AMD Releases HTPC-Friendly Budget Graphics Cards

[xyster]

Two new budget graphics cards by AMD have been announced Tuesday; the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and the ATI Radeon HD 4350

AMD Releases HTPC-Friendly Budget Graphics Cards : Read more

 

[kratos401]

it seems the graph has the wrong watts on the new cards in the text. the 4350 according to the text should be the

 

[pcolby]

There seems to be small error in the summary table at the end: it lists the 4550 as

 

[Guest]

wtf? why's everyone talking half sentences here?
It seems quite a good card indeed. I had only wished they created a card like this with a passive sink.
Maybe a good companion to those mini pc's that consume very little watts?

I'd love to see a review and bench on this one (please don't compare it to the latest ATI 4850 or GeForce 8800 or something, but when available, please compare it to similar cards like ATI or NVidia cards of 3 years ago.
I wonder if this one could replace my old ATI Radeon™ 9500 PRO card.

 

[mrcastulucci]

I'm really interested to see how these cards will compare to the low profile Galaxy GeForce 8600GT that is sold at NCIXUS.com. I've done a ton of research, and as far as I know, the 8600GT is the fastest low profile card on the market. But my issue with it is that it does not have a built-in 7.1 audio decoder. I'd love to have that integrated, but I'm not willing to take a hit on performance. I'm guessing that the 8600GT will be faster because of the wider memory bus.

 

[crom]

So, to be clear, these cards both have low profile brackets?

 

[hannibal]

There is one review http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3420, but it's not so usefull utill they release their HTPC article that is on the road.
It only says that thse are good for HTPC use, and not so much for gaming... But all, in all not too bad. I would have liked to see something between 4650 and 4550, but the price difference is so small, that It is not worth of it.
There is passeve heatsink version on 4550 around, so it is really interesting choice for any quiet movie PC.

 

[mrcastulucci]

Crom, I haven't confirmed that exactly, but most graphics cards that have a 64-bit memory bus are available in low profile, from what I've seen.

The wider the memory bus, the more physical memory address lines (etchings on the circuit board) are required, so that usually dictates whether or not it is available in low profile.

 

[jalbi]

MrCastulucci the 9600GT low profile card is fastest but has high power requirements ie 450 power supply,