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My godson received a new desktop computer at Christmas and asked me to take a look at the specs.

When he bought it, he specifically asked for a graphics card that is able to render some of the latest games. Specifically he tried to play Crysis 3 at a resolution of 1920x1080 which was everything but not a fluid gaming experience. Picture was clear but once you moved around, everything got blurry and barely playable.

I checked the computer management and found an entry like ASUS R5 230 L while on his invoice there was RADEON HD6450 2GB DDR3. Searching on the ASUS site, I found two different pages:

..indicating they're different cards. But then I found a review on Youtube with the name "Asus AMD Radeon HD6450 R5 230 2GB Graphics Card Review and Testing", basically listing both, HD6450 and R5230 as if it was one card!?

Is someone able to solve my confusion?

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    To answer your question on if its a good gaming card, the answer is no. Not a good card at all for video games. Good for just a basic replacement of the onboard graphics card, that's about it Dec 28, 2014 at 16:05
  • It's a good idea to check benchmark scores on video cards. I'll typically just Google for the model and score, but you can use sites like videocardbenchmark.net. I'd gauge the card in your grandson's notebook against future purchases
    – VitaminYes
    Dec 28, 2014 at 18:31

1 Answer 1

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The Radeon R5 230 is a rebranded Radeon HD 6450. They use the same underlying GPU and differ only by memory speed.

  • The Radeon HD 6450 uses a TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) architecture "Caicos" GPU with 160 shader cores operating at 625 MHz. Memory is 512 MB to 1 GB of either DDR3 or GDDR5 at up to 900 MHz. Specifications: Wikipedia, AMD.

  • The Radeon R5 230 has the exact same GPU and differs only in memory speed. Memory is 1 GB of DDR3 at 1066 MHz on the reference card, although configurations with more memory or faster GDDR5 memory are available. Specifications: Wikipedia, AMD.

  • Neither card has sufficient performance for modern gaming. You should consider an R9 270 or better instead.

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  • Oh I see, so the R5 230 is the newer version? Hmm..apparently the seller assured him (my godson) that the card is good enough for gaming...what about NVIDIA? I'm not into gaming for a while so my knowledge about the latest cards is quite low. Just remember NVIDIA GeForce was quite good at that time (damn do I feel old right now..) :) thx for your answer.
    – Juri
    Dec 28, 2014 at 16:13
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    For NVIDIA, you should be looking for a GeForce GTX 660, GTX 760, or above. The NVIDIA part closest to the Radeon R5 230 is the GeForce GT 610 (yes, that's how basic this card is).
    – bwDraco
    Dec 28, 2014 at 16:19
  • oh I see. So your suggestion for a good gaming card (with acceptable price-performance ration) is an R9 270?
    – Juri
    Dec 28, 2014 at 16:23
  • That's practically the minimum for modern gaming—it'll handle many of today's games at medium. If your budget allows, get a faster card. (Be sure your PSU meets the power requirements.)
    – bwDraco
    Dec 28, 2014 at 16:29
  • do you have any particular suggestions for a good card?
    – Juri
    Dec 28, 2014 at 16:33

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