MSI N450GTS Cyclone 1GB Review

1. Introduction2. The MSI N450GTS Cyclone 1GB3. Testing Methodology4. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.15. 3DMark Vantage6. Stone Giant Benchmark7. Resident Evil 58. Tom Clancy H.A.W.X.9. Mafia 210. Aliens V Predator11. Far Cry 212. Metro 203313. HQV Benchmark 2.114. Power Consumption15. Thermal Dynamics16. Acoustics Performance17. Overclocking18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

With the launch of the GTS450, those with around £100 ($150) to spend on a new graphics card are in for a treat. Not only is the new nVidia product exciting on paper but we are also seeing some price movement from AMD that's going to make the whole market segment very interesting indeed. With prices moving faster than quicksand, will the GTS450 also manage to steal market share from AMD's golden 5770? Today we find out.

The vast majority of graphic cards sold in the world cost less than £100 ($150/€120). The GTS450 has been created to satisfy the demands of gamers on a strict budget. Internally, nVidia is calling GTS450 ‘The Sniper‘. In their own words ‘With fewer hardware units at its disposal, it doesn't have the firepower of our GeForce GTX class GPUs. Instead the GTS450 has to be precise, targeted, to accomplish its mission. Just like a Sniper'.

Corny analogies aside, the price conscious GTS450 is supplied with 1GB of GDDR5 on a 128 bit memory interface and is brought to market to replace the GTS 250. Nvidia are marketing it to go head to head with AMD's successful HD5750.

Due to recent GTX460 price drops, partners are releasing standard clocked models around £100, with overclocked models aiming to hit retail around £120 inc vat. Whatever else happens, this could very well be a great  ‘bargain basement' win for the punter … yes you.

We really don't like receiving  reference boards for our reviews (although sometimes we have no option) as we know most people who read KitGuru want enhanced third party models. Fortunately MSI kindly supplied one of their Cyclone 1GB cards with a custom cooler and overclocked core and memory speeds.

	GTS 450 1GB	MSI N460GTS 1GB
Graphics Processing Clusters	1	1
Streaming Multiprocessors	4	4
CUDA Cores	192	192
Texture Units	32	32
ROP Units	16	16
Graphics Clock	783 Mhz	850 Mhz
Processor Clock (CUDA Cores)	1566 Mhz	1700 Mhz
Memory Clock (Clock Rate/Data Rate)	902 Mhz	1000 Mhz
L2 Cache Size	256KB	256KB
Total Video Memory	1024MB GDDR5	1024MB GDDR5
Memory Interface	128 bit	128 bit
Fabrication Process	40nm	40nm
Transistor Count	1.17 Billion	1.17 Billion
Connectors	2x Dual Link DVI-I 1Mini HDMI	2x Dual Link DVI-I 1Mini HDMI
Power Connectors	1 x 6 pin	1 x 6 pin
Recommended Power Supply	400W	400W
Thermal Threshold	95c	95c

The MSI N450GTS Cyclone arrives in a standard sized box, with the front featuring an isolated image of the cooler.

The bundle contains a software disc, power converter, manual, quick start guide and some video converter cables. MSI Afterburner is included, a great overclocking tool based around the Rivatuner application.

The card itself is dominated by the Cyclone cooler, which is almost identical to the cooler on the N460GTX we recently reviewed. The card is 8.25 inches long and has full support for SLI.

The fan is a 9cm unit which is PWM controlled and according to MSI offers 40% more airflow over a reference design. The design is 'rounded' to keep out dust and claims are made than the card will run 17% cooler than the reference design.

The name ‘Cyclone' bears reference to the air flow system incorporated as can be seen in the diagram above.

The card utilises all solid capacitors throughout and runs at lower temperatures with a higher efficiency. MSI also offers the Cyclone card in a non-overclocked state and while we don't have confirmed pricing for this product just yet, we would guess around £100. The standard card will run at 783mhz core and memory at 3600mhz, not 850mhz and 4000mhz as with the OC edition we are testing today. The MSI GTS450 card supports two dual link DVI ports and a mini HDMI connector. It only requires a single 6 pin power connector.

The heatsink is easily removed by removing four screws on the rear of the PCB.

