Benchmarks: Aliens vs. Predator, Mass Effect 2
For testing Aliens vs. Predator we used the highly demanding custom DX11 benchmark. We played through a test scene in the same sequence every time for accurate results. The maximum possible visual quality settings were enabled along with 4xAA/16xAF.
The standard GeForce GTS 450 averaged 21fps at 1680x1050 making it a single frame faster than the Radeon HD 5750 and 2fps slower than the Radeon HD 5770. The overclocked Palit GTS 450 averaged 24fps, or a single frame faster than the stock Radeon HD 5770.
When compared to more expensive graphics cards such as the Radeon HD 5830 and GeForce GTX 460, the GeForce GTS 450 was 28% slower while the overclocked Palit version was 17% slower. Adding a second card for SLI mode saw the average frame rate increase by 86% from 21fps to a much more impressive 39fps. Paring two GeForce GTS 450 SLI cards provided greater performance than a single Radeon HD 5850 or GeForce GTX 470 graphics card.
The GeForce GTS 450 SLI configuration was still 9% slower than the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire duo however.
Mass Effect 2
For testing with Mass Effect 2 we relied on Fraps, recording 60 seconds of gameplay from the level "Lazarus Research Station". Best in-game visual quality settings with 4xAA/16xAF enabled were used.
When testing with Mass Effect 2 at 1680x1050 we found that the non-overclocked GeForce GTS 450 was 2fps slower than the Radeon HD 5750 and 8fps slower than the Radeon HD 5770 which worked out to be a 15% margin.
The overclocked Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum card fared better with an average of 51fps making it 13% faster than the standard card. This performance boost was not enough to defeat the stock clocked Radeon HD 5770. However, thanks to the superior scaling of SLI the GTS 450 SLI graphics cards saw a healthy performance boost as the frame rate was increased by 98% when adding in a second card.
This allowed the GeForce GTS 450 SLI configuration to beat the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire cards by a 7% margin, and divide honors with the single Radeon HD 5870.