Today we shall review as many as five low and mid-end graphics cards: four based on NVIDIA GPUs and one on an AMD Radeon GPU. All five have custom design and coolers, so let's see if this provides any benefits.

Specifications

AFOX Radeon HD 6850 1GB LP (AF6850-1024D5L1)

GPU: Radeon HD 6850 (Barts) Interface: PCIe 2.1 x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/shaders): 775/775 MHz (standard) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1000 (4000) MHz (standard) Memory bus: 256-bit Stream processors: 960 Texture units: 48 (BLF/TLF/ANIS) ROP units: 32 Dimensions: 200x55x33 mm Board color: blue Output connectors: DVI, Display Port Multi-GPU mode: software CrossFire

AFOX GeForce GT 430 1GB LP (AF430-1024D3L2)

GPU: GeForce GT 430 (GF108) Interface: PCIe 2.0 x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/shaders): 700/1400 MHz (standard) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 667 (1334) MHz (the standard is 800 (1600) MHz) Memory bus: 128-bit Stream processors: 96 Texture units: 16 (BLF/TLF/ANIS) ROP units: 4 Dimensions: 190x60x19 mm Board color: brown Output connectors: DVI, HDMI, VGA Multi-GPU mode: software SLI

AFOX GeForce GT 440 D5 1GB (AF440-1024D5H1)

GPU: GeForce GT 440 (GF108) Interface: PCIe 2.0 x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/shaders): 810/1620 MHz (standard) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 800 (3200) MHz (standard) Memory bus: 128-bit Stream processors: 96 Texture units: 16 (BLF/TLF/ANIS) ROP units: 4 Dimensions: 165x111x30 mm Board color: black Output connectors: DVI, HDMI, VGA Multi-GPU mode: software SLI

AFOX GeForce GTS 450 1GB (AF450-1024D5H2)

GPU: GeForce GTS 450 (GF106) Interface: PCIe 2.0 x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/shaders): 783/1566 MHz (standard) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 900 (3600) MHz (standard) Memory bus: 128-bit Stream processors: 192 Texture units: 32 (BLF/TLF/ANIS) ROP units: 16 Dimensions: 200x111x33 mm Board color: brown Output connectors: DVI-I, VGA, HDMI Multi-GPU mode: software SLI

AFOX GeForce GTX 560 2GB (AF560-2048D5H1)

GPU: GeForce GTX 560 (GF114) Interface: PCIe 2.0 x16 GPU clock rate (ROPs/shaders): 820/1640 MHz (the standard is 810/1620 MHz) Memory clock rate, physical (effective): 1000 (4000) MHz (standard) Memory bus: 256-bit Stream processors: 338 Texture units: 56 (BLF/TLF/ANIS) ROP units: 32 Dimensions: 210x111x35 mm Board color: brown Output connectors: 2 x DVI, HDMI Multi-GPU mode: hardware SLI

Design

Comparison with the reference design, front view

AFOX Radeon HD 6850 1GB LP (AF6850-1024D5L1)	Reference AMD Radeon HD 6850

AFOX GeForce GT 430 1GB LP (AF430-1024D3L2)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GT 430

AFOX GeForce GT 440 D5 1GB (AF440-1024D5H1)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GT 440

AFOX GeForce GTS 450 1GB (AF450-1024D5H2)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450

AFOX GeForce GTX 560 2GB (AF560-2048D5H1)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Comparison with the reference design, rear view

AFOX Radeon HD 6850 1GB LP (AF6850-1024D5L1)	Reference AMD Radeon HD 6850

AFOX GeForce GT 430 1GB LP (AF430-1024D3L2)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GT 430

AFOX GeForce GT 440 D5 1GB (AF440-1024D5H1)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GT 440

AFOX GeForce GTS 450 1GB (AF450-1024D5H2)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450

AFOX GeForce GTX 560 2GB (AF560-2048D5H1)	Reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

All five cards differ from the reference counterparts. Although GeForce GTS 450 and GeForce GTX 560 remind of it very much.

AFOX was the first to offer a Radeon HD 6850 without supplementary power connectors. Moreover, the card is low-profile (note the layout of memory chips: 6 on the front and 2 on the back) and comes with necessary brackets. Also don't forget that despite being low-profile it still requires a PCIe 2.0-compliant motherboard able to supply 75W on a PCIe slot.

The GeForce GT 430 is another low-profile solution, factory-underclocked and using DDR3 chips. The cooler is quite thick and the card occupies two expansion slots.

Next, the GeForce GT 440. What you need to remember is that OEM variants have lower clock rates, same as GeForce GT 430. Retail versions (like ours) should have higher clock rates.

Moving on to the GeForce GTS 450. Our sample happened to have wrong firmware which only let it use 512MB out of 1024MB. Patching the correct version fixed the issue.

The GeForce GTX 560, luckily, has had no issues from the start. This product is very similar to the reference.

Maximum resolutions and frequencies:

• 240 Hz maximum refresh rate
• 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz max. digital (DVI) resolution
• 2048 x 1536 @ 85Hz max. analog (VGA) resolution

The GeForce GTS 450 has one 6-pin supplementary power socket, the GeForce GTX 560 has two.

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