Page 1: Intro, Specs, Parts
Intro:
When readers come to ASE Labs and see a graphics card review, they expect to find a high speed entry with a bunch of bells and whistles. There is another section of the market that ASE Labs reaches and that is the mainstream builders and entertainment PC builders. These types of buyers have very different requirements than the so-called enthusiast. Speed and performance take a back seat to form factor, noise, and features. Most small cases only support low profile cards and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 steps in to provide the video on your entertainment system.
Box:
Interestingly enough, the box of the 3450 is smaller compared to the bigger, badder cards. The box size is analogous to the speed and actual size of the card. It is smaller and slower, but still gets the job done.
Specs:
Parts:
Aside from the drivers (Windows only), you get a full-size bracket along with some connectors including an HDMI cable which is a nice addition.
The 3450:
Let's be clear about one thing. This card is not targeted to the benchmarking or performance crowd. You won't see any benchmarks in this review since the market doesn't care about them. That being said, the card is passively cooled and is rather small compared to the normal performance type of graphics cards. Passively cooled cards are great for entertainment PCs, just make sure you have the proper cooling for the entire case. The card gets pretty hot.
The low profile brackets are pre-installed and there is a daughter bracket for S-Video out which is very handy. It is nice they give a connection for it rather than just dropping the connection. Standard is HDMI and DVI as well which is great for a budget card. The HDMI connection support 5.1 audio and works fine.
No extra power required for this product. The card gets all the power it needs from the motherboard which is good since power is usually a premium in small cases.
The card's PCB is blue which is nice, but no one will see it anyway. Most entertainment PC cases are not flashy with windows and such. They are made to fit in a living room.
When readers come to ASE Labs and see a graphics card review, they expect to find a high speed entry with a bunch of bells and whistles. There is another section of the market that ASE Labs reaches and that is the mainstream builders and entertainment PC builders. These types of buyers have very different requirements than the so-called enthusiast. Speed and performance take a back seat to form factor, noise, and features. Most small cases only support low profile cards and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 steps in to provide the video on your entertainment system.
Box:
Interestingly enough, the box of the 3450 is smaller compared to the bigger, badder cards. The box size is analogous to the speed and actual size of the card. It is smaller and slower, but still gets the job done.
Specs:
- 256MB DDR2
- 64-bit memory interface
- Core/Memory Clock - 600 / 500
- Low Profiile PCB with VGA cable
- Passive thermal solution
- PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus support
- DirectX 10.1 / Shader Model 4.1 support
- ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support
- Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blu-ray and HD DVD at full HD 1080p
- HDMI with 5.1 surround sound audio
- HDMI with 5.1 surround sound audio
Parts:
Aside from the drivers (Windows only), you get a full-size bracket along with some connectors including an HDMI cable which is a nice addition.
The 3450:
Let's be clear about one thing. This card is not targeted to the benchmarking or performance crowd. You won't see any benchmarks in this review since the market doesn't care about them. That being said, the card is passively cooled and is rather small compared to the normal performance type of graphics cards. Passively cooled cards are great for entertainment PCs, just make sure you have the proper cooling for the entire case. The card gets pretty hot.
The low profile brackets are pre-installed and there is a daughter bracket for S-Video out which is very handy. It is nice they give a connection for it rather than just dropping the connection. Standard is HDMI and DVI as well which is great for a budget card. The HDMI connection support 5.1 audio and works fine.
No extra power required for this product. The card gets all the power it needs from the motherboard which is good since power is usually a premium in small cases.
The card's PCB is blue which is nice, but no one will see it anyway. Most entertainment PC cases are not flashy with windows and such. They are made to fit in a living room.