A couple of days ago Club3D started shipping a rather interesting
low-profile Radeon HD 4350. We missed it, as we weren't paying close
attention, but it turns out that this is a PCIe x1 card, which makes it
nothing short of unique.
The card could make life a bit worse for Nvidia AIBs who have launched
ION boards. It will allow nettop/HTPC enthusiasts to get discrete
graphics at virtually the same cost as an ION board. Club3D's HD 4350
is reference clocked, so it packs an RV710 at 600MHz and it has 512MB
of DDR2 memory clocked at 400MHz. Doesn't sound like much, but it's
probably more than enough to outpace an ION.
The card is passively cooled and its power consumption is just 20W. It
supports DirectX 10.1 and has HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs. The only
downside is that it will take up two slots, so some caution is advised,
as it won't fit in all ITX enclosures.
The price is the icing on the cake. At just under €40, it's cheap
enough to be a viable alternative to ITX boards with ION graphics.
You can get it
here.