What kind of performance can be expected for an ATI 6450 1gb ddr3 gpu?

I was wondering what kind of performance could be expected from the ATI Radeon HD 6450. It will be paired with a i5 2500, 6gb ram, and 7200rpm 500gb hdd. I have been looking online, but many sites have very high settings on new games when they test cards, so these bottom tier cards never score well. It would be used for gaming less than 25% of the time. The games played aren't really all that new, at least not the big titles of the year, but more like oblivion and CSS.

About 1/3rd the performance of a 6570, which I have. I consider the 6570 an "adequate" card for gaming at 1280x720. Most games will play on a 6570 with MSAA and sometimes even 4xSSAA in older titles, though you have to put up with less than 60fps. 6450 is about as fast as my old ati X1800xl.

It will be enough for CSS (maxed out no problem, since the Source engine is lighter than most engines) and Oblivion (although don't expect to max it out at big resolutions).

However, keep in mind that the HD 6450 is a very crippled GPU in terms of 3D perfomance.

If you have prospects of increasing your gaming time in the near future, consider going to an HD 6570 or even an HD 6670. Those are great budget GAMING cards.

The HD 6450 is not really targeted at gaming.