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AMD announces Radeon HD 4550 and 4350
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 30th September 2008
AMD has this morning introduced the Radeon HD 4550 and Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards at the bottom of its Radeon HD 4000 series line up.
They're targeted more at the HD multimedia enthusiasts than they are at gamers, but AMD says that they should deliver good gaming experiences at their respective price points of $59 and $39 USD respectively.
Both cards are based on AMD's RV710 graphics chip, which is a cost-cut version of the excellent RV770 architecture.
RV710 features 80 stream processors, eight texture units, four render back ends (ROPs) and a 64-bit memory bus width. The chip is built on one of TSMC's 55nm processes and AMD says it packs 242 million transistors in.
Interestingly, both the 4550 and 4350 have the same 600MHz core clock – the only differentiation is the memory type, size and clock speed. The Radeon HD 4550 features DDR3 memory clocked at 1,600MHz (effective) in either 256MB or 512MB quantities, while the 4350 features 256MB of DDR2 memory clocked at 1,000MHz (effective).
Like its bigger brothers, RV710 supports eight-channel audio via HDMI and also includes the second generation Unified Video Decoder hardware, enabling smooth HD media playback. This means that Avivo HD technology also makes an appearance and will enable functions like noise reduction, colour enhancement and adaptive motion de-interlacing.
Expect boards to be available from the usual suspects over the coming weeks and days.
While they're right at the bottom end of the spectrum and unlikely to attract massive attention from a typical bit-tech reader, would you like to see us review these new entry-level cards from AMD? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Comments (14)
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one thing though, if this is for hellping hd playback will the faster memory make any differance?
+1
I'd like to see the drop-off from the 4650 to these too, especially in some light gaming (HL2 for instance)
2nd'ed plus comparison to the main integrated graphics mobo chipsets (780g /8200 or whatever is just round the corner)
with the 8 channel audio, does that mean lpcm only or is powerdvd/windvd etc able to send bitstream these days?
I'll take 9 thanks.
All in all, not a bad list of features for such an inexpensive, little card. I was actually in the process of building a couple of HTPCs for the homestead, and I'd be interested in seeing what the gains of using a couple of these in Crossfire vs. using them standalone, would be.
Also like to see how well they handle video transcoding. Now that they have a new digital camcorder, the family has gotten into home video in a big way. Of course the camera does not film in divx or mkv, and the files have to be converted. If I can offload that task to the HTPCs and off my main desktop, and get reasonable results, it would be a lifesaver . . . not to mention, I can finally get my computer back from the missus.