[HD4550 Review] A low-budget media center PC GPU

Product: Sapphire HD4550 512MB DDR3
Core clock: 600mhz - 750mhz max via ATi OverDrive; 800 MAX recomended via RivaTuner 2009 OC Edition
Memory clock: 750mhz - 850mhz max via ATi OverDrive; 1100 MAX recomended via RivaTuner 2009 OC Edition
Benchmark software used: 3DMark03
System specs: CPU: Intel Celeron D 330 2,6ghz @3ghz; GPU: Sapphire HD4550 512MB DDR3 NO OC: 600/750 OC: 700/900; RAM : 1GB Adata DDR2; HDD: 60GB SSD (got +500 3dmarks using it) PSU: Thermaltake 400w
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
So let's start with the review, shall we?
Why should I choose HD4550 GPU?
- The answer is simple... it's a low-profile video card perfect for HTPC PCs, it's cheap ~45-50$, you can do hybrid crossfire if you're using AM3 socket board (AMD, duh!) equipped with a 770/775/800 etc.. chipset AND it overclocks pretty well.

Full specs can be found HERE

The HD4550 graphics card will be perfect for your everyday browsing, office work and it supports HD playback all those stuff come without you burning a hole up your pocket.

Pros&cons + some benchmarks

Pros
- Good price:quality ratio
- Low-profile
- Passive cooling (no fan=no excess noise)
- DirectX 10.1 support
- Perfect HD playback, no lag at all even with my 06' built PC (excluding ram, ssd and GPU)
Cons
- It's not for advanced gaming
- Pretty high temperatures when playing intense games
- Lack of Linux OS support (Linux would bring up an error when you boot up with a HD4550)
- Can't take an advantage of the DX 10.1 because it's a "ghetto" GPU and won't run new games with fps higher than 10-12 even with an i7/Phenom X6/ 980X CPU


3DMark 03 benchmark



3DMark 03 settings used-



3DMark 03 @ stock settings -



RivaTuner OC settings used -



3DMark 03 @ OC -


Hope this was usefull to somebody, bare in mind that this is my 1'st review.
Greetings to all overclockers!

What sort of HD content have you watched with it?

Also, good job on your first review - laid out nicely with good format.

Next time around, I'd recommend you add in more detail about the environment around the card for comparison - other similar cards, their prices, and what you could expect in comparison. It tells the reader more about what the results you presented mean. Seeing 3DM03 scores doesn't mean much to me unless I've run 3DM03 before and I know how good or bad that score is - if you present how other cards score, and the specifications of other cards, that gives even a total newb some perspective on how good or bad the results of your review are.

If you want to do more reviews, and maybe work on getting an article of yours on overclockers.com, you can contact konakona via PM and he'll help you get started and answer any questions you may have. Our editorial process does a lot of work on improving people's article quality - you can click on my news team banner to read some details of how things work.

I.M.O.G. said:

What sort of HD content have you watched with it?

Click to expand...

1080p movie - Avatar (didn't like it .. some blue skinned ugly people.. nothing good about it)
720p - Friday
EDIT:
Can't submit similar GPU scores because they won't be reallistic (my pc is old nobody uses celeron for reviews these days) i added the results to show now much 3dmarks you get from overclocking it

Wow how do you find anything on your desktop!?! I am looking for a GPU to go inside a HTPC and this card does does have its benefits. Although the equivalent 5 series card may offer a lower power draw for the same performance.

Cool, thanks! Also, I editted my post a bit above, just fyi.

Also, here's an example of how anandtech gave some more perspective - obviously they are professionals and understandably have a lot more resources for this sort of thing:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2630

Badbonji said:

Wow how do you find anything on your desktop!?! I am looking for a GPU to go inside a HTPC and this card does does have its benefits. Although the equivalent 5 series card may offer a lower power draw for the same performance.

Click to expand...

I don't find anything on my desktop, I only remembered where's my firefox& skype icons i feel like Indiana Jones searching stuff on my desktop.
I don't think the HD5XXX series are what people define for "low profile" and quiet.
I personally preffer HD4550 instead of the 5 series, nothing's better than a product that is out for years and still does the job 10 GPUs for 1 year isn't making ATi/AMD a good name altrough the 5970 eats the GTX480 hands down... i bet nVidia's owner warms his a*s with a nice hot (runs hotter than a dual core GPU) fermi core on his chair .

EDIT: Thanks I.M.O.G i'll make sure my next review (eventually if i get some new upgrade parts: cheap ASRock mobo (it's an asus daughter company so won't be as bad as it was 4 years ago) Phenom X2 (than further unlock the 4 cores and test if they're stable) or a X6 if i save up some money and 2GB DDR3 ram (they aint cheap! 2gb= 100BGN~65$ in Bulgaria) has the things you recommended

I am not referring to the high end 5 series, I was talking mainly about the HD5450 which seems like a nice small card.

Badbonji said:

I am not referring to the high end 5 series, I was talking mainly about the HD5450 which seems like a nice small card.

Click to expand...

Oh, okay.. go for it!