ASUS ENGTS450 TOP DirectCU Review - PAGE 1

Not all new GPUs are able to have overclocked versions available at the time of release and often it can take months before non reference designs start to surface. There are, however, some cores that come with such a high level of overclocking potential that it is not only possible, but almost a necessity to increase the clock speeds right off the bat. This is the idea behind the latest ASUS model using the GF106 core.

What ASUS has done is take the reference design of the newly released GTS 450 and improved both the cooling capabilities and performance. This is done through increased clock speeds, an aftermarket heatpipe cooling solution and even the ability to raise the core voltage for additional overclocking headroom. All of this should take the ENGTS450 TOP to the next level and lead to substantial improvements over the reference design.

In our review of the reference GTS 450 we found its performance level fit between the HD 5750 and HD 5770 in most games. This was with the stock speed of 783MHz though, so with this card's 18% clock increase the ASUS ENGTS450 TOP could boast some impressive performance gains which could place it more in line with the performance of the HD 5770.

There is an added premium for the extra performance, but ASUS has kept the price increase at a modest level as the ENGTS450 will only retail for $10 more than the standard models. This is actually a very small increase and at $140 dollars this card could be an exceptional value compared to the other GTS 450's on the market.

The ASUS TOP graphics card defines itself with the 925MHz overclock, but the improved cooling is also a large part of the ASUS design. The cooler consists of a large aluminum finned array that has dual 8mm heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. Direct contact is a design that has become popular in the CPU cooling market because it has been some to more efficiently transfer heat from the core into the array. With this design ASUS states the operating temperature can be up to 20% cooler than the reference cards while gaming, yet still be up to 35% quieter.