Maximum PC

My rig currently uses the Radeon HD4890 w/1gig RAM. I have access if I want to a Radeon HD5450 w/1gig RAM. Would I be better served using the 5450 or should I just stick with the 4890???

I couldn't use them BOTH at the same time.....correct??

Not worth it even if it were a Radeon 7450... A 4890 has roughly 6x the performance of the 5450, in fact, the 4890 has roughly the same performance as a 7770 card, though the 7770 beats it in power consumption & has DX11 support.

Bottom line, save your money .

You're right. After much research on net I discovered the 4890 is a pretty decent card. It currently IS running DirectX 11, has been for a while. Maybe it was a software/driver update or something.

Also the 5450 is fanless!!! EEEEeee, probably runs hot as hell. Know anybody who wants or needs a brand new never used 5450 card? Maybe to revamp an old setup or something?? Let me know here or pm me if you do.

Not really. I have an iTX build with a little i3 2100 with HD2000 video and it kinda wipes the floor on the AMD 5450 I tried in it. I really didn't find any discrete card that really stood out until the itty bitty 6670 was in place. I imagine the AMD APU would do well here too and make me think twice about even having a discrete GPU in that build, but I do more than gaming on that little box and need just a bit of computational ability in the CPU area.

The 5450 can run fanless just fine IMO. Heat is relative, but I've chopped up some of them to fit in proprietary Dell cases which lead me to try running them w/o a fan, and they were rock solid. The low-pro I tried in the iTX was from Fry's and they took a return with no issues at all. She asked what was wrong and I just said it didn't meet expectations at all, nodded, and gave me store credit (at my request) with no flack. I'm not sure that newegg (or where ever you bought it from) would do the same just because it was a trial run, but doesn't hurt to try.
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Man, I'd love it if someone would make a low-pro (half-height actually) 7-series card like the 7770! Us iTX builders are growing very effing fast and what we basically have are the GT430 and 6670 to work with. Pretty much just makes the HD4000 look good since we only have one PCIe slot to work with for an expansion card of any type. Sadly, "low profile" to most manufacturers just means "the heatsink only takes up one slot". If it won't fit in an Antec ISK-300, I can't use it.

No thanks would have sufficed.