AMD Radeon HD 6450 512 MB Review

Name: AMD Radeon HD 6450 512 MB
Brand: AMD

W1zzard

on Apr 18th, 2011,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: AMD

(21 Comments) »

Introduction

Last week AMD introduced their Radeon HD 6450, which is based on their all-new Caicos graphics processor. HD 6450 is an evolutionary step forward from HD 5450, improving performance and media playback features. The Caicos GPU comes with 160 shaders which is twice that on the previous-generation HD 5450, which really had a hard time competing with integrated graphics lately. Instead of (G)DDR3 memory, the Radeon HD 6450 also uses fast GDDR5 memory which will help with available memory bandwidth.

AMD Radeon HD 6450 is targeted at the entry-level market with OEMs and office system builders in mind. Support for DirectX 11, EyeFinity and accelerated HD video decode are features that offset it from the integrated graphics competition.

	GeForce 210	Radeon HD 5450	GeForce GT 220	GeForce GT 520	Radeon HD 6450	GeForce GT 430	Radeon HD 5550
Shader units	16	80	48	48	160	96	320
ROPs	4	4	8	4	4	4	8
GPU	GT218	Cedar	GT216	GF119	Caicos	GF108	Redwood
Transistors	260M	292M	486M	Unknown	370M	585M	627M
Memory Size	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB
Memory Bus Width	64 bit	64 bit	128 bit	64 bit	64 bit	128 bit	128 bit
Core Clock	589 MHz	650 MHz	625 MHz	810 MHz	750 MHz	700 MHz	550 MHz
Memory Clock	533 MHz	800 MHz	790 MHz	800 MHz	900 MHz	900 MHz	1000 MHz
Price	$40	$35	$50	$60	$55	$60	$60

The Card

AMD's HD 6450 is an ultra-compact card that can be turned into a low-profile model fitting smaller media PC cases by removing the VGA output. While our AMD sample did not include any low profile brackets I'm sure retail packages will have one.

The card requires just a single slot in your system.

The card has one analog VGA port, one full-size HDMI port and one DVI port. AMD's display output logic is clearly superior to what NVIDIA has to offer at this time. Vendors are free to combine four TMDS links into any output configuration they want (dual-link DVI consuming two links) - and use them all at the same time. AMD has also introduced DisplayPort 1.2 support with their new cards which allows the use of a DisplayPort hub to connect multiple monitors, or daisy chain them together.

An HDMI sound device is also included in the GPU. The HDMI interface is HDMI 1.4a compatible which includes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and up to 7.1 channel audio with 192 kHz / 24-bit output. The new revision also brings support for Blu-ray 3D movies which will become important later this year when we will see first Blu-ray 3D titles shipping.

Even though a CrossFire connector is not present, you can combine two of these cards in CrossFire, which exchanges data via the PCI-Express bus.

Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

AMD's cooler is a simple piece of metal, with fins and a fan in the middle, nothing exciting to see here.

Due to the low power design of the card, there is no requirement for an additional PCI-E power connector.

The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung, and carry the model number K4G10325FE-HC05. They are specified to run at 1000 MHz (4000 MHz GDDR5 effective).