Today NVIDIA launches their new GeForce GTS 450 series of graphics cards. As the GTS naming suggests, this card is more of an mid-range part than an high performance device. It is NVIDIA's expressed goal to offer a low priced DirectX 11 graphics card that the majority of gamers can just afford and still play the latest games. This GF106 graphics chipsets are based on NVIDIA's Fermi architecture, which was released earlier this year. In order to achieve the product performance and positioning NVIDIA was looking for, they disabled some components of the full GF106 core, resulting in the graphics processor for this GeForce GTS 450. Unlike other Fermi class cards the changes are quite limited. - techPowerUp

Zotac GeForce GTS 450 1GB AMP! Edition Review

Basically NVIDIA removed two memory chips from the design, two chips less means also twice 32-bit less bus interface, so a single 64-bit memory controller got disabled. Their memory bus width is closely coupled to the number of active raster operator units in the GPU, meaning one partition is disabled. Overall this change enables board partners to build more price competitive products because of the reduced cost for memory chips and PCB signal routing. It helps NVIDIA to increase its GPU yields and leaves the option to create a more powerful GeForce GTS 455 at a later time, that has a 192-bit interface, with likely 768MB or double.

The Zotac package follows the company's visual orange theme with a dragon on front. Compared to other board partners the Zotac package is quite small which is an good thing because that reduces production cost, shipping cost and waste. Their board is an good bit shorter than many other GeForce GTS 450 cards we received today, which could come in handy in those smaller cases. The thermal solution is the same one as seen on Zotac GeForce GTS 250 cards before. You may combine up to two GeForce GTS 450 cards in SLI for added performance or improved image quality, and comes with a single PCI Express power connector.

The new GeForce GTS 450 is a solid implementation of the Fermi architecture for the lower mid-range segment. These cards have enough power to play the latest titles at lower widescreen resolutions, while older games will run just fine at a bit higher too. This enables users to enjoy current DirectX 11 titles at a reasonable cost point below $150. Though ATI has had their sub-$150 DirectX 11 Radeons out on the market for almost a year now. This just feels a bit like NVIDIA is still playing the catch-up game. Don't get us wrong, the GeForce GTS 450 is a great card but it doesn't seem to bring surprises. Neither performance, nor price wise.

It also puzzles us why NVIDIA's reference design comes at such low clocks that almost every board partner would be out of his mind to not overclock and ask a premium for the boards. This means that the $129 reference price tag is only a baseline with the majority of designs reaching well into the $140 area. We were able to reach 923MHz on our sample which is a good result, considering that the card runs at a rather low voltage. Other manufacturers increase the voltage which results in higher overclock but also more power consumption and heat. Though it also limits you if you plan on increasing the voltage yourself during overclocking.

The factory overclock of Zotac's version is far from the maximum we have seen, something that won't matter if you plan on overclocking the card yourself anyway. The price of the card is the most expensive with $160, but this may change as supply becomes more steady and competition between board vendors heats up. The final verdict on the GeForce GTS 450 itself is not definitive. It actually leans very close to the Radeon HD 5750 in terms of performance. Choosing a card in this segment has been a tough decision, and will now be even harder.