The Card
Out of the box, the card comes configured for operation in a low-profile case. The extra VGA connector on the ribbon cable can be easily detached in a few seconds - or installed in an unoccupied slot.
HIS uses a truly single slot cooling solution. We have seen cards from other AIBs that are a little bit thicker than just one slot.
The card has a DVI port, one HDMI port, and a detachable VGA D-Sub connector.
For HDMI Audio, NVIDIA requires you to feed an external audio source, for example from your motherboard's on-board audio, to the card via SPDIF cable. AMD on the other hand has integrated a sound device inside their GPUs which is the easier solution for most users. Also AMD's integrated sound device has been upgraded to support HDMI 1.3a which includes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and up to 7.1 channel audio with 192 kHz / 24-bit.
While CrossFire is possible, there is no dedicated connector for the bridge. All data transfers for CrossFire are implemented via the PCI-Express bus, which is a sufficient solution for this performance class. The HD 5450 can also pair up with certain AMD 7-series and 8-series chipsets with integrated graphics for a small performance boost, Hybrid CrossFireX.
Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (
front,
back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.