Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum – The Supercharged GTS 450

Factory overclocked graphics cards are always interesting. Though slightly more expensive than standard-clocked cards, they definitely pack a bit more punch. Also, casual users would not have to bother themselves with manual overclocking to bump the speed up. This saves them the warranty and the cards themselves are guaranteed to work just fine by the manufacturer.

Palit “Sonic Platinum” GTS 450 series is one such factory-overclocked graphics cards. With the core clock speed reaching as high as 930 MHz, this GeForce GTS 450-based card works at a much higher frequency compared to standard versions. The “Sonic Platinum” series is Palit’s most aggressively overlocked graphics cards. So, how fast is it then? Let’s take a look at the technical specs first.

Specification

	NVIDIA GTS 450	Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum
Codename	GF106	GF106
Fabrication Process	40 nm	40 nm
Transistors	1.17 Billion	1.17 Billion
Die Size	–	–
Core Clock	783 MHz	930 MHz
Stream Processors	192	192
Shader Clock	1566 MHz	1860 MHz
Texture Units	32	32
ROPs	16	16
Memory Type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Memory Size	1024 MB	1024 MB
Memory Clock (effective)	3608 MHz	4000 MHz
Memory Interface	128-bit	128-bit
DirectX Version	11	11
Shader Model	5	5
Power Connectors	6-pin	6-pin
Min Recommended Power Supply	400 W	400 W
Bus Support	PCIe 2.1 x16	PCIe 2.1 x16

For this GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum series, Palit increased the clockspeed to 930 MHz, or up by 18% from the standard 783 MHz. To compliment it, the memory frequency is also bumped up from 3608 MHz to 4000 MHz.

Sales Package and Contents

The package box is mostly green in color. A motor engine image is located around the center, and there’s a “Sonic Platinum” sticker on the right side.

In the box, we found a quick install guide, a driver CD, and a molex-to-6 pin PCIE power cable converter. Not much, but at least all the essential items are included.