AMD HD6450 Review

In the world of graphics, the high end cards such as the GTX590 and HD6990 understandably get all the enthusiast attention. While they are capable of devouring frame rates at super high resolutions, the market demand is only a fraction of the sub £100 sector. The biggest percentage of sales are always formed around the cheapest products … its just the way the industry works.

The AMD HD 6450 certainly has little sex appeal, but it will sell by the truckload. Subjectively, we can understand why, because for only $55 it offers DirectX 11 support, media acceleration for a spanking new high definition television and even the opportunity to game across multiple screens. That said, if we were being totally honest, we can't see many consumers buying one of these cards for multi screen gaming sessions … but in a pinch, it can be done. The HD6450 is much more comfortable at normal high definition resolutions and it is more than capable of fulfilling the gaming desires of a lower budget target audience.

Putting AMD's claims to the test, we found if image quality settings were reduced that some of the less demanding engines ran fairly well at 3840×720. World Of Warcraft in particular was smooth as butter and very impressive, especially when considering a $55 card was powering it across three screens.

As a very inexpensive solution for a secondary system we can certainly recommend it. The actively cooled version we tested today is fairly quiet, but we would advise media center fanatics to contemplate the passive, therefore silent version.

I feel that one of the most important aspects of this card is the image quality, which is close to the high end models costing considerably more money. As a partner for high definition 1080p video via a large panel, the output quality is stellar and significantly higher than previous models. It significantly outclasses the Intel integrated solutions we have tested.

No UK pricing is yet available, but we would estimate the $55 US price to translate into £45 inc vat in the UK. Just be aware there will be several versions of the HD6450. 1GB DDR3, 512MB GDDR5 and passive and actively cooled models.

Update: We were also told just before going to press by one of AMD's partners that many will be clocking these cards much lower than the sample we received for review – as low as 625mhz, not 750mhz as tested today.

Pros:

• quiet
• cool running
• very low power drain
• surprisingly capable
• multiple screen support

Cons:

• We would like a 1GB GDDR5 version
• watch out for lower clocked versions, because performance wont be as good as our test sample

KitGuru says: A solid buy for the money, it won't set your system alight, but as a balanced, affordable DX11 solution it offers good value for money.

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