With the launch of the final Radeon HD 5450 card in February 2010, AMD completed a series of 4 Evergreen models. The company finally moved away from the rule that determined the difference between other products in the line. If all Evergreen chips were half the size of their predecessor, then Cedar (codename GPU) was cut to the limit. It has half the number of raster operations pipelines (4 instead of 8) than the Radeon 5670 running on Redwood GPU, only 40% of the texture processing power (8 instead of 20) and only 20% of the number of shaders (80 stream processors instead of 400). As usual, as soon as the price drops below $ 100, you have to sacrifice hardware, and Cedar was no exception.
Architecture
After the graphic processor was deprived of most of the functional blocks and GDDR5, 292 million transistors remained, and the crystal area was reduced to 59 mm 2 . This is less than half the Redwood transistors with a slightly larger matrix size. In this case, a decrease in the number of elements that does not correspond to a significant reduction in the capabilities of shaders is an excellent example of the complexity of bringing a design to a budget level. Although AMD does not disclose crystal images, we can confidently assume that most of it is occupied by modules such as the PCIe controller, UVD2.2, and the visualization pipeline. AMD cannot reduce them like shaders, so the latter were the main victims of the reduction in the number of transistors.
Cedar comes with a 64-bit memory bus, devoid of GDDR5 support. Instead, the processor works with DDR2 and DDR3.
Cedar is practically no different from them from the RV710 chip in the core of Radeon 4350 and 4550 graphics cards. It has the same number of functional blocks and the same memory interface, which works at the same frequency. Even closer to the 4000th series is support for DX11 and Eyefinity. Cedar has the same connectors as the RV710 so that the manufacturer can replace the latter in existing designs of the Radeon 4350/4550.
Despite all these similarities, the GPU has 50 million more transistors. This means that AMD has spent most of the space saved on the 40nm process by adding Evergreen features and reducing the size of the crystal.
One of the advantages of getting rid of a large number of shaders and GDDR5 is a significant reduction in power consumption. According to AMD, the calculated power of the HD 5450 is 19.1 watts and in idle mode is 6.4 watts. This is two-thirds less than the consumption of HD 5670. A certain role was played by the fact that the HD 5450 is a card with the lowest frequency in the 5000 series, which is equal to 650 MHz.
It goes without saying that the budget model does not pretend to the attention of sophisticated gamers. Instead, the card is designed for the limited funds of customers who need the first real graphics processor. This means using the capabilities of UVD / HTPC, Eyefinity, GPGPU acceleration, as well as significantly improved game performance compared to IGP solutions. In addition, AMD positions this model as a DX11-card, but the Radeon HD 5450 is not enough to take advantage of the supported functions except the tessellator.
The manufacturer developed the 5450 as a competitor for the GeForce 210. In terms of power and form factor, he succeeded. However, the GeForce 210 runs an even smaller GPU than Cedar, combined with DDR2 memory. This means a difference in both performance and price - the cost of a competing card is less.
Model Overview
Although the AMD Radeon HD 5450 graphics card with DDR3 should work with a core frequency of 650 MHz, it can reach 900 MHz for OEMs.
The model was intended to replace the Radeon HD 4350 and 4550 models. The first of them was the previous low-profile AMD card, and the latter was the version with DDR3. Thus, in size and power, the HD 5450 is similar to the 4350, but it has the capabilities of an HD 4550 processor.
The base model is equipped with 512 MB DDR3 with a 650-MHz core, 800-MHz memory and a 64-bit bus with a throughput of 12.8 GB / s. The Radeon HD 5450 with 1GB and 512MB DDR2 memory was also available. Thus, different card configurations are possible.
The basic model is made in the form of a low-profile card with a length of 168 mm (the same as that of 5670). The low power consumption of 19.1 watts made passive cooling possible, so AMD installed a double-width radiator. This differs from the HD 4350 card, the basic version of which had active cooling, and almost all third-party products cooled passively. However, there is a 2-pin fan connector at the back of the board, which allows active cooling. This feature was used in the ATI Radeon HD 5450 card, the processor of which was cooled by a fan.
