Conclusion

The 6450 we have covered today is the reference design from AMD and features a basic (but quiet) cooler with branded memory and a good selection of outputs. There will however be plenty of alternative designs from other manufacturers and these will offer specifications such as HDMI, passive cooling and additional memory for a wide selection of configurations.

Each will have the same feature set though and that is a strong aspect of the 6450. It supports DirectX11, can assist in tasks such as video encoding and even allows playback of 3D Blu-Rays or viewing of 3D images. There is also the option to dabble in stereoscopic 3D gaming and 3-Screen gaming however we cannot recommend either as a long term solution as the 6450 isn't quite powerful enough for either without significant reduction of game detail settings.

In terms of standard gaming performance the card does well. We were able to play Crysis 2 at 720p with High settings and there was some great increases in performance over integrated GPUs such as those found on Core i5 CPUs. This upgrade potential carried over into other tasks such as media playback too and it was great to see that the 6450 runs cool, quiet and doesn't add a significant power increase on top of the existing requirements for an onboard GPU.

AMD say they are targeting $55 for the 6450 and if this can be achieved it offers good value for those looking to enhance their gaming and media experience.

Summary
A good quality entry level card which can double the performance of integrated graphics and adds features such as the ability to power 3 screens for enhanced productivity.

Radeon 6450 RRP - $55