AMD Radeon HD 6450 Review: Caicos Cometh

By Don Woligroski
published

AMD populates the entry-level tier with its new Radeon HD 6450, based on the Caicos graphics processor. Does this board have what it takes to stand out in the crowded sub-$100 market and vie for a spot in your next home theater PC?

Power, Temperature, And Noise Benchmarks

Before we review the following benchmarks we should reiterate that the Gigabyte GeForce GT 220 and GeForce GT 430 we’re using are non-reference models with aftermarket coolers. As such, the GPU temperature and noise of those solutions is different from reference boards sent out by Nvidia.

Also note that the Radeon HD 5550 and Radeon HD 5450 sport passive coolers and make no noise whatsoever—the results shown are an artifact of acoustics generated by the rest of the system.

Noise readings are taken one inch from the fan side of the cooler in order to isolate the card as the sound variable.

We reverted to FurMark for our power load reading, as our usual choice, 3DMark 11, does not work with the GeForce GT 220. As such, these values are much higher than a user would see during game play. In any case, the Radeon HD 6450 lands about where we would expect it to in the middle of the pack.

The aftermarket cooler on Gigabyte's GV-N220OC-1GI yields a fantastic result here. It’s interesting that the passively-cooled Radeon HD 5450 manages a lower load temperature than the Radeon HD 6450 with its fan.

The Radeon HD 6450 reference card looks bad here, but remember that the other Radeons are passively cooled and generate no noise whatsoever. Meanwhile, the Gigabyte and Asus cards have quiet aftermarket coolers.

Don Woligroski
65 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mikenygmail
    AMD is destroying Nvidia in every possible way, and it's only a matter of time before AMD catches up to and surpassed Intel again!
    Reply
  • aznguy0028
    Toms, when are you going to fix your thumbs up/down rating thing?
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    mikenygmailAMD is destroying Nvidia in every possible way, and it's only a matter of time before AMD catches up to and surpassed Intel again!hmm... that's not exactly the impression I got after actually reading the review. Maybe you should try do the same. So Nvidia is getting destroyed because an ultra low-end discrete graphics card from AMD offers decent HTPC performance in comparison to the GT430? lol... And where did that thing about Intel come from?

    Anyway, I would argue that gaming performance definitely isn't at the top of peoples priority list when purchasing a card in this price range. People tend to purchase $60 cards for low power, cool, and quiet media PC operation. And at least in this category the HD6450 offers solid competition for the GT430.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    aznguy0028Toms, when are you going to fix your thumbs up/down rating thing?
    Still waiting on the French dev team to let me know when it's going to unbreak that feature that previously worked fine ;-)
    Reply
  • rolli59
    Nice to see such a big performance leap on the low range cards.
    Reply
  • ScrewySqrl
    It would have been interesting to add your i5-2500K on its own to the comparison chart. The HD3000 has been favorably compared to the 5450 in the past, so how would it compare with the new 6450?
    Reply
  • machvelocy
    just curious... will there be "hybrid crossfire" when this card is paired by a llano?
    Reply
  • Jarmo
    So this doesn't require a power connector? Because that's a big thing when suggesting a replacement card for a couple of years old supermarket PC with an unknown but underpowered power supply. Seems this would fit the bill, being low-power, cheap & quiet.
    Reply
  • mikenygmail
    dragonsqrrlhmm... that's not exactly the impression I got after actually reading the review. Maybe you should try do the same. So Nvidia is getting destroyed because an ultra low-end discrete graphics card from AMD offers decent HTPC performance in comparison to the GT430? lol... And where did that thing about Intel come from?Anyway, I would argue that gaming performance definitely isn't at the top of peoples priority list when purchasing a card in this price range. People tend to purchase $60 cards for low power, cool, and quiet media PC operation. And at least in this category the HD6450 offers solid competition for the GT430.
    Maybe you should try not making baseless assumptions. Nvidia's graphics cards are overpriced and weaker than AMD's at just about every possible price point. The GTX 550 Ti is a failure, and as you pointed out yourself, even this new AMD HTPC offering offers solid competition for the GT430.

    It was totally ridiculous for tomshardware to post the "Best Graphics Card for the Money" article the day before the AMD 6990 article, (to exclude AMD's new flag ship card) and then even more ridiculous to title the article "AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise." This site obviously favors Nvidia and is paid well to do so, I'm just leveling the playing field a bit.

    Also, don't use "lol" and limit your "..." usage, it makes you look bad.
    Reply
  • mikenygmail
    Minor correction of my first post: AMD is destroying Nvidia in every possible way, and it's only a matter of time before AMD catches up to and surpasses Intel again!
    Reply