AMD introduced the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards, the latest additions to ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics line up. These cards are aimed at HD multimedia PC users which shop in the value price market. Both cards are based on the same technology found in the celebrated ATI Radeon HD 4800 series, including support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games.
The ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics card, starting from just $55 for a 512MB configuration, can play demanding game titles previously unplayable by video cards in the value price market. The ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card goes for $39 for a 256 MB memory configuration.
The ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics card
Derived from the same technology found throughout the ATI Radeon HD 4800 family of products and featuring 80 stream processing cores, the card is based on the AMD advanced second generation 55nm process. 4550 has 96 GFLOPS of compute power with full support for DirectX 10.1 games but operates at less than 20 watts under full load. With such low wattage requirements, the ATI Radeon HD 4550 is available as a passively cooled solution making it a good fit for PCs in media room or living rooms where a minimum of noise, heat are a must. The ATI Radeon HD 4550 with a frame buffer of 512MB DDR3 memory is expected to be available in October.
The ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card
For those of us on a tight budget, we no longer need to settle for integrated motherboard graphics. The ATI Radeon HD 4350 low cost and great features of 7.1 channel audio via HDMI, frame buffer of 256MB and only consuming just 20 watts under full load is perfect for the budget PC market. The ATI Radeon HD 4350 is also expected to be available in October.
Home theater
Home theater enthusiasts should especially appreciate these ultra-quiet cards represent which are perfect for the do-it-yourself home theatre PC builders by enabling a feature-rich, high definition and audio for home theatre experience when used with HD displays. AMD’s second generation Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2.0) gives smooth HD media playback, and ATI Avivo HD technology helps deliver sharp, crisp images and vibrant colors for video entertainment.
