Thursday, April 7th 2011
AMD Unveils Radeon HD 6450 Entry-Level Graphics Card
AMD apparently unveiled its new entry-level GPU, the Radeon HD 6450 today, with some leading sites publishing mini performance reviews (check out Today's Reviews on the front page). The new GPU is intended to be an integrated graphics substitute, which gives desktops all the essential features that today's desktop environments demand, such as DirectX 11 support, Aero acceleration, various kinds of HD video hardware acceleration features, apart from the obvious benefit of discrete GPUs: not taxing the system memory as frame buffer.
The HD 6450 is based on the 40 nm Caicos GPU, it packs twice the amount of shader compute power as the previous generation, packing 160 VLIW5 stream processors, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs, and a transistor count of 370 million. The 160 stream processors, with a core speed of 625~750 MHz (differs between AIBs), churn out compute power of up to 240 GFLOPs. It packs a 64-bit wide memory interface, that supports GDDR5 (clocks: 3.20 GHz to 3.60 GHz) and GDDR3 (1066 MHz to 1600 MHz). It has an idle board power of 9W, and max board power of 27W. Most implementations are low-profile single-slot, some even passive. The reference board features display outputs that include DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub. Expect a $50~$60 price point. The official announcement however, is slated for April 19, or at least that's what we were told.
Image Courtesy: TechReport
The HD 6450 is based on the 40 nm Caicos GPU, it packs twice the amount of shader compute power as the previous generation, packing 160 VLIW5 stream processors, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs, and a transistor count of 370 million. The 160 stream processors, with a core speed of 625~750 MHz (differs between AIBs), churn out compute power of up to 240 GFLOPs. It packs a 64-bit wide memory interface, that supports GDDR5 (clocks: 3.20 GHz to 3.60 GHz) and GDDR3 (1066 MHz to 1600 MHz). It has an idle board power of 9W, and max board power of 27W. Most implementations are low-profile single-slot, some even passive. The reference board features display outputs that include DVI, HDMI 1.4a, and D-Sub. Expect a $50~$60 price point. The official announcement however, is slated for April 19, or at least that's what we were told.
50 Comments on AMD Unveils Radeon HD 6450 Entry-Level Graphics Card
The GDDR5 version may get close to a HD5550 with DDR3 (which is lower clocked and has less activated shaders and ROPs than HD5570), mostly in bandwidth-limited situations like high resolutions and extreme presets (where both cards will lay flat at ~10fps).
BTW, the HD5570 has 400 VLIW5 ALUs, the HD5550 is the one that's cut to 320.
The memory alone would probably cost more than the GPU, and it would be on par with a DDR3 HD5550.
LOL
But that time isn't right now, that's for sure.
Than i will buy it :)
.:edit:.
Coincidently -- Guru3d already has a review of this card
55$ thx amd
SAPPHIRE 100293DP Radeon HD 5570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 ...
SPARKLE SXT430512S3LNM GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 512M...
if you want a 256 bit GDDR5 bus on a low end budget card... you're dreaming. thats what my 5870 has.
I think GDDR5 is the perfect solution to low end chips as a small bus can give a useful amount of bandwidth meaning it is easier to keep these chips as small as possible yet have a bit of kick to them.
I have a 64bit bus with GDDR2 on my 40 stream processor 3450... useless, a 64bit bus with GDDR5 and 160 stream processors on the 6450? now that's starting to become a more useful amount of power for min settings gaming.
On paper it happily beats out some of the mid rage cards i have used from only a few generations back.
Think about it, a generation or two from now the low end cards could easily carry a 64 bit bus still but it could be paired with GDDR5 running anywhere up to say 6ghz, I'm pretty sure that would pump out a fair bit of bandwidth even on a 64bit bus (i would do the math but it's 7am so no :p).
I remember my old 2600 Pro. It couldn't run any game I was interested in, and this was back when I had a 17" monitor and games at 1024x768.
Although a modern IGP may handle those games better than you might imagine.