PC Perspective - GPUs Under $70 - HD 4550, HD 4350, Galaxy 9500 GT, S3 Chrome 440 GTX

	GPUs Under $70 - HD 4550, HD 4350, Galaxy 9500 GT, S3 Chrome 440 GTX
	Author: Ryan Shrout Date: Oct 17, 2008 Subject: Graphics Card Manufacturer: General

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Summary

The following is a summary of the more detailed analysis of the AMD Radeon HD 4550, HD 4350, Galaxy 9500 GT and S3 Chrome 440 GTX graphics cards. For all the in-depth analysis and testing you'd expect from us, be sure to click this link to get all the details!

Click this link to get the full article

The economic downturn doesn't seem to be effecting the graphics card industry's desire to produce new products though it might be responsible for the sheer amount of budget cards we are seeing today. In the last month or so, AMD has released or will release no less than 5 video cards priced under $100 - the first of which was the AMD Radeon HD 4670 we reviewed just last week.

This time around we have a pair of AMD cards, the Radeon HD 4550 and HD 4350, to look as well as a couple of new competitors. While the Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT card isn't exactly a new GPU the price has been lowered such a dramatic amount in the last 30 days that it deserves another look and is the main competitor to the HD 4550. We also have been testing the S3 Chrome 440 GTX - a budget GPU solution from S3 Graphics on the surface seems to rival with the HD 4350.

With that 20 watt thermal envelope the HD 4550 can be completely passively cooled as we see above. The card is SMALL compared to other recent releases would make a great quiet/cool graphics solution for an HTPC. You might notice that there is no CrossFire connector on the card and while at first this left me a bit disappointed that AMD had left the feature off their low end cards, I was told that they in fact support CrossFire, and Hybrid CrossFire, without a need for over-the-card connectors and instead utilize only the PCI Express bus for communication.

The reference HD 4350 we received is even smaller than the 4550 - this makes it easier for tight spaces but did require the use of an active cooling solution since the area for a heatsink was drastically reduced. There is no CrossFire connector, but just like the HD 4550, the HD 4350 can run CF through the PCI Express bus.

For a budget GPU, the Galaxy team has made it impressive looking with a slim gunmetal colored heatsink fan that pops off of the blue PCB. The first thing I noticed about this card is that it has the SLI connector on it while the two AMD cards we just finished looking out were devoid of CrossFire connections.

The card design is pretty standard for budget graphics cards and is low profile enough to fit in just about any chassis.

How about some benchmark results?

For our two "battles" in today's review, the winner of the first one is probably still NVIDIA's GeForce 9500 GT card. The Galaxy 9500 GT we tested was able to best the Radeon HD 4550 in Crysis and World in Conflict while it fell slightly behind in the Bioshock testing; a game that AMD has traditionally done very well. That being said, BOTH of these cards would be good choices for a user looking for a low cost gaming solution. The choice might come down to your preferred GPU company or what kind of connectivity options you want for your system. The integrated HDMI and DisplayPort connections on our reference board were definitely terrific additions.

The AMD Radeon HD 4350 was also a strong competitor and with its lower price tag might find its way into your heart if you are looking for multimedia performance more than gaming performance. S3's Chrome 440 GTX was a disappointment in terms of gaming - there is really no other way to say it. And at $60 on the S3graphics.com site store, it's actually competing with the HD 4550 and 9500 GT - a battle it can't hope to win. From a multimedia stand point the card is more than capable - it does have the same Blu-ray decode acceleration (or similar at least) to both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards.

Pricing and Availability

As of this writing there are two Radeon HD 4550 cards listed in our pricing engine: an ASUS card selling for $69 and a Sapphire card selling for $63. The Radeon HD 4350 is selling at two locations on our pricing engine, both of which list the MSI version going for $48 and $39 respectively. Newegg is one of those retailers and lists the card at $29 after a $10 MIR! $30 is a STEAL for a card with these features and performance

The Galaxy 9500 GT is listed in our pricing engine as selling for $69 at several locations though Newegg has the identical card tested here going for $39 after mail-in rebate. This is a budget graphics slugfest if I have ever seen one!

Unfortunately for S3, the only place selling the Chrome 440 GTX is their own online store: the going rate is $59. When pitted against cards like the HD 4550 selling for just a few dollars more than the HD 4350 and Galaxy 9500 GT selling for LESS it's easy to see why most gamers would be looking past the third candidate in this race.

Final Thoughts

The budget graphics market is a quagmire of lost cost cards, differing product configurations and mail-in rebates. While it might seem confusing at first, there are literally dozens of fantastic purchasing options for any user looking to build a low-cost gaming computer or HTPC. AMD is certainly pushing the market forward, and driving NVIDIA's marketeers mad, by releasing the HD 4550 and HD 4350 at such incredible prices and with impressive feature sets. NVIDIA and their partners are responding in kind by dropping prices on their own cards and giving the users gifts like Galaxy's 9500 GT card tested here. If you are on the lookout for a sub-$70 graphics card, the options shown in this review today are all terrific and the field is wide open for more of them to appear.

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards and anything else you might need:

Click here for the Detailed Review