Compared to the AMD HD 6450 launch-day press samples (GDDR5 @ 900 MHz, GPU @ 750 MHz), the Sapphire HD 6450, which uses DDR3 memory at 667 MHz and clocks the GPU at 625 MHz is a complete disappointment when it comes to 3D performance. I find it quite shocking that AMD sent samples to the press that are 46% faster at 1024x768 than the actual product available in retail. As a result the "market" HD 6450 cards end up being considerably slower than the GeForce GT 520, which dissapointed us too, with low performance and quite high pricing. If you are looking to improve graphics performance beyond what you might have in a system with integrated graphics, then please spend $100 on something like a used HD 5750 that provides over 4x the performance at a relatively reasonable price increase.
Performance aside, Sapphire's HD 6450 provides a good solution for media PC users. The card comes in a compact form factor with included low-profile brackets. The included HDMI interface with 7.1 channel audio and UVD 3 video decode acceleration manages content decode and transfer to your big screen. Thanks to the passive cooling on the Sapphire HD 6450, the card emits no noise at all - great for the living room. At a time when graphics integrated into processors are getting faster than ever, and with AMD taking a big leap in that direction with Fusion, this could very well be one of the last few GPUs in this performance segment.