Will a HD6450 manage this game?

[guermantes]

Hi,
I am getting tired of the coil whine that is developing in my Radeon HD6850 and destroys an otherwise quiet computer. So I am thinking of downgrading to a passively cooled HD6450 with 1 or 2 GB.

I know CIV is mainly tough on the CPU but I looked at a GPU chart and my current and old 6850 gets 2207 in score whereas the 6450 only get 250 or so. I know BTS is from 2005 but still...can a ten times weaker card cut it?

Does anyone have experiences of using passively cooled graphics cards with BTS?

Thanks!

 

[Quintillus]

Yes. Civ4 isn't that graphically intensive. I was able to play Civ4 without any GPU difficulties on a GeForce4 MX440, which was a low-end card from 2002 (CPU issues on a Pentium 4 were another story). So any recent card, even Intel ones, should work fine, and the HD6450 qualifies as recent.

For more spec-based qualification... according to results I found off of Bing, the GDDR3 version of the HD6450 gets a score of 4400 in 3dmark06. The best score I've been able to get on my laptop is about 4300. And said laptop has no trouble graphics-wise with Civ4, playing at 1280x800. I don't remember what settings I usually played with (nowadays I play Civ mostly on my desktop), but they were relatively high. So even at higher resolutions, you could probably swing medium without trouble.

I'd assume the passively cooled version of the HD6450 wouldn't be worse than the GDDR3 one in performance; if it is, the analysis might change a bit. But even so, I'd expect it to still be able to run Civ4, just perhaps with slightly lower settings.

 

[MarkJohnson]

It really depends on your screen resolution. I play on my 1440p monitor and 5450 jitters a lot while it scrolls the map. If you can handle the scrolling being jittery, then you will be fine. if not, and you can afford it, there is a 6670 passive cooled card. but beware, you'll need good ventilation or a case fan nearby or it will overheat under load.

If your 6870 is whining from a fan, just replace it, or buy a good cooler with quality fans. I bought an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Plus (they have a version 2 out now iirc) then added a single 120mm Arctic Cooling fan on my 7750. Can't even hear it the fan is so quiet.

-=Mark=-