AMD's Budget Video Cards Pack Punches
Need a new videocard, but don’t have the Benjamins—or the need—for a high-end model? Take a look at some of the new budget cards, such as AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4600 series: AMD’s latest videocards promise to deliver decent gaming performance—and 512 MB frame buffers—for as little as $69
AMD has so far announced two SKUs in this series: The Radeon HD 4650 ($69) and the Radeon HD 4670 ($79). The company plans to ship a third model, which will be outfitted with 1GB of memory, later this month. Both announced cards have the same GPU, which boasts 320 stream-processing units, but a relatively narrow 128-bit memory interface (AMD’s pricier parts have 256-bit memory interfaces, and Nvidia’s top-end GPU has a 512-bit memory interfaces). The 4650’s core clock speed will be set at 600 MHz (compared to the 4670’s 750 MHz).
This is one case where overclocking the cheaper card to achieve the same performance as the more expensive model isn’t going to work: The higher-priced 4670 features GDDR3 memory clocked at 1GHz, but the cheaper model rolls with GDDR2 memory running at just 500MHz. No amount of tweaking is going to compensate for that architectural disadvantage.
These cards are particularly intriguing for those whose interests lie less in gaming and more in 2D and video applications, because the GPU used in both boards features ATI’s Unified Video Decoder (UVD), Avivo HD technology, and support for 7.1-channel surround sound via HDMI. UVD is capable of offloading all HD video-decoding operations from the host CPU, which means you can build a home-theater PC using a cheaper (and cooler) CPU than you might otherwise need.
Nvidia’s new cards can also output surround-sound via HDMI, but their solution is a bit clumsy: When you install the card, you must also route a S/PDIF cable from your motherboard to the card. AMD’s newer cards route audio over the bus, so there’s no need for cable.
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Only one page?
Looks like my geexbox is getting a new radeon.
No comment on performance?
It almost double the performance of its competitor 9500GT and close competitor to 9600GSO without an extra 6-pin power connector.
Therefor most of the mainstream desktop from HP, DELL, SONY, LENOVO, ACER can take advantage of that because they mainly used 300WATT or 350WATT power supply.
Only one page?
Heya Timaahhh. This is a news story, not a review. Our sample should be arriving today or tomorrow--look for full coverage soon!
HD 4670's benchmark:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati- [...] 70-review/
Yeah it brings the pwnage hardcore
According to tweaktown, two of these in Crossfire is about equal to the 4850.
Yeah it's basically on the level of the Radeon 3850, but because of the new architectural tweeks even manages to edge out the 3870 in some cases.
Hurray! I can upgrade my HTPC now, currently using the onboard HD3200, but stuck running an HDMI cable & SPDIF to get the 5.1 audio.
Now I can get the full 7.1 with the HDMI as well.
Hoorah! New Graphics Card Chart Q3 2008!
The silly 1GB doesn't make sense to me though, outside of a marketing gimmick, these cards will never max out the 512MB they've been given.
The 4870 only sees around a 5% increase from 512-1024MB unless you're pushing 1920x1200+ resolutions, something these cards can't even hope to accomplish.
Indeed, simply put, the 3670 utterly lacks the memory bandwidth to make use of more than 512 MB of memory... Worse yet, the 1 GB version will cut that down from 32.0 GB/sec to 28.8 GB/sec; I can only imagine it performing much worse.
However, for the bulk of gamers that play at the likes of 1024x768 or 1280x1024, it appears we now have a card that can cheaply do everything and best everything with AA and AF enabled, and even arguably make Crysis playable at high settings, or at the very worst, medium.
Hehe. Finally chepo to replace my 3650 in my PC.
Silver you make a good point. This kind of card at this price could also help the PC gaming industry. A quality low cost card that can be thrown into off the shelves PCs for cheap.
Silversound, you have a point. If only AMD and Nvidia understod their own best! They must make a leap now,(in price, performance and power consumption) so the PC doesen't disappear as a gaming platform! No pc-gamers, no need for fancy graphics cards!
The silly 1GB doesn't make sense to me though, outside of a marketing gimmick, these cards will never max out the 512MB they've been given.The 4870 only sees around a 5% increase from 512-1024MB unless you're pushing 1920x1200+ resolutions, something these cards can't even hope to accomplish.
Umm I have a Gateway 14" LCD, that is 1920x1200 and FYI some games are playable at that resolution with the HD4670, COD4 eveything maxed will run at 30fps, at 1600x1200 it runs at 34fps
I don't play that game anyway, but on some games it would work (1GB) and work well.
I'm not going to wait for the 1GB version however, or maybe I might we'll see.
Great I look forward to it
This may be a preview of the next gen IGP platform. Hopefully something a little more powerful to utilize hybrid crossfire.
Don't use the name Benjamin in such a lowly slang fashion. Money is money, and Ebonics is not English.
Don't use the name Benjamin in such a lowly slang fashion. Money is money, and Ebonics is not English.
Ooops I mean 24" Gateway and while I'll admit that I am black and don't use youthemisums on a regular, I know what he ment and their nothing WRONG with that. People in other countries use Ebonics, so what's your problem???
Back on topic -
HD4670 is $79 and will be in my grubby hands on Monday, did I beat Tom's Hardware???
hi all amd the best company
amd ati new card is so good with preformance and $$$$