Specifications – Radeon HD 3450 and HD 3470

For our test we only received a sample of the smaller entry-level version, the HD 3450, which corresponds to the Pro model in ATI’s previous naming scheme. The most obvious difference to the faster HD 3470 is the memory, using DDR2 instead of the newer GDDR3. Using DDR2 brings an advantage with it, though, as the card is able to borrow some of the system’s RAM as additional graphics memory using Hyper Memory technology. In higher resolutions, this can boost 3D performance by a few percentage points.

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that these graphics processors are still only entry-level parts featuring only 40 stream processors and a lame 64 bit memory interface, making them rather unsuited to DirectX 10 games. Don’t expect to play any games at more than a 1024 resolution and low details or older DirectX 8 titles on these cards. More realistically, expect to use the HD 34x0 in HTPCs and systems primarily tasked with 2D applications such as office work and internet browsing.