The GeForce GTS 450 1GB may be an inauspicious card to the crowd of people who live and die in the enthusiast mindset but to most of the market, it represents very good performance for a minimal investment. NVIDIA has also given their board partners the green light to release a vast number of overclocked and non-reference designs come launch day. These new versions have been helped along by the GTS 450’s abundant willingness to overclock to extremely high levels.
ASUS is following on the heels of their competition by introducing a number of GTS 450s into the market. Naturally, there will be a reference version but the product we are more interested in is their TOP Edition which comes with a custom heatsink design dubbed “DirectCu”. In the longstanding tradition of ASUS cards, the TOP series has always been synonymous with high clock frequencies and cutting edge design. They have now taken this mantra and applied it to their $149 GTS 450 TOP.
Not only does the GTS 450 1GB TOP come with high flying clock speeds and a wicked-looking heatsink but additional changes have also been made. Not satisfied with the canvas given to them by NVIDIA’s reference design, ASUS went back to the drawing board and have designed a card which has the ability to far outstrip its price point. Along with their Xtreme Design VGA initiative (more on this later on in the review), an expanded and improved power distribution layout was added in order to better cope with higher clock speeds. ASUS also includes their SmartDoctor overclocking software which will help push the outer limits of this GTS 450’s design.
We have already seen some companies like Palit announcing their own custom GTS 450 versions but many of their changes have been made to cut costs. ASUS on the other hand charges a slight price premium and yet adds features that improve upon the card and its overall performance. To us, this looks like a winning combination.
The Current NVIDIA Lineup
It may have taken them a while to get the ball rolling at a meaningful pace, but NVIDIA is well on their way towards fleshing out their first generation DX11 lineup. Currently, the GTX 480 and GTX 470 hold the topmost rungs where they can compete against ATI’s single card flagships; the HD 5870 and HD 5850. They are both beastly cards that spill out the framerates as quickly as they consume power but there is no denying the fact that they each provide some excellent performance.
Running a bit lower along the rungs of the 400-series brings us to the GTX 465 which until recently represented an interesting wrinkle in the lineup. However, this GF100-based card’s performance and efficiency were brought under heavy scrutiny when the GF104 core was released.
The GF104 was NVIDIA’s first departure from the standard GF100 core layout and moved the Fermi architecture into a realm that was infinitely more affordable and attainable than past cards. Everyone’s darling, the GTX 460 series came front and center with a significant increase in its Texture Unit count versus GF100-based cards and it dazzled the press and consumers alike. There are bound to be additional GF104-based products coming soon so stay tuned.
Until additional 400-series cards are released, the GTS 450 1GB will act as NVIDIA’s lowest-end DX11 desktop card that is available at retailers. The GF106 core at its heart is essentially half of a GF104, and as you can see its specifications are very much in line with its asking price. Parallels will naturally be drawn between it and the outgoing yet infinitely long lived G92-based GTS 250.
The fact that we are comparing this new GTS 450 card to one which sports a GPU core that essentially debuted in 2007 is simply shocking and yet tells two stories; the longevity of the G92 and the fact that NVIDIA has been relying on its associated architecture for FAR too long. Nonetheless, the GTS 450 is meant to act as a direct replacement for the GTS 250 in addition to the 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+ and 8800 GTS. Judging from specifications alone, it should be able to do this without a problem since the only areas where it really loses out is in the memory bandwidth and texture unit departments. By now we all know that the Fermi architecture somewhat makes up for its lack of TMUs with additional processing cores so this should be a non-issue as well.
Out with the old, in with the new
Competition for this new card is of course ATI’s HD 5750, which is currently retailing for between $130 and $145. From our understanding, NVIDIA is hell bent on dominating this price category; be it by overall performance or a more appealing cost structure.
The GF106
Since the GF106 is based off of the exact same core design as the GF104, we recommend that you take a close look at our in-depth GF104 architecture analysis before reading any further. If you aren’t willing to do that, let’s just say that the GF106 at the heart of the GTS 450 1GB is essentially half of a fully enabled GF104. This evolution of the GF100 architecture is aimed at appeasing a market that is looking for higher efficiency than the higher end cards are capable of and yet still wants respectable performance. NVIDIA achieved this by upping the texture unit count per SM and slightly modifying the path by which higher level data is passed through the architecture.
The GF106 has four Streaming Multiprocessors which each contains 48 CUDA cores, 8 Special Function Units, 64KB of L1 cache, eight texture units and a Polymorph Engine containing the fixed function stages. In total, an unblemished GF106 has 192 cores and 32 texture units while lower-end cards could be created by disabling one or more of the SMs. This is all serviced by a single Raster Engine, 16 ROPs, 256KB of L2 cache and a pair of 64-bit memory controllers.
