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Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 Video Card Review
Author: Will West
Published: Thursday, September 30, 2010
Card Layout and Features
The majority of video cards on the market are based on a reference design, this helps the company bring their product to market faster and usually saves money in the end. Aside from the blue PCB the board is completely reference. The heatsink is similar to the "batmobile" cooler and features an aluminum wrapped copper slug.
The new compact cooler is still a dual slot design so you will get the typical dual slot end plate, however the venting is not active. 1x Mini-HDMI, 2x Dual-Link DVI connections allow you to hook up 2 monitors to the GTS 450.
Dual card SLI is supported with the GTS 450, as is indicted by the single bridge connector. Given the price point and intended market SLI is considered to be an upgrade path for the end user and not regarded as a selling point.
The Gigabyte GTS 450 uses a 16x PCI-Express 2.0 slot that is backwards compatible with older versions of PCI-Express bus connections.
A nice feature of the GTS 450 is the conservative power requirements. The card only requires a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector coming from a 400+ Watt PSU. Your PSU will need at least 22A on the 12V rail, which should be typical of modern power supplies.
High current video cards typically have a cooler positioned over the voltage regulators, the absence of one here is a good indication of the overall efficiency of the GPU.
High current video cards typically have a cooler positioned over the voltage regulators, the absence of one here is a good indication of the overall efficiency of the GPU.
