Conclusion

When the GTX 460 was released it very much changed the midrange market due to the success Nvidia had in keeping control on power, heat and noise levels while providing great features and gaming performance. For this reason it was always going to be interesting to see if they could do the same at another price point with the GTS 450. So have they been successful?

The answer to that would have to be yes as in the last few days, in advance of the GTS 450 launch, Radeon 5770 cards have begun falling in price to make them more competitive with this new card. A clear sign that AMD are concerned about what the GTS 450 offers.

With the GTS 450 we get a compact, low noise, cool running card which often exceeds the performance of the 5750 and on occasion exceeds the 5770. We were able to game at a minimum of 1680x1050 throughout this review and on more than one occasion the GTS 450 allowed us to hit 1920x1080 with 8x anti-aliasing without any framerate issues.

In addition to this impressive performance in "standard" gaming tests with DirectX 9, 10, 10.1 and 11 we also have the option to take advantage of PhysX and 3D Vision on the GTS 450. In both of those tests the results achieved exceeded our expectations. In Mafia 2, the game which makes best use of PhysX to date, we were able to play at 1920x1080 with maximum in-game settings. Then moving to Batman: Arkham Asylum with maximum PhysX we were able to combine a 1680x1050 resolution with 3D Vision for an experience which far exceeds that available on the competition from AMD.

Looking at the various models which we reviewed today they all have their own take on the design. Gainward take the GTS 450 to an extreme, offering the best framerates. Gigabyte give us a unique and interesting cooler with a boost in performance over the reference model. Zotac’s go further than Gigabyte with their overclock and while the cooler is not as extravagant the selection of outputs provided is by far the best in this roundup.

In the end all of the cards are appealing and we suggest watching the prices later today before deciding on a purchase.

Summary
The GTS 450 had an impact on the midrange market before it was even released, forcing the competition to adjust their pricing in order to compete. Looking at framerates the GTS 450 generally sits between the 5750 and 5770 but in terms of features it is far superior to the competition from AMD.

Read our GTS 450 SLI review here