Single-Slot Graphics: Whose Card Is Fastest?

Features
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Double-slot graphics cards seem to be the norm, much to the chagrin of enthusiasts trying to build systems with only a single slot of upgrade space. We hunted down three of the fastest cards able to slip into one slot and tested their gaming mettle.

MSI N450GTS-M2D1GD5

With two times the shaders of its GeForce GT 440, Nvidia’s GeForce GTS 450 presents the entry-level threshold for gaming enthusiasts. MSI goes big by making its reference-speed N450GTS-M2D1GD5 small, at half the thickness of its competitors.

The N450GTS-M2D1GD5 is the only product in today’s comparison to include a PCIe power connection, though the Radeon HD 6850 would have had one as well if Afox were targeting owners of PCI Express 1.x-equipped motherboards. More than likely this card would work better on previous-generation 75 W PCIe slots than its connector-reduced competitor, although such platforms are now several generations old, and probably not worth upgrading with a new GPU.

Like other GeForce GTS 450s, MSI’s single-slot version includes a single SLI bridge so that two cards can be paired together. While this certainly addresses the SLI capability of some two-slot mini gaming PCs, we’d probably jump straight from this to a doubly-powerful GeForce GTX 560 Ti if we had the extra slot to spare, thereby reading the rewards of a memory interface two times as wide. The SLI connector is nothing more than an upgrade path for people who didn’t really need a card this thin in the first place.

While most GeForce GTS 450 graphics cards are factory overclocked, a single-slot cooler leaves far less room to play with settings. MSI employs reference 783 MHz GPU and GDDR5-3608 frequencies in this model.

As the only board in today’s comparison to include two DVI connectors, the N450GTS-M2D1GD5 actually needs adapters to address other interfaces. VGA is present, even if not typically required, and full-sized HDMI is available through a mini-HDMI adapter.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ta152h
    I'm not sure this needed so many pages to state the obvious (a 6850 board was faster than 440 and 450 boards, the concept is a good one. There are a lot of areas that sites do not cover that should be, and many of them are logistical like this one.

    For example, there are few, if any, reviews on noiseless CPUs (meaning, fanless) and too few if any reviews on GPUs without fans. Small form factors have thankfully been addressed a bit, but some of the smallest sizes are still not represented well in reviews.

    Even if you are into killing evil Zargons with your pimped out main computer (which many are not anyway), there is still a cool factor of a computer that fits in your hand that can be used in other locations like a kitchen, or living room, or both since you can pick it up and move it easily.

    Articles like this, that might not pertain to a main computer (or may), are interesting, since most of us have several computers, and know several people that ask our assistance in making decisions, and there are often criteria like this involved.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    I've read up to but not including the benchmark results, but is there honestly any question as to which card will perform best? The HD6850 is in a completely different performance segment. I'm just impressed they were able to get it down to a single slot form factor.
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    wonderful idea for an article, for those who have cramped areas
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    You could have also included a standard reference board of the 6850 and GTS450 to see if there were any differences in power draw, heat, noise and why not, performance.

    Still, I also like the idea of reviewing different approaches of hardware pieces. We all have different needs, so different hardware (forms) need to be addressed as well 8)

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • Crashman
    dragonsqrrlI've read up to but not including the benchmark results, but is there honestly any question as to which card will perform best? The HD6850 is in a completely different performance segment. I'm just impressed they were able to get it down to a single slot form factor.Afox wanted to present this to prove its solution viable. Lots of people thought it wouldn't work due to the missing 6-pin connector and tiny fan. A couple weeks after Afox released its card, PowerColor announced a single-slot version WITH the 6-pin connector so now you have three choices: Galaxy's 460, Afox's 6850, and PowerColor's 6850.

    The Tom's Hardware team put a lot of effort into getting as many companies onboard as possible for this. PowerColor should have been excluded since its product was actually too late to meet the test deadline, but that's a non-issue since the card didn't show up. And Galaxy, Galaxy Where Art Thou? You would think companies like that would be in touch with ALL the major sites, wouldn't you?
    Reply
  • mister g
    I was looking into these cards because I have a BTX case from Dell, Crashman just listed all the cards I was looking at except for the Afox. However I'm not likely to get any of these since the single slot comes with one big con, a price tag of at least $220.
    Reply
  • jadavis1992
    Where is the Galaxy GTX 460 razor?
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    CrashmanThe Tom's Hardware team put a lot of effort into getting as many companies onboard as possible for this. PowerColor should have been excluded since its product was actually too late to meet the test deadline, but that's a non-issue since the card didn't show up. And Galaxy, Galaxy Where Art Thou? You would think companies like that would be in touch with ALL the major sites, wouldn't you?I wasn't questioning the work ethic of Tom's Hardware's authors and reviewers, you guy's almost always deliver high-quality review material. But thanks for clarifying the situation.

    I really don't know what I would think, I'm completely unfamiliar with the process of acquiring test hardware from companies. Is this really unusual behavior from Galaxy and Power Color (ignoring or passing up a request to review one of their new products)?
    Reply
  • Assmar
    Cool. where can I get 4?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    dragonsqrrlI wasn't questioning the work ethic of Tom's Hardware's authors and reviewers, you guy's almost always deliver high-quality review material. But thanks for clarifying the situation.I really don't know what I would think, I'm completely unfamiliar with the process of acquiring test hardware from companies. Is this really unusual behavior from Galaxy and Power Color (ignoring or passing up a request to review one of their new products)?I believe the OTHER companies simply didn't want to get "shown up" by the bigger card, where ECS and MSI sent a card they knew would lose the performance race in order to show off their lower power consumption and price.

    As for PowerColor, they said they sent one. Either they screwed up, or something happened to the card along the way. Either way, I wasn't going to worry about the cause of this conundrum since it was too late to deal with.

    I really don't know what's up with Galaxy. Chances are they might have simply cut their marketing department.
    Reply