MSI N450GTS-MD1GD3 GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Pros: None so far

Cons: Boyfriend bought this for his machine, we didn't want anything fancy, just to Play WoW and Team Fortress 2.

We opened the box only to see bent heatsinks around the bottom of cooling unit. We took pictures before putting it in the PC. Now if any sort of 3D application is launched then the PC will crash and reboot.

This seems to be a very hit an miss brand/card as I see a lot of reviews here with DoA and shoddy construction. If you have the money I recommend moving up slightly from this.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.

Please kindly visit the URL below to set up a RMA with the following information.
http://service.msicomputer.com/msi_user/rma_form_new.aspx

1. Full name (first, and last)
2. Telephone #
3. Physical address
4. Email address
5. Serial number (located on the box, or the back of VGA card, eg 602-xxxx-xxxBxxxxxxxxxx)
6. Symptoms you are having onto the Special Remark section (as detailed as possible)

Once your information and warranty coverage are verified then we can proceed with this RMA for you.
Our turn-around time is typically two weeks and our system will notify you automatically at every stage of your RMA process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, received the unit back from RMA but are still having issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Definitely not the card for the extreme gamer, but, It does play WoW and Diablo III at maximum settings without a problem.

Cons: Even though a great one, it is still a budget card.

Pros: Meets my needs and the cable going under the fan comes nowhere near of touching the actual fan.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I bought this to upgrade my nvidia 7300LE (lol) in my 6 year old xps 410. The price is just right as well.

Pros: The card is working great for me for now. Handles games like sim city 4, Civ V and Rage on max settings. Overall pleased with what I have seen so far. HDMI works fine with my tv as well. Deecent price with the rebate for a 450.

Cons: The overall look isnt too appealing, but not such a big deal. On somewhat more intensive games it will keep a decent frame rate but have had a few instances where i had to restart a game due to overworking the thing. The pairing between this and my 2500k have been good for me. (mid range gamer)

Other Thoughts: Build
cpu: i5-2500k
mobo: asus z68
ram: 8gb
video: this thing

Pros: Quick install. I can barely hear the fan running. No issues with the wire placement near the cooling fan. Great inexpensive update to my 4yr old system!

Cons: installation CD has older Nivida drivers. Just grab the updated drivers from MSI or Nivida's site.

Other Thoughts: Just the card I needed to be able to Watch HD movies and play currrent games. This card is just what I needed to meet my budget.

Pros: Don't know, i haven't got to use it yet.

Cons: The fan cable is threaded through the fan, allowing it to get caught. The fan made some noise as it was hitting the heatsink, turns out that the fan was broken. I think it was DOA too, because it did not have a signal to my monitor. I used 3 computers to test it out, no luck.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,
“Please contact MSI customer service representative Jane at janegao@msi.com, or call Jane at 626-913-0828 ext 221 with your case details. Thank you.”
Best Regards,
Customer Service Team

Pros: The card seems to be a decent card, the fan is a bit of an eye swore, but it will do for the time being...

Cons: Cons, let's see... I think there might be a problem playing BF3 online, with this card, drivers, or something to that context.
In addition, I've never bought MSI products before, and I will never buy them again.
I sent in my rebate information, paid for the extra shipping. So I didn't have to wait 10 weeks to get my rebate. And 15 days after it was mailed, they approved my claim; too which, they said it was being shipped. Well, it's been awhile... I checked today to see why I haven't received it, when I received my other rebate from OCZ already (mailed them the same time.) Now it says, "Claimed denied copy of invoice not received" which is complete Bull!!!
I sent both rebates at the same time, triple checked all the paperwork, and mailed.
Now, I'm going to have to argue with MSI for awhile before they ship me my rebate a month after I sent it. Needless to say, I'm not happy...

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,
“Please contact MSI customer service representative Tom at tomh@msi.com, or call Tom at 626-913-0828 ext 216 with your case details so we can check the rebate status. Thank you.”
Best Regards,
Customer Service Team
Rebate account

Pros: This video card installed easily. Runs nice and quite.
I got pretty much what I expected.

I am able to push games like Crysis with great ease on Med/High Settings (1680x1200) Display. (Struggles on anything but medium setting in Metro 2033)

Mid Level game performance is great and that's what I was looking for.

Cons: I didn't notice that this card is way under clocked when compared it's brothers in the chipset family.

Other Thoughts: This chip came at a large discount through MSI + it runs smooth/stable/quite. I can't complain. Not quite GTS 450 performance. I recommend using the provided software to overclock the memory speed to see largely significant frame-rate gains.

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Awful construction - the fan cable is threaded through the heatsink and will get stuck in the fan blades

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,

We would like to apologize for the issue you have experienced with this particular VGA. Please email me directly via USUserSupport@msi.com your VGA's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHN450GTS". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: + Quiet, can't hear the fan at all (and I have a very quiet system)
+ Compact board fits in many cases
+ Applications that can use OpenCL or CUDA see a good performance boost

Cons: - Overall graphics performance not what I thought it would be
- No description of what software is on the accompanying CD

Not an issue with the card, but expect to have lots of trouble with MSI's rebate site. I never managed to get it to give me a form to print.

Other Thoughts: First of all, I am not a gamer. So don't ask me if this card will let you play game X at frame rate Y. I primarily bought this to take advantage of the OpenCL and CUDA acceleration for software I use, including Adobe Photoshop and DxO Optics Pro.

Like user Hank, I was disappointed to see that the Windows Experience Index for graphics went DOWN for me, from 7.1 (a two+ year old ATI Radeon HD3780) to 6.9. I had expected it to do a bit better. But the graphics performance is adequate for me, so that's not a big deal. I did install the latest drivers from Nvidia rather than the older ones on the software CD.

On the other hand, I was blown away by the performance improvement in DxO Optics Pro. An image that normally took a minute and a half to process was done in 15 seconds! My CPU is quite ancient by this time, the original Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, so it was no surprise that when I ran the Futuremark tests it did so poorly. I don't blame the MSI card for that. Ivy Bridge is com