX-11 support gives the GTS 450 an upper hand over previous-generation adversaries, because this latest version of the API is fast becoming the new standard in the gaming industry.

Performance : NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 VS ATI Radeon HD 5770 –
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTS 450 (675 MHz core clock; 3608 MHz memory clock) sells for around US$ 129, while at US$ 159, the Radeon HD 5770 will cost you 30 dollars more. Of course, with that price comes extra performance, and the Radeon HD 5770 is 5-30% faster than the GTS 450 in our tests. However, the more affordable GTS 450 is superior in tessellation-enhanced DirectX 11 softwares, such as Metro 2033 (1920×1080; High), DiRT2 (1360×768), Unigine Heaven 2.1, and Microsoft DirectX SDK. Also, its PhysX support allows you to enable enhanced physics effects in certain games.