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ATI Radeon HD 4350 and 4550: Great HTPC Solutions
ATI Radeon HD 4350 and 4550: Great HTPC Solutions
Date: September 30th, 2008
Topic: Video Card
Manufacturer: ATI
Author: Derek Wilson
Buy the ASUS EAH4550/DI/512MD3 Radeon HD LP
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 eCost $51.99
 Newegg $54.99
 PCRush $57.92
 
 

Oooh, new GPUs from AMD - however these ones aren't going to be breaking any performance records, they are both priced below $60.

The Radeon HD 4350 and 4550 are slotted in between integrated graphics and the set of hardware we took a look at recently in our Radeon 4670 review. The Radeon HD 4550 will run you around $45 - $55, while the Radeon HD 4350 will be priced at $39. Generally speaking, if you're a gamer you're not spending any less than $150 for a graphics card - so these GPUs are mostly for enabling hardware Blu-ray acceleration or providing a boost in performance over games running on integrated graphics.

  ATI Radeon HD 4870 ATI Radeon HD 4850 ATI Radeon HD 4670 ATI Radeon HD 4650 ATI Radeon HD 4550 ATI Radeon HD 4350 ATI Radeon HD 3870
Stream Processors 800 800 320 320 80 80 320
Texture Units 40 40 32 32 8 8 16
ROPs 16 16 8 8 4 4 16
Core Clock 750MHz 625MHz 750MHz 600MHz 600MHz 600MHz 775MHz+
Memory Clock 900MHz (3600MHz data rate) GDDR5 993MHz (1986MHz data rate) GDDR3

1000MHz (2000MHz data rate) GDDR3

or

900MHz (1800MHz data rate) DDR3

500MHz (1000MHz data rate) DDR2 800MHz (1600MHz data rate) DDR3 500MHz (1000MHz data rate) DDR2 1125MHz (2250MHz data rate) GDDR3
Memory Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit 128-bit 128-bit 64-bit 64-bit 256-bit
Frame Buffer 512MB 512MB 512MB GDDR3 or 1GB DDR3 512MB 512MB or 256MB 256MB 512MB
Transistor Count 956M 956M 514M 514M 242M 242M 666M
Die Size 260 mm2 260 mm2 146 mm2 146 mm2 ? ? 118 mm2
Manufacturing Process TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm TSMC 55nm
Price Point $299 $199 $79 $69 $45 - $55 $39 $199

 

 

While the Radeon HD 4670 was quite impressive with 320 stream processors, the same number that was in last year's Radeon HD 3870, the 4350 and 4550 only have 80 SPs. That's twice the number of SPs in AMD's 780G, the current highest performing IGP solution on the market. In our Radeon HD 4670 review we found that the GPU was fast enough for pretty much all current generation games at resolutions up to 1280 x 1024, but with only 1/4 the shader power of its $75 brother we don't have high gaming expectations from these cards.

Both the 4550 and 4350 are mated with a 64-bit memory interface and either a DDR2 or DDR3 frame buffer. With very little memory bandwidth, and very little processing power you need to have good expectations for these cards.

The competition from NVIDIA is a little blurrier; while the GeForce 9400 GT is priced more in line with where we expect these cards to end up, NVIDIA does have one trick up its sleeve. The GeForce 9500 GT, paired with 256MB of DDR2 memory (the same type you'd get on your desktop) is priced at around $65 - $70 but is currently available with a $15 - $20 mail in rebate, bringing it down to the about same pricepoint as the Radeon HD 4550.

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55 Comments - Last by Nil Einne, 288 days ago
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GPU are great @ $40 by tuteja1986, 417 days ago
Will it come in APG ?

Reply
RE: GPU are great @ $40 by erikejw, 416 days ago
"For our comparison to integrated graphics, we looked at two games: Crysis and Oblivion. These games tend to cover the spectrum fairly well from DX9 to DX10, and they tell the same story: integrated graphics suck."

So you really beleive that casual gamers will go out and buy the 2 most demanding games released(when new). That is quite hilarious.

A casual gamer might want to play a game someone bought them for christmas like a 3d golf game or a race game or a strategy game or even a good fps shooter, not that common for casual gamers though.

Why not compare those games instead of picking out crysis, hell, even last generation 500$ card have problems with that game.

How about making a comparison of "normal" games and see what resolution you can play them. Who cares if you get 4 or 7 fps in Crysis with 2 different IGP solutions. I wan't to know if I can play a game at all and in what resolution.

Of course IGP solutions is worthless for hardcore gamers, noone will claim anything else.However a good reviewer will have the ability to look beyond his own needs.

IGP are supposed to be slower than discrete cards, that doesn't make them worthless.





Reply
RE: GPU are great @ $40 by erikejw, 416 days ago
I was mostly wrong here.
I didn't even care to read the end before I wrote my response.

I read the other review for a few days ago that the Shrimp did and this is directed towards that article and I thought you would do the same.

You used a weird choice of games but you did put in settings that made the games playable and you compared resolutions that would make the game playable, hats off for that.

Reply
AMD is really hitting its stride in graphics... by xeutonmojukai, 417 days ago
so let's get this straight:

AMD has the best two-GPU-one-card solution on the market.
They have the best HTPC cards on the market.
They have the best single slot card on the market.
They have the best entry-level card for quality gaming.
They have the best integrated graphics...

Not only that, but their prices seem to remain very low...

I just hope all this inevitable revenue goes towards an excellent CPU line next generation.

Reply
RE: AMD is really hitting its stride in graphics... by whatthehey, 417 days ago
Given the above is pretty much what Anandtech has said during the past couple of months, I love how all the idiots out there still try to say this site is biased against AMD and is in the pocket of NVIDIA and Intel. I've been a reader for a LONG time, and let me tell you I've seen them praise any company with a superior product. Sorry folkds, but the AMD CPUs right now simply can't stand up to Intel. NVIDIA is also better in several areas, but at least it's a generally close match.

In summary: A great big F U to all those Inquirer readers.

Reply
Hybrid Crossfire? by BigLan, 417 days ago
Can either of these run in hybrid crossfire on a 780g or 790gx motherboard, or does only the 3450 work?

These cards sound really nice for converting an older box into a htpc, though I'm not sure if lpcm audioo out is such a big deal at this price point - you're going to need a relatively expensive receiver to take advantage of it, so the $30 difference between a 4550 and 4650 isn't going to really matter, though the passive cooler might.

Reply
RE: Hybrid Crossfire? by Calin, 417 days ago
The 4550 will also has reduced power requirements over the 4650 - and this will help with the noise level too.

Reply
blue ray offload tests ? by haplo602, 417 days ago
So you are testing 2 cards aimed mainly on HTPC market but all you do is GAME benchmarks ?

What about a video playback test compared to the best IGP solutions ? I mean CPU offload graphs and such ?

Reply
RE: blue ray offload tests ? by Strid, 417 days ago
Yeah, I agree. That is pretty important for the point the author is trying to prove. Also, the cards seem pretty power hungry? It's difficult to tell from the charts, but they're pretty close to the 4670 and 9500GT? I would have liked to see power ratings for only the 4550/4350. Sure they blow the hat off IGPs, no question, but at what power cost?

Reply
RE: blue ray offload tests ? by Calin, 416 days ago
This was the system power - measured from the wall. Unfortunately, the power used by video card is difficult to measure (if at all possible without a big budget). Some guesses on the power use would be fine, though, and some temperature readings too

Reply
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