ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB Black Edition Video Card Review

Temperature Testing

Since video card temperatures and the heat generated by next-generation cards have become an area of concern among enthusiasts and gamers, we want to take a closer look at how the ECS GeForce GTS 450 Black Series 1GB graphics card does at idle and under a full load.

ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Idle Temperature:

As you can see from the screen shot above, the idle state of the ECS GeForce GTS 450 drops the GPU core clock frequency down to 50.6MHz and the memory clock down to 67.5MHz to help conserve power and lower temperatures. At idle on an open test bench the ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB video card temperature was observed at 29C. The fan speed on the card was at 30% and nearly silent as it spins at just 1230 to 1260 RPM.

ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB Video Card Load Temperature:

We fired up FurMark and ran the stability at 640×480, which was
enough to put the GF106 GPU core at 100% load in order to get the highest
load
temperature possible. This application also charts the temperature
results so you can see how the temperature rises and levels off, which
is very nice. The fan on the ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB video card was
left on auto during temperature testing and the fan speed never changed, which was interesting. When we hit the space bar to stop the rendering the
temperature dropped. The peak temperature reported on the open air test
bench was 46C.

The GPU fan was only at 30% when at the card’s peak temperature, so cooling can easily be improved if you manually want to set the fan to a higher RPM. The cooler that ECS uses on this card is amazing and very quiet!

The ECS GeForce GTS 450 1GB video card was hands down the coolest mainstream card that we have tested in recent weeks. In fact this is the fifth GeForce GTS 450 card that we have tested and it easily beats the other coolers for load temperature results. If good cooling is a concern on the GeForce GTS 450 that you purchase, you can rest assured that the ECS Black Series GeForce GTS 450 1GB cooling solution is one of the best. All testing in the chart above was done on the open test bench with a room temperature of 78F.