The model is equipped with 4 DDR3 memory chips - two on the front of the board and two on the back.
Those who hope to squeeze a little more out of the base card will be disappointed as the manufacturer turned off Radeon HD 5450 overclocking by default. This feature is provided to third parties.
Since the AMD Radeon HD 5450 is a low-profile card, there is another option in the port configuration. It is directly equipped with 1 DVI port and 1 DisplayPort, and the VGA port is available separately on the bracket connected to the board by cable. The HD 5450, like all other 5000 series cards, supports 3 Eyefinity monitors, so all 3 ports can be used simultaneously, although the VGA port will obviously be the least desirable.
It should be noted that only models with DisplayPort support Eyefinity.
Almost perfect HTPC card
When AMD announced that the Radeon 5000 series supports audio streaming, it became clear that it was perfect for a home theater. Unfortunately, I had to wait for the cards with passive cooling to appear, which are more suitable for this. With the release of HD 5450, the dream has come true.
This, in turn, led to a review of the HTPC situation to ensure that the specifications of the Radeon HD 5450 are really sufficient. The 4350 and 4550 raised the bar by offering 8-channel LPCM audio, but there were problems with their video capabilities. Since deinterlacing and other post-processing are performed by a hardware shader, the limited capabilities of these cards mean that AMD cannot offer the entire AVIVO suite. It was enough to get perfect grades in the HD HQV test, but problems started here.
The main complaint was that the best and most computationally intensive VAD adaptive vector deinterlacing mode was not always available for HD video. It depended on the driver version, but AMD blocked this feature (and most of the other AVIVO features) with Smooth Video Playback enabled.
According to reviews, the Radeon HD 5450 did not meet the expectations of users that this problem will be resolved. According to AMD, this card has sufficient power, allowing it to simultaneously use all the functions of image processing AVIVO. This means that drivers enable VAD and noise reduction, even when playing with smoothing video is activated. However, in tests of users with Smooth Video enabled, everything works except VAD mode.
However, you should not attach much importance to this, since the HD 5450 is an excellent card for a home theater. All other functions perform their task well, and the interpolation mode with adaptation to Motion Adaptive (MAD) is pretty good. In fact, the only practical reason for using adaptive vector deinterlacing is better than MAD slant line processing. Thus, the only problem with the 5450 as an HTPC card is the poor image quality when watching sports on a large TV, where the use of interpolation with adaptation to movement will lead to the appearance of jagged lines on the sports field.
This is the only reason why the HD 5450 is not the ideal home theater card.
The following are test results that clearly demonstrate which games on the Radeon HD 5450 will go and which won't.
Crysis: warhead
This is one of the most demanding games. The test result in the resolution of 1280 x 1024 0x AA is 12.3 fps and 1024 x 768 is 17.8 fps.
An 80% reduction in shader units compared to 5670 here becomes obvious, since the frame rate of the HD 5450 and comparable models is extremely low. It is 75% lower than the HD 5670, and even compared to the GT220, the Radeon HD 5450 is half as slow. However, these low settings have to be reduced even more to get an acceptable frame rate. The card is expectedly ahead of the GeForce 210, but lags behind the HD 4550. You can achieve a barely acceptable frequency of 31.7 fps with a resolution of 1280 r and a more comfortable speed of 47.4 f / s at 1024 r.
Far cry 2
This is another game with lots of foliage. Usually this has less impact on performance than effects in Crysis at high settings, but in the last game you can disable a lot more settings than in Far Cry 2.
Image quality is unacceptable with any DirectX 10 setting. Disabling visual effects has virtually no advantage. Compared to other cards, the Asus Radeon HD 5450 is half the speed of the GT 220, three times slower than the 5670 and only slightly behind the 4550.
Battleforge
This game is simple enough for productive graphics processors, but for something below 4670 you have to abandon high quality in order to get an acceptable speed even at 1024r. And in the case of 5450, it remains to be satisfied with a minimum.
In this case, a boundary speed of 38.7 fps is achieved with a resolution of 1280 r and a more or less high frequency of 53.3 f / s at 1024 r. The performance of the HD 5450 graphics card is half that of the GT220 and again inferior to the 4550.