The GF106’s Features
As it stands, the GF106-based cards are the lowest priced units in the lineup that are compatible with NVIDIA’s Surround multi-monitor gaming setup. SLI is of course a requirement for Surround, but from our experiences the GTS 450 1GB is more than capable of delivering playable framerates across several monitors, as long as the detail settings are kept within acceptable ranges.
It goes without saying that other NVIDIA technologies such as CUDA, PhysX and 3D Vision are all useable on GF106-based cards but one of the main draws of the Fermi architecture’s efficient side is its ability to act as a higher-end HTPC card.
3D Vision & Blu Ray 3D
Even though we believe the whole “3D” craze in Hollywood is highly misplaced when it comes to actual movie support, there is no arguing with the fact people’s interest in it is growing. Through the use of a built-in HDMI 1.4 connector, the GF106 and GF104 support the 3D Blu-ray format which is an absolute necessity for watching movies in 3D. Naturally, you will need supporting software like Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 3D but luckily NVIDIA has also released 3D Vision Play to guide things along.
3D Vision Play is the final piece of the PC 3D movie puzzle. This piece of software allows the NVIDIA GPU to sync with 3D capable HDTVs via the HDMI 1.4 output. As a result, the standard 3D Vision glasses can be made to work with a TV set that would otherwise be incompatible, but beware that some HDTVs may still be incompatible.
Lossless Audio Playback
All of the GF104 and GF106 GPUs also support full bitstreaming of HD audio over HDMI. This means every bit of signal processing is done on the GPU itself without the need for external decoding. This is a huge step forward for those of you who want true high definition audio to go along with a 3D experience but once again you will need software that supports this feature.
Much like ATI, NVIDIA now has their own HDMI audio driver that is packaged along with their standard Forceware driver stack. With the 250-series drivers, this worked perfectly for us in the latest version of PowerDVD 10 but there is a catch. Below is a response from Cyberlink regarding how to get BD Bitstreaming working on PowerDVD. Supposedly, the process will be streamlined in later versions.
To get BD audio bitstreaming going you will need to play a Blu-ray disc, pause, then go to the settings menu. Make sure you select your HDMI audio output, and then select “Non-decoded high-definition audio to external device.
Dust Proof Fan
We all know that dust is a constant problem within a computer case and it can shorten the life of certain components like fans and power supplies. ASUS has implemented what they call a “dust proof fan” which is basically a hub design that ensures dust does not enter the bearing area which will in turn extend the fan’s lifespan. With this feature it is claimed that the fan’s life will be extended by nearly 10,000 hours.
GPU Guard
One of the main problems with larger GPUs is PCB flex which is easily identifiable on cards that use certain custom coolers. In these cases, the PCB will slightly bow where pressure is applied. Even though this isn’t a problem on cards sporting full-length coolers with multiple contact points, the ASUS GPU Guard aims to eliminate this by introducing additional reinforcement between the PCB layers.
Fuse Protection
While surge protectors and most UPS units will protect your computer from harmful surges, there are plenty of people out there that don’t have one of these units installed between their PC and the wall outlet. In order to add another layer of protection between the sensitive components on a graphics card and harmful power surges, ASUS has begun implementing Fuse Protection. This means a pair of fuses have been installed on the card just in case your power supply’s Over Current Protection fails as well. Let’s call this a last line of defence when all else fails.
ASUS GTS 450 TOP Specifications
The ASUS GTS 450 TOP brings about some simply awe-inspiring clock speeds to the table when you consider the reference speeds of the GTS 450. Both the memory and the core get equal treatment to the point where the core is running slightly above the speed of EVGA’s FTW while the memory is a mere 100Mhz behind. All of this for $10 more than the reference version? Sign us up!
Packaging & Accessories
The exterior packaging for the TOP series cards all seems to be the same with the usual angel / tiger hybrid and a whole lot of black. We do however appreciate the inclusion of the core clock on the front but the memory clock speed is conspicuous by its absence. ASUS has also included their Voltage Tweak / Smart Doctor software with this card as stated on the back of the box.
ASUS was able to cut down a bit on price by using a standard white interior box which runs contrary to the beautiful black / gold packaging we are used to seeing with TOP-series cards. Considering one MAY see the interior of the box once, we would rather the cost savings be used somewhere else and in the case of this card, they are.
Accessories are basic with a single Molex to 6-pin adaptor included along with the usual driver CD and quick install guide. Since the card itself has connectors for VGA, DVI and HDMI, no other dongles are needed.
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