Introduction

AMD's Radeon HD 5450 is the first and only low-end DirectX 11 capable graphics card. It is designed in a way to make it the premier choice for silent media PC systems that still pack enough punch to decode full HD content. Another important field of engineering for such a product is energy efficiency, not only because it is more environmentally friendly and reduces operating costs, but reduced power draw also means less heat, which allows less complex cooling solutions resulting in less fan noise.

HIS has engineered a low-profile, fanless, noiseless HD 5450 that comes with 1 GB of GDDR3 memory and native HDMI.

Packaging

HIS uses a fairly compact package that is styled nicely in white. The product highlights are stated on the front, while the back goes into more detail what to expect from the product.

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Quick Install Guide
• DVI to HDMI Adapter
• Full Height Bracket
• Detachable D-Sub connector

The Card

Out of the box, the card comes configured for operation in a low-profile case. The extra VGA connector on the ribbon cable can be easily detached in a few seconds - or installed in an unoccupied slot.


HIS uses a truly single slot cooling solution. We have seen cards from other AIBs that are a little bit thicker than just one slot.


The card has a DVI port, one HDMI port, and a detachable VGA D-Sub connector.

For HDMI Audio, NVIDIA requires you to feed an external audio source, for example from your motherboard's on-board audio, to the card via SPDIF cable. AMD on the other hand has integrated a sound device inside their GPUs which is the easier solution for most users. Also AMD's integrated sound device has been upgraded to support HDMI 1.3a which includes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and up to 7.1 channel audio with 192 kHz / 24-bit.


While CrossFire is possible, there is no dedicated connector for the bridge. All data transfers for CrossFire are implemented via the PCI-Express bus, which is a sufficient solution for this performance class. The HD 5450 can also pair up with certain AMD 7-series and 8-series chipsets with integrated graphics for a small performance boost, Hybrid CrossFireX.


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.