ATI Radeon HD 5450: DX11 On The Cheap
Our Summary and Conclusion
Performance Summary: The Radeon HD 5450's gaming performance was quite low, relatively speaking of course. The card sports a DX11-class GPU, but its paltry compliment of stream processors, ROPs, and texture units, in conjunction with its low memory bandwidth result in sub-par framerates, even at relatively mainstream resolutions like 1680x1050. At lower resolutions, with low in-game image quality settings, the Radeon HD 5450 should be capable of producing playable framerates is some aging games, but not in modern titles. The Radeon HD 5450's video playback performance and power consumption, however, are top notch--which makes the card well suited to Home Theater PC applications.
Although the Radeon HD 5450 is likely to appeal to only a select group of you--namely quite-PC or HTPC aficionados--AMD should be commended for this card's release. In a matter of only 4 months, the company was able to not only retake a leadership position in terms of 3D performance, but release an entire top-to-bottom line-up of DirectX 11 capable GPUs. That is no small feat and AMD deserves some credit. As of today, users in the market for cutting edge graphics with DX11, Eyefinity, and UVD 2 support, have options ranging from $50 all the way up to over $600. That's quite a broad spectrum of products to release in approximately only 4 months.
The Radeon HD 5450, in various configurations, should be available immediately from major on-line e-tailers with prices ranging from about $49 to $59. The Radeon HD 5450 obviously isn't for everyone. But if you've got the need for a silent, low-power, affordable graphics card, that will also fit into a half-height form factor, and gaming isn't a priority, the Radeon HD 5450 should fit the bill nicely.
AMD ATI Radeon HD 5450
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