AMD Radeon HD 6450 Review: Caicos Cometh

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dragonsqrrl

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[citation][nom]mikenygmail[/nom]AMD is destroying Nvidia in every possible way, and it's only a matter of time before AMD catches up to and surpassed Intel again![/citation]
hmm... that's not exactly the impression I got after actually reading the review. Maybe you should try do the same. So Nvidia is getting destroyed because an ultra low-end discrete graphics card from AMD offers decent HTPC performance in comparison to the GT430? lol... And where did that thing about Intel come from?

Anyway, I would argue that gaming performance definitely isn't at the top of peoples priority list when purchasing a card in this price range. People tend to purchase $60 cards for low power, cool, and quiet media PC operation. And at least in this category the HD6450 offers solid competition for the GT430.
 

cangelini

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[citation][nom]aznguy0028[/nom]Toms, when are you going to fix your thumbs up/down rating thing?[/citation]

Still waiting on the French dev team to let me know when it's going to unbreak that feature that previously worked fine ;-)
 

Jarmo

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So this doesn't require a power connector? Because that's a big thing when suggesting a replacement card for a couple of years old supermarket PC with an unknown but underpowered power supply. Seems this would fit the bill, being low-power, cheap & quiet.
 

mikenygmail

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[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]hmm... that's not exactly the impression I got after actually reading the review. Maybe you should try do the same. So Nvidia is getting destroyed because an ultra low-end discrete graphics card from AMD offers decent HTPC performance in comparison to the GT430? lol... And where did that thing about Intel come from?Anyway, I would argue that gaming performance definitely isn't at the top of peoples priority list when purchasing a card in this price range. People tend to purchase $60 cards for low power, cool, and quiet media PC operation. And at least in this category the HD6450 offers solid competition for the GT430.[/citation]

Maybe you should try not making baseless assumptions. Nvidia's graphics cards are overpriced and weaker than AMD's at just about every possible price point. The GTX 550 Ti is a failure, and as you pointed out yourself, even this new AMD HTPC offering offers solid competition for the GT430.

It was totally ridiculous for tomshardware to post the "Best Graphics Card for the Money" article the day before the AMD 6990 article, (to exclude AMD's new flag ship card) and then even more ridiculous to title the article "AMD Radeon HD 6990 4 GB Review: Antilles Makes (Too Much) Noise." This site obviously favors Nvidia and is paid well to do so, I'm just leveling the playing field a bit.

Also, don't use "lol" and limit your "..." usage, it makes you look bad.
 

mikenygmail

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Minor correction of my first post: AMD is destroying Nvidia in every possible way, and it's only a matter of time before AMD catches up to and surpasses Intel again!
 

ta152h

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I'm a little surprised, and disappointed, that you guys didn't review the silent card.

In this market, as others have pointed out, 3D gaming isn't paramount, but lower power and sound volume is. For that reason, I think information on the DDR3 version might be more interesting to most people.

Having to use a fan for something so underpowered probably isn't very attractive for many people
 

kkiddu

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@bobdozer But they had a AMD equivalent as well. Comparing a card with a poorer and a faster card helps people to get a perspective as to what they get in this budget, what will they get if they somehow manage to extend it, and what is the competition offering.

@mikenygmail

Last time I checked, AMD was two generations behind Intel in performance. That's a lot to catch up, and we haven't seen any Bulldozer benchmarks yet.

As for Nvidia being pwned, its performance at the higher end is comparable to AMD. 460 onwards, performance at similar price points is nearly equal.

And if you had checked the noise comparison videos between 6990 and 590 posted on this site itself, Antilles did make too much noise.

Give the guys a break.
 

kkiddu

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PS : Before you accuse me of being a fanboy, I'd like to point that I don't any graphics card at all (Ok, you can laugh on that). I'm using an absolutely joke-of-a-video-card VIA onboard GPU from 2004. And when I do get an upgrade, it will be based on what offers the most bang for buck and not if it's from the green team or from the red team.
 

bobdozer

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The point of this is using a geforce card in an AMD review, claiming that its much better because it is within $5 of the cost. However if you add another $5 you can get a 5570 which blows away the Nvidia card.

Why stop at the 430? It should never have been in this review but you have to make sure Nvidia is at the top right?
 

silverblue

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[citation][nom]kkiddu[/nom]60 onwards, performance at similar price points is nearly equal.[/citation]

Yes, but it'll be costing NVIDIA more at the same time.
 

cleeve

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[citation][nom]bobdozer[/nom]By the way don, you can pick up a 5570 for $65 ($50 with rebate!) Why didn't you include that in the review?[/citation]

Um... I did. Check the last page, bro... "Starting at $55, the GDDR5-based version of the Radeon HD 6450 is much closer to tough competition from Nvidia's GeForce GT 430 and AMD's own Radeon HD 5570, which makes it impossible to recommend."
 

cleeve

Illustrious
[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]I'm a little surprised, and disappointed, that you guys didn't review the silent card. [/citation]

We review what AMD decides to supply us with for the launch. They chose to submit only the GDDR5 model, unfortunately.
 

belardo

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[citation][nom]greghome[/nom]Bring the HD6670 to retail[/citation]

The 6600 and 6700s (not the 6790 thou) are already out in retail. They just called the 5670, 5750 and 5770...
 

of the way

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I'm more than happy with my 5550 as a gaming card. Things don't look the best, no, and they aren't as smooth as higher end cards, but a gamer doesn't need games to be pretty. I played through the first half of SC2's campaign on an AGP Nvidia 6200 and a Sempron 2800+ with 1GB DDR. Painful at times, but it was Starcraft, so I was fine with low frame rates and waiting 5+ minutes just to be able to get playing. I have no money (entry level job with a family - darn you health insurance), so I was going to be happy with integrated graphics for my upgrade. Thrilled really. But when I saw a 5550 for $30 on black Friday, I just couldn't resist. I love my little card. My monitor can only do up to 1280x1024, so I get great frame rates on mostly high settings for SC2. Please don't say no gamers would get these cards. I mean, when there's only a difference of 5 or 10 dollars for getting a much better card, sure, a gamer should jump. But I've seen a ton of great deals on these lower end cards.
 
Does better than I thought it would. If AMDs next IGP has the same 160 shaders you might finally get some decent hybrid crossfire performance. I'm guessing the DDR3 version would be aimed at the GF 210 and of course consume less power. I'm surprised AMD didn't try a smaller process with this card (like trying out GF) since this sounds like a good card to try it with.
 

silverblue

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Definitely on the Hybrid Crossfire front. As for using a smaller process, the next node down is 28nm, and as Southern Islands will be produced at TSMC in the second half of this year, it probably wouldn't make sense for AMD to make a new discrete card at a half-node (if that's the term) in the interim, and I doubt they're ready to release a 28nm card yet especially considering TSMC's track record with 40nm.
 

pacioli

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[citation][nom]mikenygmail[/nom]The GTX 550 Ti is a failure, and as you pointed out yourself, even this new AMD HTPC offering offers solid competition for the GT430. It was totally ridiculous for tomshardware to post the "Best Graphics Card for the Money" article the day before the AMD 6990 article, (to exclude AMD's new flag ship card) [/citation]

The 550 should have at least outperformed the 460 that it supposedly replaces.

The GTX 430 seems a better bargain than the Radeon 6450 at least at its initial price offering.

The 6990 would not have been recommended in the BGCFTM anyways. The flagship/highend cards are never 'the best cards for the money' They are always the best you can buy but they only give a small performance increase compared to the price you are paying. That is what best card for the money means. A single 6970 or GTX 570 will play almost anything you you throw at it at half the cost of the 6990.
 
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