Previews - AMD Radeon HD 6450 first look

[HEXUS]

Bringing 6000-series goodness to the real mainstream market.

Read more.

[Irien]

Well, let's see if they can *finally* get the htpc card right. Previous fanless radeons have had to drop features (video quality stuff) like mad to provide smooth video processing, yet on paper were always the perfect HTPC card. I went through the 3450, 4550, tested the 5450 and so on, and am currently using a GT430 as a stopgap.

It is very frustrating that they blather on about DX11 etc on a 35ukp card. Seriously, you're not going to game on them, and the only possible use is lightweight DX Compute (which is backwards compatible with DX10 cards anyways). These cards really only have one practical use - decent 2D video playback and image quality for HTPC and business-type users.

Fingers crossed this time round!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hopefully this means that the HD6570 and HD6670 are being released soon.

[cptwhite_uk]

D-sub? Ribbon cable?!

[scaryjim]

Even if they are I wouldn't get too excited. Since these are still on the 20:1 texture ratio they're still based on the VLIW5 model, which means minimal new architecture. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sniffing at a doubling of the shaders in AMDs bottom-rung card, but on that basis I'd be surprised to see a 6570 /6670 with more than about 480 shaders, which isn't really going to set the world alight. Given that they're putting GPUs with up to 480 shaders in the Llano fusion parts, I can't really see them bothering with the low-mid range discrete market that much any more...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

According to the reviews the HD6450 with GDDR5 RAM is similar in speed to a GT220. The HD6570 and HD6670 are already available in many pre-builds and have 480 shaders. The HD6670 looks like it is around the same speed as a 9800GT.

[Ulti]

Waiting to see what the 6570 or 6670 brings, it was released to OEM a couple of months back IIRC but haven't heard anything since.