Introducing Galaxy’s GTS 450 SuperOverclock

Price to Performance

It is pretty clear from our 21 games and two synthetic tests that the GTS 450 has given Nvidia and their partners a potent GPU to put against AMD’s HD 5750/5770. However, the GTS 450 does not have the clear distinction of being the fastest video card in its class.  So much of its success will depend on market pricing and AMD has already lowered their HD 5770 in a preemptive strike against the GTS 450.

As we can see, these cards do finally compete directly with each other in both price and in performance. Unlike with Nvidia’s earlier offerings of their GF100 where the videocards were not directly competing, this launch is far more aggressive so as to make inroads into AMD’s market share in the midrange – HD 5750 and HD 5770 territory.

Clearly AMD is confident in its own mature product and they are apparently going to counter Nvidia with discounted pricing and it is also clear that they are leaving their partners to use their judgment. Will this strategy work? How will Nvidia respond?  There are rumors of AMD’s new HD 6000 series that may well be introduced this year.  Until then and right now, it is an excellent time to upgrade as there is price competition again, something we have not seen for a long time until recently.

Conclusion

This has been quite an enjoyable – if physically exhausting – one-week, hand’s on experience for us in comparing our two GTS 450s versus HD 5750 and with the 8800 GTX of the earlier DX10 generation of video cards, as well as comparing GTS 450 SLI against GTX 480 and HD 5870. We wish that we had more than the week we were allowed to benchmark GTS 450 under NDA to give you our first impressions. During that same week, we also had to set up and benchmark HD 5750. However, it was certainly worth it and we feel priviliged to bring you our very first benchmarks and performance testing of Galaxy’s GTS 450 SOC.

We like the Galaxy GTS 450 SOC a lot and we plan to follow up with this editor’s special areas of interest – multi-GPU scaling and multi-display’s Eyefinity versus (2D) Surround.  We were amazed by the supeb scaling of SLI in newer games.  So, expect an ongoing series.  We also expect GF108 from Nvidia soon to take on HD 5500/5400 series.
In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like us to focus on for further testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.

Galaxy GTS 450 SOC

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Reference GTS 450 is faster than its competition, HD 5750 and probably very close to HD 5770 performance (also now down to $139).
• There is further room for overclocking and the Galaxy GTS 450 SOC is solidly faster than the reference GTS 450.
• New architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation.
• DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, 3D gaming, and 2D/3D Surround (with SLI) bring realism to gaming
• Galaxy’s flip-fan is great for keeping your OC.
• Galaxy’s GTS 450 SOC sports 4ns memory – the fastest on the market – a 3+1 PWM digital power supply, a MOSFET heatsink and solid components
• Two year warranty
• If you are considering SLI (for performance or Suround), 2 x GTX 450 is a very potent and inexpensive performance solution that sometimes rivals a single HD 5870.

Cons:

• Price – the HD 5770 is the same price as the GTS 450 reference version and offers similar performance.  And this is not really a con as formerly more expensive competing cards have already dropped their pricing.

That’s it.  For about the same price as an HD 5770 you get all the features that Nvidia video cards have to offer with very similar performance.  Of course, a good factory overclock like the Galaxy’s GTS 450 will elevate it way beyond reference GTS 450 performance and you get all the benefits of a premium card such as a two year warranty, the Galaxy’s amazing flip-fan and solid components.  We feel that Galaxy has a real winner in their GTS 450 SOC to offer us and we are pleased to award them our ABT Editor’s Choice and Kick-Ass awards!

This editor believes that Nvidia, although late, does bring a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming – although with a bit of a price premium. We have also seen Nvidia’s drivers improve and their multi-GPU SLI scaling for newer games is very impressive.  We also like the direction they are heading in with their simplified installations of their GeForce 260 drivers.

If you currently game on a 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, or 9800 GT class of card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a GTS 450 will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of GTS 450 SLI if you want to get even higher performance on a budget or want to use Suround’s 2D three-panel display (which we are going to explore in a future article versus Eyefinity).

If the many exclusive features of the new GTS 450 appeal to you and you are gaming at 1680×1050, you cannot go wrong with a GTS 450 and especially the Galaxy SOC if you are considering overclocking as an alternative to buying a more expensive card.  The competition is hot as the prices on HD 5750/5770 have softened and they offer their own set of features including a cheaper way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity.  Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT.

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