The Fan base is nickel plated copper which offers much better heat transfer when compared with a traditionally designed cooler. The rounded edge on the fins will help prevent dust from ‘holding' on the edge, giving longer fan lifespan. Two heatpipes are incorporated helping to disperse heat outwards to the fins.

Military grade components are used throughout, and the capacitors have Tantalum Cores, which is a rare metal offering high levels of stability. MSI claim the same material is used on space shuttles and satellites, so I guess if you ever wanted to take your PC up to game in space this would be an ideal choice.

For testing today we built a system specifically based around the Intel Core i5 760 processor (check out this article). nVidia have recommended that the GTS450 should be tested at a maximum of 1680×1050, but as we received an overclocked edition we have pushed some of the engines to 1080p (1920×1080).

KitGuru is all about buying advice. Life is all about choices. We're going to compare MSI's Cyclone against several cards that you're likely to consider alongside nVidia's latest offering, including Sapphire's HD5770 Vapor X and a standard HD5750.

The GTX460 has also been included to show what you can expect if you decide to part with a little extra cash.

System Validation here

Main System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 760 @ 4.2ghz
Memory: Corsair Dominator with Air Flow Pro @ 1600mhz
Motherboard: ASRock P55 Extreme4
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower XT 675W
Case: Bitfenix Colossus
Cooler: Corsair H70
Monitor: iiyama ProLite E2472HDD

Comparison video cards:
Sapphire HD5770 Vapor X – 860mhz core/1200mhz memory
HD5750 – 700 mhz core/1150 mhz memory
GTX 460 OC 715mhz core / 900 memory

Technical Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)

Software:
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate Edition

Forceware Driver 260.52
Catalyst 10.8
FRAPS Professional
GPU Z
CPU Z
MSI Afterburner
Furmark

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1
3DMark Vantage
Stone Giant Benchmark
Resident Evil 5
Tom Clancy HAWX
Mafia 2
Aliens V Predator
Far Cry 2
Metro 2033
HQV Benchmark 2.1

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests all games across five closely matched runs and averages out the results to get an accurate median figure.

Our minimum frame rate game graphs have three main zones. These are sampled over a specific 30 interval period of time and then mapped into a chart. These are handy reference guides to detail worst case performance of the product being reviewed. When we test video cards we try to find the best combination of resolution and image quality settings while still maintaining playable frame rates.

Over 30fps is the zone most people want at all times, this means perfectly smooth frame rates with no hitching.

Between 30fps and 25fps is the KitGuru ‘Playable’ zone, although some people might notice occasional stuttering in specific scenes.

Under 25fps is classed as the KitGuru ‘Danger Zone’ which means that the game experience will be less than impressive. Settings and/or resolution would need lowered to help smooth out the frame rate.

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We have tested today at both 1680×1050 and 1080p (1920×1080) resolutions. 1080p is a standard resolution we use with the Heaven Benchmark on all graphics cards.

Shaders are set to high, Tessellation to normal, anistrophy to 4 and Anti Aliasing is disabled.

nVidia cards have the edge in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark with the MSI GTS450 beating HD5770 Vapor X and HD5750 at both resolutions. The overclocked GTX460 is obviously way out in front (this card actually is close to the HD5870 which shows are far ahead nVidia are with tesselation heavy rendering).

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7.  This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

While the GTX460 is way out in front the battle between the MSI Cyclone N450GTS and Sapphire HD5770 VaporX is very tight with only 10 points between the cards. We ran this test 10 times and everytime the N450GTS came out very slightly in front.

Stone Giant is a 3rd party Direct X 11 benchmark developed by BitSquid and FatShark to demonstrate the benefits of pervasive tessellation in a game setting. BitSquid is a start up formed in 2009 from the lead engineers at GRIN, who were the developers of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (and others). Their publisher, FatShark, is based in Sweden and recently released ‘Lead and Gold” on Steam.

This benchmark uses tessellation extensively and DirectCompute to render high quality depth of field with soft bokeh.

We run this benchmark at 1680×1050.

As with Unigine Heaven Benchmark, the Stone Giant benchmark heavily favours nVidia hardware due to the superior tessellation performance. The MSI Cyclone N450GTS is significantly in front of the HD5770, although it does drop to under 20fps on a few occasions leading to visual stuttering. The GTX460 is the only card able to keep this benchmark running perfectly smoothly at our chosen settings.