Hawx
With all activated settings (except anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion), the game runs on all cards, starting from GT 220 or higher. To achieve an acceptable frequency of 35 fps at 5450 with a resolution of 1280p, you need to disable the DX10 Sun and Shadow effects. Here, the Radeon 4550 continues to outperform the GeForce 210, but with less advantage.
Dawn of war ii
This game is very similar to another RTS Battleforge. At maximum quality, it cannot be played on 5450 or similar cards, so it must be significantly reduced in order to get an acceptable frame rate. According to user reviews, in order to overcome the 30 fps barrier, you have to switch to a resolution of 1024p at the lowest settings.
Resident evil 5
As one of the least intense, this game finally makes it possible to get a decent frame rate without completely or partially disabling image quality settings. Although the maximum settings are not reproduced, after switching to 1024p, it is enough to switch to the average to achieve 38.6 fps.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
This is one of the least saturated games, and the card copes with it well enough so that it can be launched with a frame rate above 30 fps without disabling any settings. However, according to user reviews, in order to preserve all the visual splendor, the resolution must be reduced to 1024.
The performance gap of the 5450 and 4550 cards here narrows to 1 fps. On the other hand, the 5450 lags behind the GT 220 by more than 50%.
Power
Although entry-level cards do not top performance ratings, the relatively small number of transistors and low power consumption mean that they perform very well in power and temperature diagrams. And passive cooling automatically makes them winners in noise ratings, since they do not emit any measurable sounds during operation.
The total power consumption of the 5450-based system is 143 watts with 121 watts idle consumption.
If on paper the capacities of the compared cards differ by about several watts, in reality, the Radeon 5450, Radeon 4550, and GeForce 210 as part of the test system demonstrate the same 121 W.
Under load, the picture changes somewhat. The HD 5450 card is one of the best in performance, ahead of the GT 220 and 4550. It is second only to the GeForce 210, which is due to the combination of a smaller GPU and differences in the interpretation of the FurMark test.
In any case, the HD 5450 looks good compared to other AMD models, not only ahead of the 4000th series, but also 5670 by an impressive 47 watts. The HD 5670 graphics card is probably the best option for HTPC in terms of deinterlacing, but you have to pay for it with increased power consumption.
Temperature
The passive-cooled graphics card, housed in an actively-cooled case, heats up 44 ° C in idle mode and 47 ° C under load. In a housing with little or no airflow, more heating should be expected. However, at the time of release it was the coldest card. This is largely due to low power consumption and double the width of the radiator. True, according to user reviews, the latter seems unnecessary, because, for example, the Sapphire model with an ordinary radiator is only 4 degrees hotter.
The ATI Radeon HD 5450 is equipped with active cooling, but its heatsink and fan, which are cheap even for budget cards, show a low result: 41 ° C in idle mode and 58 ° C under stressful FurMark.
Finally
Compared to the previous generation, the Radeon HD 5450 offers nothing new in terms of specifications. At this end of the spectrum, graphics cards must sacrifice performance to justify the low cost, power, and small form factor. Of course, it is able to provide a sufficient frame rate for most games (even with high settings in some of them). But for the lower-level GPU, a little more investment will allow you to purchase a much more powerful graphics card.
In this sense, the cost of 5450 seems overpriced. Since the card is aimed at the niche occupied by 4550, DDR2 4650 and DDR2 GT 220, the performance gap with them is enough to overcome it cost more than the fine for using DDR2. If speed is all that is needed, then the card will provide it, although the supported DX11 is not fast enough to be usable in practice.
Otherwise, the characteristics of the Radeon HD 5450 look decent. In the niche of cards with passive cooling, its competitors are the slower GeForce 210 and Radeon HD 4550. The latter model is better in terms of performance, but not by much. However, the HD 5450 has less heating and power consumption.
The most preferred option is to use the card in home theaters. As user tests show, it is not quite perfect, but close to that. The card was the best passively cooled model in terms of image quality and the only one with audio stream.
The HD 5450 offers a lot and is close to perfection.