Nvidia Corp. has formally launched its first DirectX 11-class graphics processor for mainstream market. Aimed at $129 per card segment, the GeForce GTS 450 comes to market about a year later than its competitor ATI Radeon HD 5700-series graphics product. Fortunately for Nvidia, its novelty promises to offer a bid higher performance and some other advantages over direct rivals.

Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 is based on GF106 graphics processing unit (GPU) with 192 stream processors, 32 texture units, 16 render back ends and 128-bit GDDR5 memory controller. The chip is clocked at 783MHz, its stream processors operate at 1566MHz. The company recommends its partners to install 1GB of memory clocked at 3608MHz. The novelty fully supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, OpenCL 1.0 as well as Nvidia's proprietary technologies, such as 3DVision, PhysX, SLI and so on.

It is interesting to note that the model GTS 450 does not feature a fully-fledged version of GF106, which has 192-bit memory controller. It is believed that the model GTS 455 will feature the fully-functional GF106.

According to the latest Steam survey, a leading indicator of the hardware used by PC gamers today, 56% of gamers play at mainstream resolutions, typically between 1600x1050 and 1280x1024. The GTS 450 was specifically designed to excel at these resolutions, delivering high DX11 performance with 4x antialiasing turned on.

The GeForce GTS 450 is designed to deliver the best DX11 price/performance in the $129 price category.

The GeForce GTS 450 is available starting today from the world's leading add-in card partners, including ASL, Asustek Computer, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, KFA2, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, Zotac and others.

Tags: Nvidia, Geforce, GF106, 40nm, Fermi