With all of the new products being introduced into NVIDIA's lineup, the prices of many GeForce GTX 400 series cards have been falling with meteoric speed. As a result, the GeForce GTS 450 has found itself playing second fiddle to higher end GeForce GTX 460's which can be bought for under $130 after rebates are applied. The $120 valued GeForce GTS 450 graphics card looked completely overpriced and outmatched but prices have gradually fallen in line with our expectations and recently hit an highly affordable target of $90 to $110. Naturally, the possibility of buying an efficient mid-range graphics card for about a hundred bucks is an quite appealing prospect and our interest was piqued by Sparkle. - HardwareCanucks

Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 1GB OC Single Slot Review

Most partner cards have adhered to the reference design and clock speeds but we found some very unique GeForce GTS 450's which caters to certain markets. And one of these is the foremost product in Sparkle's newest One series of home theater oriented single slot cards. Dubbed the GeForce GTS 450 One OverClock edition, Sparkle has fundamentally departed from the reference design in order to create a card with a focus on optimal thermal dissipation in a single slot form factor. We have already seen this goal achieved with XFX's Radeon HD 5770 but there is always a price premium and a drop in cooling performance involved.

Sparkle has two different lines, their standard series of products and their Calibre branded cards which usually crank up the excitement by offering high overclocks and some wicked custom cooling solutions. The newest One series falls into the standard category but it still carries increase clock speeds but they haven't been pushed enough to really affect performance numbers. Aside from the fact that it sports a single slot heatsink, this Sparkle card uses an front mounted fan which pushes air into your case. This kind of setup may cause some issues in smaller systems since it runs contrary to a case's natural airflow direction.

As the GeForce GTS 450 has matured, it seems to have carved out a great niche for itself at a highly appealing price point. Unfortunately, this video card has gone relatively unnoticed ever since its release since many seemed more than willing to spend the extra money for a GeForce GTX 460 or its AMD equivalents. Prices have fallen since then and in our opinion, the GeForce GTS 450 version is now an excellent value oriented card that has no issue playing latest games at relative high settings. This Sparkle GeForce GTS 450 One car doesn't strike an imposing figure with a single slot height but it is absolutely perfect for its targeted niche.

With such a compact design, this could be the graphics card of choice for some home theater users and the slight overclock to core and memory provides a bit more performance in some situations. Temperatures were also surprisingly good considering the GF106 chip is far from the most efficient core in this price range. While performance was good the single slot cooler provided decent performance, we really have to wonder about the true usefulness of this card outside of a few select cases. You will also have to pay a $20 premium over a reference GeForce GTS 450 which is a hefty increase for the convenience of a single slot card.

Regardless of the price increase which this Sparkle One carries, we feel that it fits well into its intended niche. When compared to the Radeon HD 5770, it may not have the performance edge. Hopefully, Sparkle will continue to explore these types of unique designs since they do add some interesting perspectives into the market and will appeal to a certain group of people