ATI Radeon HD 5450: Eyefinity And HTPCs For Everyone?
Table of contents
- 1. A Radeon For The Rest Of Us?
- 2. ATI's Radeon HD 5450 Architecture
- 3. Budget Eyefinity
- 4. HTPC And Stream
- 5. Radeon HD 5450: The Reference Card
- 6. Test Setup And Benchmarks
AMD floored us with the performance (and price) of its Radeon HD 5970, awed us with the 5870's triple-display Eyefinity capabilities, wowed us with the 5850's value, excited us with the 5770's alacrity in a home theater system, impressed us with its mainstream 5750, and intrigued us with the relatively entry-level 5670.
We have written quite a few Radeon HD 5000-series launch reviews over the past few months, and every one of the company's new products has demonstrated serious gaming prowess to its respective price segment.
Every one of them, that is, until now. Enter ATI's Radeon HD 5450. This is not a piece of hardware that targets our gaming audience. But at $50, it's the Radeon HD 5000-series card for the rest of us. I use the term 'us' somewhat loosely here, as I consider myself a gamer. You get the idea, though.
If you've been paying attention to the recent Radeon launches, then you know there's a lot more to like than just gaming performance: the Eyefinity multi-monitor support and Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio over a protected audio path features mentioned above actually carry over across all members of the 5000-series seen thus far. Anyone excited by those value-adds thus far will be happy to see that they are once again exposed on today's replacement of the Radeon HD 4350 and 4550 cards.
Let's take a closer look at the new Radeon HD 5450 and draw some conclusions about how well it serves that low-end discrete audience. We know it's not a gaming card, but we cant help ourselves; we'll even check out gaming performance for the sake of being thorough.
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For the all the idiots out there, yes it can run Crysis, slightly.
Whats the point of releasing a new graphics card thats worse than older cards? It runs Dx11 but there's no way it could even run a supported game.
The links to the article pages are either missing or directed wrongly. For example, the "Power and Temperature Benchmarks", "Conclusion" pages are missing or directed wrongly.
The links to the article pages are either missing or directed wrongly. For example, the "Power and Temperature Benchmarks", "Conclusion" pages are missing or directed wrongly.
Try refreshing the page. Should be working correctly now!
well those that are not gameing but want direct x11 can pick this up
a crossfire config with this video card + overclock will make this article much better in a gamers point of view...
a crossfire config with this video card + overclock will make this article much better in a gamers point of view...
Not really, look at the specs. In CrossFire these cards would cost $100 for a total 160 shader cores. They still wouldn't hold a candle to a single $100 5670 when gaming, which has 400 shader cores all by itself.
CrossFiring the 5450 would be a total waste.
Passively-cooled 5450 in crossfire = fail
How do you expect it to handle the increase in temps? Even if you got some good airflow inside the case, that won't be sufficient.
Kinda failed product, ATI..focus on price drop plssss! But still, ATI rocks
How selfish you all are thinking THG only does gaming cards!!!! When ATI cuts the hardware (shaders/ROPs) to the bone, its not about gaming. Its for the HTPC and multi-monitor office crowd and thats it. It's a niche card and looks to do that admirably.
Lol...
They needed a i7 and 1200W PSU to test this card...
Useless...Either get a good card or stick with integrated.
Sound like a solid card for non gaming setups. To bad no AGP support. (My 8 years old HTPC just will not die). "crossfire"?! lol i guess some ppl missing the point of this card.
Lol...They needed a i7 and 1200W PSU to test this card... Useless...Either get a good card or stick with integrated.
yeah...its just so all the tests are the same, and aren't being capped by anything...tho they could do it with a 500w
i was expecting this to be faster than the 4550
now i'll wait a little more to see how the 5500 will fair.
i hope it will be on par with the 9500gt and will be energy efficient. huhuhu
So it's probably worth remembering this card IS NOT aimed at playing games..If you want to play games then this card isn't for you.
This is aimed purely at media playback and 2D applications.
I run a number of HTPC's in my home and until this card it has been impossible to get a bitstreamed output over hdmi for bluray playback. This is currently the only card that will do that (that is low power, single slot, and half height)
For that reason alone this should get a 5* or 10/10 rating. And I'll be buying 5 of them!
And please try to remember that graphics cards are not all about frame rated when playing crysis.
If you're on a very tight budget and want to play games, I suggest 4650. Eyefinity? Only if you need 3 monitors. dx11? You'll still be able to play dx11 games even with a dx10 card.
well crossfiring two of these bad boys isnt all a bad idea i mean they are silent,
and slim, so they could fit in a slim htpc case. or a micro pc you could throw in your backpack or hand bag.
plus you can run eyefinity,
and the fact it runs on such little power you could almost plug it into your neck and run it.
and you dont have the crossfire bridge to worry about for crossfire connection,
im definitly a fan of acasels xfire OC idea. id like to see benches and a review of that infact.
what the point of this card? remind me again why does it exist?
It exists for the people who are still playing on a 1024x768 monitor but still want DX11, yes, they exist. =P
what the point of this card? remind me again why does it exist?
How about cutting manufacturing costs doing the 55->40nm transfer and having the power consumption down.
If I understood the article correctly, then it seems this card would be ideal for a quiet home theater pc.