14 DAY TRIAL // Different incarnations of the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics cards have already made their first baby steps into the world, each showing off a different PCB, clock speed or cooling solution. Among the latest in this family of products are two models launched by Club 3D, with 512MB and 1GB of memory, respectively. With a low power consumption and passive cooling, they are both very well suited for multimedia applications, especially HTPCs.
The 512MB model employs DDR2 memory with a 64-bit bandwidth and whose clock is set at 800MHz, whereas the Club 3D Radeon HD 5450 with 1GB uses a DDR3 memory, which has a frequency of 1337MHz and the same 64-bit bandwidth. Both models have the ATI Cedar PRO graphics processing units (GPU) running at 625MHz.
Naturally, the graphics cards support DirectX 11, like all cards in their series. They also have built-in support for OpenGL, the ATI Stream technology, Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT) and the ATI Avivo HD video and display technology. In addition, the two models are designed for DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL and are HDCP-capable devices.
Furthermore, the ATI PowerPlay technology provides the HD 5450 versions with an advanced dynamic power management. As such, both use about 20 Watts of power each. This means that the product will not need any external power connectors, being able to run on only what is provided by the PCI Express 2.0 slot. The passive cooling solution is one of the main factors behind this feat and even brings the added benefit of a totally silent running, for a better enjoyment of multimedia.
Both the 1GB HD 5450 as well as the 512MB model feature 80 stream processors and have DVI, HDMI and VGA connectors. They will become available in stores sometime during the upcoming week and will sport a price tag of $70, which is the equivalent of only 50 Euro.