ATI brings DX11 to the masses

Graphics power to the people

AMD's graphics arm ATI has announced the launch of new graphics card today that it says will bring gaming and Hi Def multimedia into the reach of even the most impoversished computer users.

The ATI Radeon HD 5450 will retail for less than $60 (about £38 in real money, though don't expect that to be the UK retail price) and is the first card at this price point to offer full DirectX 11 capabilities.

With 512MB of onboard memory, the PCi Express X16 card will manage all the bells and whistles turned up to 11 in Windows 7, is capable of crunching full HDMI video at 1080p and will cope with most modern games, though you may have to compromise on the settings for the likes of Crysis.

The card is passively cooled in its natural state, so you can expect to see this turning up in living-room-based home theatre set-ups where fan noise is an issue.

This one's not going to break any speed records, but it won't break the bank either.