ATI Radeon HD 4350 and 4550: Great HTPC Solutions
by Derek Wilson on September 30, 2008 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Benefits Over Integrated Graphics
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.
First up is Crysis. For integrated graphics, we needed to test everything at the absolute lowest setting, and even that was painful. It is too bad we couldn't test 640x480, as that might have given some of this hardware a chance at playability. But with the tests we did run, none of our integrated solutions were really playable at 1024x768, and only the AMD 780G did anything useful at 800x600. By contrast, the 4350 and the 4550 both we very playable at this very low quality setting. Pushing up to 1280x1024 wasn't really as effective, but the 4550 did still hang on to playable framerates at that resolution.
As for Oblivion, we see nearly the same behavior as with Crysis. There is a huge performance gap between integrated graphics and even the lowest end of add-in cards we are testing today. And these settings with Oblivion are insanely ugly. We would never recommend playing with very low settings ever. It's a horrendous experience.
As usual, Intel's integrated graphics are the biggest joke of the bunch. But that's not any sort of feather in AMD or NVIDIA's cap here: Intel's G35 is just really horrible hardware for 3D.
So, with the benefit over integrated graphics well established, how do these parts compare to the slightly higher price bracket right next door? Let's take a look at how they compare to NVIDIA's 9500 GT DDR2 and AMD's 4670.
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xeutonmojukai - Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - link
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.
whatthehey - Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - link
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.
tuteja1986 - Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - link
Will it come in APG ?erikejw - Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - link
"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.
erikejw - Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - link
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.