Zardon

Read The Review Here
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Today's review subject, the Radeon HD 4550, which sits nicely between the 3450 and 4650 in ATIs product catalogue and competes directly against the GeForce 9400 GT. In this review we will be comparing those two cards in a selection of the latest games as well as seeing how each fairs in some high definition playback tests.

Erroneus

7.1 sound support via HDMI sounds great (no pun intended), but who will use a 7.1 sound signal to a TV?

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macbiter

good looking media card although im really put off by ATI atm as my laptop keeps giving BSOds with the 3450 when watching MKVs. Dont have much faith in ATI drivers.

temeteus82

What codec was used on those .mkv media files? It does sound like a codec issue not a driver issue.

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macbiter

its part of the CCCP codec pack, and no its not the codec, the same codec works fine on Nvidia cards, and has done for years. you seen the thread in the ATI forums about this?

http://www.driverheaven.net/vista-ra...ing-error.html

Hardly a codec issue just crap drivers.

mkk

What a cute little cooler that low profile card has. While the HD4670 performs much better in games for not much more, the maximum power consumption of 20W can certainly put the HD4550 in favor for special builds. Like perhaps in a small form Intel build where the integrated graphics doesn't quite cut it.

Try Media Player Classic HomeCinema instead of any codec pack. Just my general recommendation for playing todays video formats.

While there are some TV's with various inventive surround methods that bounce the sound against the walls, the main reason is that there's simply no meaning in providing less than the standardised 7.1 today.

Veridian3

For the 7.1 audio the main reason is that you pass HDMI into your audio receiver/amp and that takes the sound signal and passes the video out to the TV. A lot of the high spec amps have HDMI in/out.

Erroneus

Ah neat, well then it makes sense.

Thanks

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Cow_160483

sweet card am glad Ati is finally having some really competitive cards out there! makes life for the consumer much much better as competition creates better prices for us.

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Decode!
Muhahahahah!

sammorris

20W power usage, that's PicoPSU territory.
FWIW, I've never had a BSOD playing back HD video with:
X800 Pro AGP
X1600 Pro
X1900XT
HD3870
HD4870
HD4870X2
various drivers, OSes, you name it.

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Other stuff not in my Specs list:
Logitech Z-5500 speakers, Razer Diamondback Magma mouse, Saitek Eclipse II keyboard, LG 20x DVDRW S-ATA.
The other 8 HDDs: WD360GD Raptor, WD5000AAKS, WD2500AAJS, WD2500JD x2, HD400LJ, 7200.9 250GB (all S-ATA) + WD1600 IDE (IB-351 USB)
plus more fans & fan controllers than you can shake a stick at...