Bran new ... rename(well granted little oc)
www.msi.com/product/vga/R6450MD1GD3H.html#hero-overview

Seriously were is my cheapo one slot/lp passive htpc card with full hevc/vp9 decoding and hdmi 2.0.

Yep. An R6540 re-brand.

The only reason I can think of to make such a low end card full height is to allow a large enough passive heatsink to be fitted. Other passive low end cards are half height though, so perhaps this GPU puts out a lot of heat for its size maybe?

They should have never call R-something a card that's so old.

Caicos Pro is a 40nm part, and this model has also been out for quite a long time...?
What's up with this TPU?

qubitThe only reason I can think of to make such a low end card full height is to allow a large enough passive heatsink to be fitted. Other passive low end cards are half height though, so perhaps this GPU puts out a lot of heat for its size maybe?

No, Asus has a low profile passive 6450: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121439

If this card was overclocked or something it would have a reason to be; as it is it's just waste of PCB.

Designed for the American market where Bigger = Better. At least, that's what the Asians understood from their intercultural lesson given by a school drop out language trainer. If it ain't better, make it bigger, so people see a reason to buy it.

I can't believe there is a D-sub output. SURELY a dongle on the dual link DVI-I would be fine, and the space saved used for DISPLAY PORT. How out of date is that card?

qubitThe only reason I can think of to make such a low end card full height is to allow a large enough passive heatsink to be fitted. Other passive low end cards are half height though, so perhaps this GPU puts out a lot of heat for its size maybe?

Well there is already an R7 250 with a passive heatsinkbut its pretty big (Not a half height sadly) though there are also low profile variants with tiny little fans which to me is almost just as good.

I do not really see a point for this to exist anymore honestly. I know the purpose is old machines that just need video output of some sort but even at the price point I feel the R7 240 is low enough and should just already be at this spot.

A rename of the 6450 is whatever... but I would hope they at least had a bump in spec's or a feature to tout? Heck if you compare the 6450/230 spec's they seem to be culling-back as they now say "up to" for clock, memory, and SP count.

Agree why full-height? Honestly when there's half-height 5450 selling like pop-corn for $6 –AR, basically the same thing given AMD is saying this is only DDR3 (6450 were by reference specs could have DDR5). If you need something to get a DVI, fix an old on-board IGP, a tool-box test part, or say dual monitor that's all you need. The 5450 has taken over the spot the 8400GS use to hold, as it as some modern features lower power.

Edit: Here's one thing to ponder; this offers performance, along with improved features of what was back in the day a 7800 GT or X1800 XL, which were fairly high-end offerings in 2005, needing 85-100W... Now just 10 years later it’s like 20W. Will we see menial entry GPU's that work like 780's or 290's in 2025?

Dat classic red pcb o_O

Greatest part of a passive card is the cooling you get when strapping a $5 fan to it.

Who wants to mod it for liquid N and overclock it till it pops?

These budget passive cards are awesome because you can stick a 80mm fan on it and overclock the hell out of it.

for any reason, i like full height card since it looks kinda serious card, half height pcb makes it like entry level card