Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 1GB Review

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Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 has quickly become known as one of the best-looking games on the market and while it doesn’t include DX11 support, it uses the full stable of DX10 features to deliver a truly awe-inspiring visual experience. For this benchmark we used the car chase scene directly following the Casino Assault level. This scene includes perfectly scripted events, some of the most GPU-strenuous effects and lasts a little less than four minutes. We chose to not use the in-game benchmarking tool due to its inaccuracy when it comes to depicting actual gameplay performance.


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Metro 2033 (DX11)

Metro 2033 (DX11)

There has been a lot of buzz about Metro 2033 which has mostly centered on its amazing graphics coupled with absolutely brutal framerates on even the best GPUs on the market. For this test we use a walkthrough and combat scene from The Bridge level which starts at the beginning of the level and lasts for about 5 minutes of walking, running and combat. Famerates are measured with FRAPS and Advanced PhysX is turned off.


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StarCraft II (DX9)

StarCraft II (DX9)

In order to test StarCraft II performance we recorded a typical multiplayer battle on the Agria Valley map and used it as a replay in order to ensure every run was identical to one another. We used the last 3 minutes of the replay which includes the final assault on the enemy base. MSAA was applied in the NVIDIA and ATI control panels for certain tests.


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Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is currently the de-facto standard when it comes to simple, straightforward DX11 performance estimates. While it is considered a synthetic benchmark by many, it is important to remember that no less than four games based on this engine will be released within the next year or so. In this test we will be using a standard benchmark run with and without tessellation enabled at three resolutions,


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Temperature & Acoustics / Power Consumption

Core Temperature & Acoustics

For all temperature testing, the cards were placed on an open test bench with a single 120mm 1200RPM fan placed ~8” away from the heatsink. The ambient temperature was kept at a constant 22°C (+/- 0.5°C). If the ambient temperatures rose above 23°C at any time throughout the test, all benchmarking was stopped. For this test we use the 3DMark Batch Size test at it highest triangle count with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled and looped it for one hour to determine the peak load temperature as measured by GPU-Z.

For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Vista desktop for 15 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.

Gigabyte promised a decrease in temperatures equaling 13% over the reference design and they haven't quite got to that point. However, this card still has the ability to beat the stock cooling solution while matching it in the acoustics department.

System Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption. We have also included several other tests as well.

Please note that after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall outlet or UPS will NOT give you accurate power consumption numbers due to slight changes in the input voltage. Thus we use a Tripp-Lite 1800W line conditioner between the 120V outlet and the power meter.

There really isn't anything surprising here with the Gigabyte GTS 450 consuming slightly more power than the reference version due to its higher clock speeds and elevated GPU core voltage.

 

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Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

Using the EVGA Precision utility in addition to our usual stability checks, both the core and memory of the GTS 450 1GB were pushed as far as the default voltage would allow.


Final Clock Speeds

Graphics Clock: 951Mhz
Processor Clock: 1902Mhz
Memory Clock: 4180Mhz (QDR)

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTS 450 will without a doubt appeal to a broad spectrum of the market, particularly those who have been holding onto their early G92-based cards in hope of a lower-priced 400-series product. As we mentioned in our review of the reference version, the card accomplishes nearly everything it sets out to do but potential customers will likely gravitate towards overclocked versions rather than the base product. This is exactly where Gigabyte’s GTS 450 comes into play.

What Gigabyte has done isn’t unprecedented but their shunning of the reference-clocked version in favour of one with higher clock speeds is a good move in our opinion. We’re not saying that the GTS 450 isn’t a perfectly good performer but in order to further differentiate itself from like likes of the HD 5750, it does need a slight speed increase. With an 810Mhz core clock, this particular GTS 450 1GB won’t “feel” faster than a standard version but its main appeal is the fact that it costs no more than the competition’s bone stock cards. So basically, buyers are getting a slight speed increase without paying a penny more.

The heatsink which Gigabyte uses isn’t drastically different from NVIDIA’s design but it doesn’t need to be. The GF106 is a relatively cool running GPU but it is still good to see a small step taken towards lowering temperatures even further without adding to the acoustical profile of the stock card.

This particular GTS 450 1GB won’t win any awards for its outright speed but in our opinion its price sets it apart from the competition. Getting an overclocked, custom cooled product on launch day for an entry-level price is simply a revelation and could work towards lowering the cost of every other GTS 450. As such, Gigabyte’s GTS 450 1GB wins our Dam Good Value Award.


Pros:

- Respectable performance
- Overclocked & custom cooled yet reference price
- Extremely quiet
- Highly overclockable


Cons:

- Occasionally edged out by the HD 5750

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