KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. The best way to get maximum load results is by using Furmark, and even though it is not indicative of a real world situation it shows the limits the card can theoretically demand. The ‘gaming’ results are measured when playing Crysis Warhead and is a more valuable result to take from this.
The power consumption figures of the HD5750 cards is excellent with both XFX and Powercolor solutions requiring around 70watts when gaming. The eVGA GTS450 however needs 102watts in the same situation. Its only 32-33 watts more and still quite efficient when all is said and done. We noticed the eVGA GTS450 was consuming more (7 watts) under Furmark than the Cyclone N450GTS 1GB card we reviewed a while ago. When idle, the eVGA GTS450 is only demanding 11 watts which is quite impressive.
It is really good to see lower end cards reviewed here, the high end boards are great, but I doubt many people can afford them.
That XFX board is great. looks like a bargain to me.
This market is really so friggin sweet right now. anyone with a semi decent sized monitor, this is all they need. im not a gaming fanatic so maybe people wouldnt agree.
Nah its a good point Tom. if someone has a 1920×1200 screen, a 460GTX is all they need, unless they want crazy performance. 1080p, or 1680 then the cards on test today are great. the low end is so strong right now, it has to be killing high end cards sales.
I actually might pick one of these up for my kid brother for christmas. we are all putting a system together for him. cant believe how good the performance is for the price.
XFX and Sapphire, only cards to buy IMO
450GTS is good but I dont think its a dominating product like the 460 was. its killed 5830, and even hurt 5850’s. The 450 is a good board but the overclocked ATI cards are really going punch for punch.
I like that single slot design. the powercolor card is different but the shape looks weird.
Fantastic review, loads of detail and useful info.
wonder how long it will be for other sites to copy the return to idle concept 😉
GTS450 is a good card but I agree, it isnt dominating like the 460 is. the price is good and I like evga, this would be my choice out of the three, mainly cause I dont like catalyst.
@ Tri Color – Catalyst is great now, not a problem, I wouldnt let the drivers put you off the hardware.
@ Stefan – nah, they still suck. my buddy has a 5850 and the cat alyst 10.8 broke his HDMI scaling and every time he boots up he has to fix it. same with Cat 10.9. they are still a poor driver compared to nvidia forceware.