discussion Sparkle ONE GTS 450 1GB OC Single Slot Review

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StarCraft II (DX9)

StarCraft II (DX9)

In order to test StarCraft II performance we recorded a typical multiplayer battle on the Agria Valley map and used it as a replay in order to ensure every run was identical to one another. We used the last 3 minutes of the replay which includes the final assault on the enemy base. MSAA was applied in the NVIDIA and ATI control panels for certain tests.


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Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is currently the de-facto standard when it comes to simple, straightforward DX11 performance estimates. While it is considered a synthetic benchmark by many, it is important to remember that no less than four games based on this engine will be released within the next year or so. In this test we will be using a standard benchmark run with and without tessellation enabled at three resolutions,


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Core Temperature & Acoustics / Power Consumption

Core Temperature & Acoustics

For all temperature testing, the cards were placed on an open test bench with a single 120mm 1200RPM fan placed ~8” away from the heatsink. The ambient temperature was kept at a constant 22°C (+/- 0.5°C). If the ambient temperatures rose above 23°C at any time throughout the test, all benchmarking was stopped. For this test we use the 3DMark Batch Size test at it highest triangle count with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled and looped it for one hour to determine the peak load temperature as measured by GPU-Z.

For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Vista desktop for 15 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.

Naturally, the single slot card does tend to post higher thermal numbers that most other GTS 450s but that was to be expected. The Sparkle ONE is also noticeably louder than the reference card and will likely be noticed in most HTPC setups even though the sound it makes isn’t annoying in the least. Rather, it is a dull “whoosh” as the fan speeds up to around 70% to keep temperatures in check.

The dual slot Sparkle GTS 450 operates at much cooler temperatures and even manages to beat the stock cooling solution regardless of its supposedly less expensive design. Acoustics were also very good as there is no way you’ll hear this in a normal system.

System Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption. We have also included several other tests as well.

Please note that after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall outlet or UPS will NOT give you accurate power consumption numbers due to slight changes in the input voltage. Thus we use a Tripp-Lite 1800W line conditioner between the 120V outlet and the power meter.

The power consumption numbers shown by both of Sparkle’s cards are very much reflective of how transistors react to higher heat loads. As temperatures increase, the single slot card ends up consuming a bit more power than its cooler-running sibling which really does raise the question of whether this really is the optimal card for a low power HTPC environment.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

As the GTS 450 has matured, it seems to have carved out a great niche for itself at a highly appealing price point. Unfortunately, this card has gone relatively unnoticed ever since its release since many seemed more than willing to spend the extra money for a GTX 460 or its AMD equivalent. Prices have fallen since then and in our opinion, the GTS 450 is now an excellent value-oriented card that has no issue playing the latest games at relatively high settings.

Sparkle’s GTS 450 One doesn’t exactly strike an imposing figure with a single slot height but it is absolutely perfect for its targeted niche. With such a compact design, this could be the card of choice for some HTPC users and the slight overclock to core and memory speeds provides a bit more performance in some situations. Temperature numbers were also surprisingly good considering the GF106 is far from the most efficient core in this price range.

While performance was good and the single slot heatsink provided decent performance, we really have to wonder about the true usefulness of this card outside of a few select cases. Most good mATX motherboards feature more than enough space below the primary PCI-E slot for a dual height graphics card along with a dedicated sound card. The mini ITX market is one segment where this Sparkle product could thrive but we’d guess anyone looking for such a compact system would also be in the market for a low profile add-in card. You’ll also have to pay a $20 premium over a reference GTS 450 which is a hefty increase for the convenience of a single slot card.

While this review did tend to focus upon the single slot version, Sparkle’s standard OC card with its custom heatsink performed up to our expectations as well. The only real problem we see is its real lack of any distinguishing qualities that allow it to stand apart from the competition. There really isn’t anything here to recommend it over the ASUS, EVGA, MSI and Gigabyte branded cards; some of which are also less expensive and more widely available.

Regardless of the price increase which the Sparkle ONE carries, we feel that it fits well into its intended niche. When compared to the HD 5770, the GTS 450 may not have a performance edge but the inclusion of HDMI 1.4 support could be a deal clincher for some. Hopefully, Sparkle will continue to explore these types of unique designs since they do add some interesting perspectives into the market.


Pros:

- Single slot height allows for more adaptability
- HDMI 1.4 for Blu Ray 3D
- Good temperatures for a single slot card
- Included cable adaptor for mini HDMI


Cons:

- Expensive for the gaming performance it provides
- Noticeable fan noise