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.

We are running this game at both 1680×1050 and 1080p (1920×1080) with 8AA and everything maxed.

AMD hardware performs well with the Resident Evil 5 engine and the Cyclone N450GTS has a tough time, maintaining almost equal performance with the reference clocked HD5750 at both resolutions. The HD5770 Vapor X pulls out in front at both resolutions with the GTX460 OC leading the way by a significant margin.

Tom Clancy HAWX is set in the same universe as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter; as Captain Scott Mitchell, the Ghost leader, is featured in a few missions of the missions. Plot elements are carried over from other Tom Clancy games such as the missile defense system found in Tom Clancy’s EndWar. G4′s interview with H.A.W.X’s lead designer Thomas Simon reveals that the game takes place in between Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar.

The player begins the game in 2014 as the player assumes the role of former U.S. Air Force pilot, David Crenshaw, who is part of an elite unit called H.A.W.X (“High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron”), provides fire-support missions for the Ghost team carrying out covert operations in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. However, shortly after the mission, the Air Force decides to deactivate the H.A.W.X squadron and its pilots, including Crenshaw, are recruited into the PMC Artemis Global Security.

We are testing : DX 10.1 with shadows high, sun shafts high, ambient occlusion (SSAO) very high. view distance high, forest high, environment high, texture quality high, HDR on, Engine heat on and DOF on.

The Cyclone N450GTS is going toe to toe with the HD5770 Vapor X with the frame rates so tight it is hard to tell them apart. The HD5750 trails the pack by around 7-9 fps.

Mafia II is a gritty drama which chronicles the rise of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join the Falcone Crime Family and become a made man. There are 15 chapters in the game, connected into one storyline.

We testing: 1080p (1920×1080) with fullscreen: on, antialiasing: off, Anisotrophic filtering: 16x, Shadow Quality: Medium, Ambient Occlusion: on, Geometry Detail: Medium and APEX PhysX: Medium.

Our environmental FRAPS testing shows that the GTX460 OC is leading the pack with the Sapphire HD5770 Vapor X trailing slightly with the MSI Cyclone N450GTS a few frames per second behind. The HD5750 is firmly in last place.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.

The HD5750, N450GTS and HD5770 Vapor X are all within a couple of frames of each other. The overclocked GTX460 is way out in front with AVP.

Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today.

Our settings: 1920×1080 (60Hz), D3D10, Fixed Time Step(No), Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(4x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Optimal), Vegetation(High), Shading(High), Terrain(High), Geometry(High), Post FX(High), Texture(High), Shadow(High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High).

Far Cry 2 has always been an engine which runs great on nVidia hardware and we can see the differences between the MSI Cyclone N450GTS and the HD5770 Vapor X/HD5750. The GTX460 is in a different class entirely.

The makers of Metro 2033 – 4A Games was founded by people who split off from GSC Game World a year before the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, in particular Oles’ Shiskovtsov and Aleksandr Maksimchuk, the programmers who worked on the development of X-Ray engine used in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The game utilizes multi-platform 4A Engine, running on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. There is some contention regarding whether the engine is based on the pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World, as well as users who have seen the 4A Engine SDK screenshots, citing visual similarities, shared resources, and technical evaluation of the pre-release 4A Engine demo conducted at the request of GSC Game World), or whether the engine is an original development (as claimed by 4A Games and Oles’ Shiskovtsov in particular, who claims it would have been impractical to retrofit the X-ray engine with console support). 4A Engine features Nvidia PhysX support, enhanced AI, and a console SDK for Xbox 360. The PC version includes exclusive features such as DirectX 11 support and has been described as “a love letter to PC gamers” because of the developers’ choice to “make the PC version [especially] phenomenal”.

We tested at 1680×1050 with Quality settings to medium, DX11 enabled, no AA, Texture filtering to 16x, Tessellation enabled and Advanced DOF disabled.

The MSI Cyclone N450GTS delivers great results at our chosen settings delivering 32 fps avg and 26fps min. Both ATI cards struggle with the tessellation elements with the Vapor X stuttering at 21fps in a few sections. The HD5750 would need the resolution or IQ settings lowered.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here.

