We've tested the Asus Geforce GTS 450 on a Windows Vista SP2 x64 based system build around a Core 2 Duo @ 3.4Ghz with 4Gb RAM. We ran the GTS 450 at reference NVIDIA speeds (GPU: 783Mhz, Shader: 156Mhz, Memory: 1000Mhz) as well as the stock speeds set by Asus for their TOP version, being GPU: 925Mhz, Shader: 1850Mhz, the memory speed remained unchanged.

You can jump straight to our video card comparison database here for the full detailed results analysis, we've updated the benchmark suite with 2 new additions, Mafia 2 (ran with PhysX disabled) and Aliens vs. Predator ran in DX11 mode. These two games released in 2010 offer a good idea of what the Asus Geforce GTS 450 is capable of at different resolutions.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Starting with the two most recent benchmarks from Futuremark, 3DMark06 gives us a an early indication of DX9 game performance, here the reference Geforce GTS 450 outpaces the 9800GTX+, while the Asus DirectCU manages to squeeze by a Radeon HD 4890 and almost match a GTX 260, impressive showing so far. Switching over to 3DMark Vantage this DX10 benchmark doesn't always mimic in-game performance, but it's worth seeing where the cards rank anyway. The reference card is well ahead of the 9800GTX+ here, head to head with the GTX 260. The Asus overclocked version is nipping at heels of the Radeon HD 4890 and about 1000 points (or ~10%) faster than the stock NVIDIA card.

Game benchmarks

First the new benchmarks, Aliens vs. Predator in DX11 HQ mode is only playable at 1280x1024, even the overclocked GTS 450 from Asus barely manages 30fps at 1600x1200, without AA/AF. Mafia 2 gives a better impression, here you can get away with 1920x1200 (without AA/AF) without too much issue, do also note that the Mafia 2 benchmark is a worse case scenario, most of the time you won't come across gaming sections as stressful as those in the benchmark. Playing around with the settings we were able to run at 1920x1200 with 16xAF enabled and even PhysX running at its lowest setting; Of course for the results charts and fairness PhysX was disabled. Compared to the aging 9800GTX+ you can see that the reference GTS 450 is no match, trailing the older card noticeably. Luckily the card reacts nicely to the GPU overclock, Asus' 18% overclock translates into a 25% FPS boost at 1920x1200 (noAA/AF) and pushes it past the 9800GTX+, although that margin decreases as resolution and IQ goes up.

When you concentrate on the results for the reference clocked Geforce GTS 450 you'd have to wonder, what were they thinking? The card is most of the time only marginally better than the old 9800GTX+, while sometimes it's even noticeably slower; the Asus TOP version luckily does deliver, and makes it clear that this card needs such an overclock to truly be worth considering. Looking at the results charts above, from left to right:

- Oblivion was a piece of cake for the 450, managing 60fps at the highest resolution quality settings, the Asus overclock doesn't really do much here.
- Call of Duty 4 has a pretty scalable engine that performs well on the 450, the Asus TOP version gives you a boost, enough to push the framerate counter past the 60fps mark
- Crysis is still not conquered by the new midrange, 1920x1200 (without AA/AF) is now possible, although the 9800GTX+ does this as well. An overclocked GTS 450 gives you a few frames more.

- Crysis Warhead has also a DX10 and DX9 mode, we ran DX9 in "gamer" mode, a good choice, the GTS 450 makes a good showing, TOP version able to give us almost 30fps at 1920x1200, and noticeably faster than the 9800GTX+! The DX10 enthusiast mode brings even the most expensive SLI/CF configurations to its knees, we've censored this chart here for our more sensitive readers.
- Far Cry 2 works marvellously on the fermi GPU, the GTS 450 inherented this from its bigger brothers, managing more than 30fps at 1920x1200 (4xAA/16xAF), the Asus TOP version almost at 40fps.
- STALKER: Clear Sky worked well on the Geforce GTS 450, it does take the Asus overclock to be able to distance from the older generations, 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF at 42fps.
- World in Conflict was one of the few games where the extra clockspeed on the DirectCU TOP version from Asus failed to really make a difference. Performance is pretty much on par with 9800GTX+.

More benchmark results at all the different resolutions and IQ settings can be found in our video card comparison database.

Now that we have a reasonably good idea of how this card stacks up to the competition performance wise, it's time to check out the power consumption, noise and temperature results obtained from the Asus Geforce GTS 450 DirectCU TOP