The story emerges about HD3450 and gaming
YOU’LL PROBABLY READ this review of an HD3450 with the same morbid curiosity one watches a train wreck on Youtube... nonetheless someone wrote it, and sure as heck, we put it up here. Neoseeker picked up this high-end part (not) and threw some *gasp* DX10 titles at it - WiC, Bioshock, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory, UT3 and X3. A bloody massacre would describe what ensued. If you’re into really hardcore slideshows, you can even watch a vid of UT3 played on an HD3450. Truth be said, if you get Hybrid CrossFire, maybe - just maybe - you can get that Crysis score over 18fps. Roll over laughing here.
Small Net Builder has a review of IOGear’s GCN1000 PC Portal – a networkable IP-based KVM device. This is a bit deeper than a software solution giving you access to the system on a level that PCAnywhere simply cannot. You can even watch the remote PC boot up and access the BIOS with this device. There’s also a nice little feature called Virtual Media Connection on the GCN1000. This will let you transfer files directly from the remote PC to your host PC, creating a virtual USB drive. No idea if this works on Macs, though. Still, it works and makes life easier for many an admin. Read on.
Xbit Labs has published Part Deux of their 24-incher roundup. In this part they’ve added reviews of six new displays. Apparently TN matrices are making a comeback in this size department, despite the limited viewing angles and weird colour reproduction – it *is* an option is you don’t want to fork out much money for the 24-incher. Oleg has some interesting things to say, here.
Aussies have way too much time on their hands these days. OZ Hardware tested a... (wait for it)... ... USB Missile Launcher. Yes, the Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launcher, an item soon to be banned across the world, just out of bleedin’ principle. Remember (way back) when Tetris came out and office productivity hit a worldwide low? Well, this kit promises to do much of the same. Enjoy flinging missiles at your co-workers or friends with this little item here.
Computer Shopper has a review of HP’s new Media Vault MV2120. It’s a $299 NAS that works as a file server, backup server and storage server for your home network. It comes with a stock 500GB drive (hot-swappable), and has USB ports to plug in additional drives/USB sticks. There’s also room for a second drive bay (also hot-swappable) which you can use for RAID 1 or JBOD. Some glitches in user management, but not enough to flunk the device altogether. Read CS’s review here.
The Velociraptor is doing the rounds quite fast too. It’s now reached Extremetech and they are mightily impressed by this 2.5-inch predator. This review did make a difference from the others as Loyd managed to get hold of 2 Velociraptors and tested them in single and RAID 0 configuration. Interestingly, the RAID 0 configuration topped out at the same values as a couple of WK6400AAKS also in RAID 0 – either meaning the platform is limiting the test or it’s reached some technical limit in software. Lots of intriguing technical details here.
It’s TechGage’s turn to test the Core 2 Quad Q9450. It isn’t the cheapest or the most readily available of the Intel Quads, but TG highly recommends it. Performance, power consumption, overclocking are all in line with the remainder of the family – or slightly better, considering you can get a simple 333-> 400MHz overclock for free, takeing the 2.66GHz straight to 3GHz – identical to a QX9650. $350 will get you one, if you can find it... Carry on. µ
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A low cost ($50) DX10 card with ok gaming performance. Haha.
But this is the first review I've ever seen that's actually brings you in-game futtage from a game played on a certain GPU so you can actually see how much or how little FPS means in games.

For all games except X3: Reunion the games ran what I would say acceptable for my taste.

Not all gamers have the luxury of playing the newest games on shiny new 30 inch monitors and for that don't need to play games at ultra high settings.

I can only hope for that will see more of this kind of reviews with in-game futtage in the future as this gives you a much better knowledge of how a certain card performs!
What is the sense then on testing a low end gfx card with games that are completely irrelevant? Why lap Nurburgring in a mini van and claim it's a terrible performance car and nobody should buy it?

If your not serious about gaming, you'll probably get a card like the 3450, because you won't have/want to spend any more money, you also won't buy many games, therefore you won't worry about lost value, nor care much about eye candy.

You also won't be the kind to brag in forums about the size and prowess of your rig.

Turn down some graphics detail to more moderate settings, don't use AA or AF - more than 100% playable framerates , even in Crysis, which I've seen playable on a X1300 gpu with the detail off.



This product has been available for ages now. We have around 4 in our office somewhere. Problem is that the software that controls it is not very good and locks windows until it gets a response from the launcher, not good!
Mr. Taylor,

I think sarcasm is out of place in your comments about the AMD 3450 video card. It is a low end card: why expect it to run top end games well? In particular why waste your bile on it? If the 3870 was crap then your attitude would be reasonable.

In any case, the Inq is generally the best tech news rag out there, try to keep up the good work.