	MSI N450GTS Cyclone
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	5
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	5
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	5
Ferris Wheel	3
Skin Tones	3
Total	195

We spent a full day retesting the HQV Benchmark 2.1 and we can report that nVidia's new drivers are without a doubt their best set for image quality, scoring 195 points with the MSI card. This is a significant improvement for the guys in green.

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 are very good with this overclocked model only consuming around 100 watts of power when gaming in Crysis Warhead. At idle the N450GTS consumes 1watt less power than the Vapor X HD5770.

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. These results are taken with the system built inside the Bitfenix Colossus .

Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test.

I was completely shocked with how cool this MSI Cyclone runs, even when under load. After gaming I was able to remove the card almost immediately with the PCB only feeling warm to the touch. When stressing in Furmark the card heats up by another 7 degrees Celcius to 56c. The MSI Cyclone cooler is really an impressive design and thanks to the low heat output of the 450 design, the PCB isn't radiating alot of heat into the chassis.

Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20 dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

We experienced similar results with the Cyclone cooler on the N460GTX card, this is a fan design that not only generates good air flow – it also avoids creating a racket in the process.

To overclock the cards today we are using MSI’s Afterburner software and testing for stability in Crysis.

With a little effort we were able to get the card stable at 935 mhz on the core and 1075mhz on the memory, an 85mhz and 75mhz increase respectively. We then tried Metro 2033 again to see how this would affect our frame rates.

We managed to squeeze another 2 fps out of the engine with the overclock which helped with the smoothness of the experience during a few intensive game sections.

Had nVidia managed to hit its original schedule, then the GTX 460 and GTS450 cards would almost certainly have been released six months ago. By giving AMD such a long run in the field unchallenged, not only has a huge lead in DX11 marketshare been built up – but we're now facing the launch of the complete 6000 series refresh from AMD, which promises a next generation DX11 experience.

Without question, the GTS450 is still an attractive proposition. With the vanilla cards expected around the £100 mark, MSI's neatly overclocked N450GTS 1GB Cyclone commands a little more money by giving you a solid package that combines improved cooling with pre-configured overclocking and the promise of more to come if you're prepared to get your hands dirty with a manual overclock.

In their documentation nVidia are pushing the vanilla GTS450 in a head to head against the sub-£100 HD5750, but our MSI N450GTS sample is priced at £120, which means it needs to be compared against the HD5770 series.

As our MSI sample is overclocked, we felt it was only fair to compare it against one of the industry standard overclocked HD5770's, the excellent Sapphire HD5770 Vapor X, which is still retailing at £145 inc vat. Therefore with a £25 price differential in its favour, MSI's overclocked GTS450 seems to be a really strong deal right now. When you factor in the additional headroom for manual overclocking it really is a very tempting solution.

Recapping over the results we can see that with Tessellation intensive rendering, the GTS450 comes out on top. Unigine Heaven Benchmark, Stone Giant and Metro 2033 all favour the nVidia solution. Far Cry 2 has always performed better with nVidia hardware/drivers and the MSI Cyclone GTS450 outperforms the overclocked HD5770 with this engine also.

It isn't all plain sailing for nVidia however as the HD5770 Vapor X had a clear performance edge with Resident Evil 5. Additionally, Mafia 2 and Aliens V Predator although closer matched, delivered better frame rates on the HD5770. Tom Clancy H.A.W.X. was so close it was tough to call.

So while performance between the two overclocked boards was tight, the MSI N450GTS Cyclone has the overall edge with the synthetic tests and game engines we used. nVidia's developer relations team must be working overtime to get more game developers to include higher levels of Tessellation.

Focusing on the MSI N450GTS, we can wholeheartedly recommend this card, because it offers a formidable package at a mouth watering price point. For £120 you get a video card which can handle the most taxing  game engines at 1680×1050 without a problem and it will deliver sensible frame rates for almost every other game at 1080p. Power consumption is a very efficient 100W under load and the Cyclone cooler keeps the temperatures under 60c, even with Furmark synthetic stress testing. We see no reason to buy a reference cooled card, unless you are on an extremely tight budget.

KitGuru says: Although six months late to the party, with the highly-overclockable GTS450 nVidia have released a very strong DX11 solution that's also very affordable. MSI's 1GB GTS450 Cyclone is a fantastic card.

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