ASUS Radeon HD 3450 DirectX 10.1 EAH3450/DI/256M 256MB 64-Bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

Pros: Offloads a lot of processing from the CPU when watching h.264 content. Improves 3D performance for some mild gaming (nothing too intense).

Cons: I'm not crazy about rebates. Just lower the price.

Overall Review: I bought this to improve the video performance of 1080p h.264 content. The HD3200 IGP could handle 720p, but stuttered on parts of 1080p. I added this to the 780G mobo to hopefully get 1080p to work smoothly. After putting the new card in and enabling Crossfire (with the 3200), 1080p video performance increased somewhat, but still unacceptable. I found that hardware decoding was NOT working, so I enabled it in the MPC preferences. That made all the difference. Now the card just ripped through 1080p content and CPU load dropped from 80% to 20%. If you want to use this on a HTPC, make sure you enable DXVA and (in Vista) select EVR for the renderer. The playback goes from unwatchable to perfect.

Pros: FIts in a half height slot. Quiet. Output is very sharp at 1360x768 on the TV through HDMI. 5 stars on the hardware, 0 stars for HDMI output (severe problem with the drvier, see below).

Cons: Beware of this card if you are going to use HDMI. The ati (catalyst) driver (including the current version, i.e. 8.10) drops the sound on some displays (including mine) after the display is turned off and back on. ATI is aware of the problem and claims to be fixing it (and indicates that it will be fixed in 8.11), however they have been claiming that they will fix this problem for the last year. In some cases people lose the display and not sound, in other cases they lose both. Google "ati hdmi edid" or HDMION for more information about this problem. HDMION is a program that resets the HDMI link and brings back sound and/or video. I have to run this program after turning off the display to get sound (or reboot the machine). Had I known about this issue I would have purchased nvidia for HDMI. Generally ATI cards are excellent, but apparently not for HDMI because of this problem. Setup is Windows Vista Premium SP1, Dell C521, Visiontek 650 and this card.

Overall Review: Note that the low profile bracket takes up an additional slot to the left (looking down into the machine). In the case of the Dell C521 this does not make for a good fit for this card. Also note that users have been complaining to ATI about the loss of EDID since version 7.3, or for more than a year. Also note that if ATI does not fix this problem and if you encounter it, you may be forced to reboot your computer after turning off your display or forced to run the HDMION utility. Some users have purchased a logitech remote to overcome the problem by running HDMION at each power on of the display, but this is a very costly method of solving this problem. I would advise not purchasing this card if you are going to run HDMI unless you know for certain that you will not encounter this problem in your setup, or unless you are certain that the catalyst driver has been fixed to overcome this problem.

Pros: no problems

Cons: none thus far

Overall Review: oops, submitted the previous review to the wrong asus product. should have been the mobo review, not this one. this product was fine. no problems with installation.

Pros: * Price - $20 after rebate is about as low as it goes for any PCIe device. * Compact, single slot card - There isn't a case (probably) that the card itself can't fit into, full height or low profile (bracket included - **see Cons) * DVI/HDMI/DSub connectors native without need of adapters * Passive cooling for silent operation * OC's better than I expected, although cooling solutions for good OC will cost more than the card * The only card currently out that supports Hybrid Crossfire (with AMD 780/790 chipsets), even in XP (since Catalyst 8.8) despite what the AMD/ATI Hybrid Crossfire website says.

Cons: * Really not that powerful, but a (small) step up from IGP ** Included half-height bracket is a single-piece double-width bracket, which could be a problem for some with ITX and mini-ITX mobo's - you will have to cut the bracket in half, or not use it, if you want to forgo VGA and use only 1 slot in half-height * The heatsink is a little weak, but adequate if you want to use the card with stock settings or light OC. Because I happened to have a Zalman "Blue Peacock" NB Heatsink lying around, I slapped it on the card, along with a 16 CFM fan, dropping load temps @ 750MHz GPU from 52C to 43C (41C was idle temp with stock HS). Big difference. This isn't really a practical long-term solution, however, because it takes up 3 slots, defeating the purpose of getting a slim card in the first place.

