The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Tech Report

Fermi has been out for ages, but NVIDIA continue to rely on their older GPUs to power their graphics cards. Take, for example, the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250. Despite being part of the GeForce 200 series of graphics cards, it's actually a rebranded GeForce 9800 GTX+. In fact, the G92b GPU used is a slightly improved version of the G92 GPU, which first debuted back in 2007! Yes, the venerable G92 is still soldiering on years after its introduction, in an industry where product cycles are bi-yearly in nature.

So it was no great surprise when NVIDIA informed us that they would be launching the GeForce GTS 450 and that it would replace the GeForce GTS 250 and all x600 graphics cards (GeForce 9600, GeForce 8600, etc). Our initial thoughts were, "Finally!" and, "It's about time they put the G92 out to pasture". Then came the big surprise - the new GeForce GTS 450 would only be replacing the GeForce GTS 250 1 GB card. NVIDIA intends to continue shipping the GeForce GTS 250 512 MB at a lower price point. And so, the G92 lives on...

To give the new GeForce GTS 450 a little more marketing "oomph", considering the competition it's facing from ATI's Radeon HD 5000 series of graphics cards, NVIDIA came up with a rather bizarre concept. The model names are confusing, so hey, let's give them pet names... and so, "The Tank", "The Hunter" and "The Sniper" were born.

NVIDIA goes on to explain how the three cards compare to each other, and what their target markets are. The new GeForce GTS 450 would be NVIDIA's solution for LAN party gamers, with the target resolution of 1680x1050.

Nicknaming the GeForce GTX 480, the "Tank" is understandable - it's big, heavy and powerful. But naming the GTX 460, the "Hunter" or the GTS 450, the "Sniper", makes far less sense. NVIDIA made sure they looked smaller than the "Tank", but what makes the "Hunter" better than the "Sniper"?

Of course, it's not easy to come up with these stuff, but honestly, this is a frivolous waste of time... It's not like we buy graphics cards based on what we want to emulate in 3D shoot-em-ups :

Oh, you love playing a sniper? Well then, you had better upgrade to the GeForce GTS 450 - it will surely help you shoot straighter. You don't want the GeForce GTX 480 - it makes too much noise and your enemy will have an easier time spotting you!

Seriously...

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