Final thoughts and rating
AMD's latest Radeon 5000-series GPU follows some distinguished lineage. First seen by the public as the Radeon HD 5870 last September, the R5K range has provided a decent balance between performance, features, and cost - especially since NVIDIA has yet to launch its own cutting-edge parts.We applauded the Radeon HD 58x0 and 57x0 GPUs' technical excellence and, insofar as one can, the value-for-money proposition. The Radeon HD 5670, however, just as good on an architectural level, was (and is) priced too high to be worthy of an instant purchase.
Moving on down the rungs, released today, the passively-cooled Radeon HD 5450 brings all the multimedia goodness inherent in the other GPUs yet sacrifices considerable gaming performance to hit a $49-$59 (£40-£45) price point.
Speaking strictly towards the gaming crowd, you would be better advised adding 20 per cent to the budget and opting for either a Radeon HD 4670 or GeForce GT 220: both are fundamentally better gaming GPUs. This advice may well be rendered inert if AMD and its partners move pricing such that the 512MB DDR3 card is available for, say, £30-£35. The upcoming Radeon HD 55x0, scheduled to arrive at around £50, may well complicated buying decisions further. We'll be taking a look at it very, very soon.
Bottom line: The Radeon HD 5450 may well find a home in systems where multimedia excellence, and not 3D grunt, is the most enviable criterion. Class-leading multi-monitor setup and a robust video engine do it favours, and if partners can roll in passively-cooled cards that take up just one slot, HD 5450 has a future.
*Update* Sapphire and XFX's Radeon HD 5450s ship with a single-slot-taking passive heatsink.
The good
R5K heritage; excellent multimedia support and Eyefinity multi-monitor setup
Passive cooling
Still a step up from any IGP solution
The not so good
Considerably more 3D performance is available for an extra £10-£15
Large cooler on reference model may well deter some folk
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50/100' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in; therefore the Radeon HD 5450 512MB is evaluated with respect to our 'low-end' criteria.
AMD Radeon HD 5450 512MB
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Radeon HD 5450 512MB graphics card can be ordered from the following retailers:
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As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum. |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 512MB (£38.32) | |
| XFX Radeon HD 5450 512MB (£38.43) | |
HEXUS Right2Reply
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