14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA currently has the high-end GeForce GTX 480, the GTX 470 and, to some extent, the GTX 465 covering the high-end DirectX 11 front, and the GTX 460 on the upper level of the mainstream. What remains is for the lower segments to come under the coverage of the graphics boards that have not yet been released. The GeForce GTS 450 was already been revealed to be on the way. Unfortunately, not much information has been found in the way of specifications, at least not until now.
By now, informed end-users will know that the GTS 450 will be less capable than the GTX 460 but still powerful enough to take on the ATI Radeon HD 5700 offering that Advanced Micro Devices has had on sale for months. From what Donanimhaber says, the card will actually have quite decent clock frequencies, though not all details are actually revealed. For one, the number of CUDA cores is still shrouded in mystery.
What is, on the other hand, known about the device, if the rumor is to be believed, is that the adapter will feature 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM and a memory interface of 128 bits. The GPU itself will reportedly run at 789 MHz, whereas the memory will be clocked at 3670 MHz. Such performance will need the backing of extra power, however, which means that a 6-pin PCI Express power connector will be mandatory. Furthermore, the board shall fully support the NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technology and, most likely, all other features that the 400 series comes with. Finally, communication with monitors will be done via dual-DVI and HDMI.
Unfortunately, like before, there is no way of knowing just when these details will be confirmed or invalidated, since no exact launch date exists as of yet, except for some vague reference about the middle of September. Until this information does become available, however, end-users can work towards gathering the $160 that will have to be relinquished should they decide upon acquiring a model.