Sapphire HD3450 256MB Graphic Card Review

I was in lack of a graphic card the other day, so I decided to get my hands on the cheapest graphic card that I can find. – the Sapphire HD3450, featuring the low-end HD3450 from ATI’s 3 series GPU.

The Appearance

Basically it’s a really simple graphic card. Low-profile make on a blue PCB with a neat aluminum heatsink on the card itself with no fans on it.

The card comes with DVI, VGA and S-video output.

The Bundle

– S-Video converter
– DVI-VGA converter
– Composite TV Video Cable
– Installation guide & driver CD.

Card Details

Here’s a summarized detail of the card.

GPU	HD3450
GPU Code Name	RV620 LE
Memory Type	DDR2
Memory Bandwidth	64-bit
Memory Capacity	256MB
Core Clock	600Mhz
Memory Clock	500Mhz (1Ghz DDR)

More details at the official product page

Test Setup

The computer setup used for this review.

Processor	Intel E2140 Overclocked @ 3.2ghz
RAM	2x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition
Motherboard	Albatron PXP35
Cooler	Xigmatek HDT-S963
Monitor	20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Operating System	Windows XP (SP2)
Driver Version	ATI Catalyst 8.4

The Performance

The Sapphire HD3450 runs at 600Mhz core clock and 1000Mhz memory clock. Overclocking? It’s a low end card, I wouldn’t even bother overclocking it. 🙂

3Dmark06

Default setting.

Card	Score
Sapphire HD3450	1791

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition

Graphic Detail : Default

Resolution	Snow (Average)	Cave (Average)
800 x 600	18.4	26.2
1024 x 768	12.6	18.3

F.E.A.R.

Graphic Detail : Maximum

Resolution	Average
800 x 600	15
1024 x 768	10

Bad? Once I disabled anti-aliasing the game actually is playable, with

Resolution	Average
800 x 600 (no AA)	81
1024 x 768 (no AA)	59
1280 x 1024 (no AA)	40

Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts

Graphic Detail : Custom

Resolution	Average
800 x 600	46.3
1024 x 768	32.9

World In Conflict

Graphic Detail : Medium

Resolution	Average
800 x 600	21
1024 x 768	13

My take of the graphic card? It performs decently well for low resolution. Do note that I’m not having those games going at low details yet, going low would increase the framerates. 🙂

Interestingly, the game worked VERY WELL with Dawn of War : SoulStorm. I could have the graphic setting to HIGH at 1680×1050 and the game is still very playable. Supreme Commander : Forged Alliance on the other hand was slow, even with details set to low resolution and details set to ALMOST-UGLY.

Operating Temperature

The card runs at 44°C on idle and 61°C on load. Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C. It’s actually a good temperature, considering it’s using a fanless heatsink.

Conclusion

This card was more than I hoped for. I’m actually impressed by what I could get out of this card, considering I got it at RM 120 and it’s now going for less than that.

What’s nice about this card is that it works just like any other HD3xxx series card. Yes, it even comes with ATI HD Audio to cater for HDMI output. Too bad they didn’t bundle any DVI-HDMI converter.

It also supports ATI’s CrossfireX Technology. 🙂 This means you can pair it with a 780G-chipset motherboard and gain some graphical processing boost.

Definitely a great card for someone who doesn’t want to break the bank – BE WARNED that you shouldn’t be expecting much from this card.