Overall Review: I got this card to play aound with Hybrid Crossfire (with HD3300). HXF is OK, certainly provides a boost. Both CCC and in-game settings for EACH game may be important to max performance v. quality, and it can take a while to figure it out. I got Mass Effect (1440x900), Fallout 3 (1680x1050) and Oblivion (1680x1050) with HIGH detail/particle settings, no AA, to play at avg 30FPS or more, but don't expect HXF to turn this card into a hard-core gamer, so don't buy it as such. For bench comparison, I hit 7135 in 3DMark05 (default settings) in full stable OC (including IGP). That's better than the HD4350 and 9400GT, and ~650 marks below the HD4550. The card does handle HD video playback without problems, and, at least on my mobo, the audio passes through to the HDMI without having to disable onboard sound in BIOS, like I had to do with the onboard HDMI. Overall, a good basic budget card at a great price for HTPC or "medium" gaming w/ HXF. The keyword here is "basic"...

Pros: This card was a great upgrade from my onboard video. I am using it in my HTPC connected to my Onkyo SRX606 (which is also bought from Newegg). The built in HDMI is nice as well as it is fan less. It will run most new games a low to medium settings. I have played COD4 on medium and it does just fine. Did I mention its dirt cheap?

Cons: If you plan to use HDMI to pass your sound through your receiver you will have to download the latest driver from Asus as well as the Realtek HD drivers from their site. Also if your using an SRX606 receiver you'll have to connect to the DVD or HDMI 1 slot or you won't get Dolby 5.1. I've copied a post I found describing the steps to take for getting HDMI sound to work. See below.

Overall Review: Just a follow-up as another owner of the EAH3450. I did as you guys mention above remove any existing ATI drivers & Catalyst from Vista 32. I then installed the Asus support drivers version 8451 and got audio working. However, the audio was in fact only 2 channel PCM stereo. For those unfamiliar, you must go into Control Panel, Sound applet, and ensure that the HDMI audio device is selected (right-click) and set to default. Once you do this, you should hear audio. As for 5.1, this is possible. You simply need to go to the Realtek website (link below), click the checkbox to accept the driver: www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3 Click NEXT, the choose the download link for "ATI HDMI Audio Device" - currently rel 2.09. Once you do this, you will have glorious 5.1 surround sound support in Vista and other programs such as Arcsoft's Totalmedia (Blu-ray playback) using the SPDIF audio output selection. My setup is to an O

Pros: - Silent! A must for my htpc. - Fits and runs well in my slim profile HP s3600t - Built in sound... no need for audio passthrough - Haven't noticed any performance problems (not decoding blueray though) - For the money and my needs, can't be beat IMO.

Cons: Only problem I have is that the HDMI loses the signal when switching inputs on my TV. I tried disabling the ATI Event service with no luck. I finally ended up using hdmion.exe, hooked up to a hotkey, as a workaround. After switching to computer, if no signal comes up... hit the hotkey... signal appears. Works well enough until i can get it all figured out. Also, the double-wide low-profile bracket is kinda a pain... like many people have stated. No biggie though. Fits fine in my HP.

Overall Review: Overall a great little cheap card. Some tidbits from my install experience: - I had to disable my on-board sound to use the card's sound so that it would output through hdmi. - Didn't need to but I upgraded the audio drivers from ones downloaded from realtek. - using hdmion.exe if signal is lost when switching to my computer.

Pros: Price represents a great value. Works as advertised.

Cons: The card comes with both regular and low-profile form-factor brackets. The regular bracket is already attached, so you must remove it and mount the bracket yourself. It is very easy, but requires the removal of 'RAF 2-56 Threaded Hex Standoff' screws, which can be hard to remove without the correct tools. . Fortunately, I had a small 'computer tools' kit that had the exact Hex socket and it was a breeze. Additionally, the low-profile bracket takes up two slots, the second slot being for the VGA port (see photos).

Overall Review: I bought this for my Core 2 Duo Dell Inspiron 530s. Before installing the card, 1080p video was not playable. It now plays silky smooth.

Pros: Great card for the price (paid $20 after MIR). Fanless design means it should be quiet. ***Works in Dell slim design machines*** Verified working in Dell Vostro 200s/220s.

Cons: none.

Overall Review: One reviewer stated he couldn't use this in his Dell. I bought this card for use in a slim design Dell Vostro 200s/220s. The low profile bracket works perfectly in this system. I have taken some pictures to show this, I will try to upload them to the product page.