Zardon

Read The Review Here
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In the second of today’s XFX articles we take a look at the Radeon HD 4650. Those reading who have already seen our 4870 XXX article will know that XFX have already made a good impression with that product in their new ATI range. We will find out if this winning streak continues as we run the card through a selection of tests including gaming, Overclocking and Blu-Ray playback.

Mac Daddy

Performs well for a midrange card the 1G of RAM certainly gives it a bit more snap. Unfortunate on the exclusion of the HDMI connector as mentioned in the article but other than that a nice card in that range

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humonous

nice review guys. Seems like a good card for the price. Not sure its anything that special mind you in the grand scheme of things.

Matth

Is that a power connector I see on the board?

I thought the 4650 was bus powered, but maybe with 1GB, it needs more juice?

__________________
Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

trekman1701

Just found the group so hi! Anyway on to my question. I currently have a geforce 8400gs and after reading the review of this card I am interested in getting this as a replacement but I would like opinions on weather or not this is really a better card than the one I currently have before I part with my money. I personally think it would be an improvement over my current card and I am not the most serious gamer so don't really need the highest spec card. All opinions welcome so thanks in advance.

IvanV

Hi and welcome to DH. In short, this card will certainly be several times faster than your current card under any scenario. Comparisons of this sort are never too exact, but if I had to match the 4650 to a GeForce 8 series card, I'd say that it was closest to 8800GS, a card that 8400GS can hardly compare to.

EDIT: If you can find it at a decent price, you may also consider 4670. It's more or less the same card, but it's got a 25% higher GPU frequency as well as faster memory. It doesn't make it drastically faster, but it can make the difference between borderline unplayable and completely satisfactory with the same in-game settings.

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Matth

Probably, but if you are not a serious gamer, maybe look at the 512MB model instead of the 1GB monster - it's a lot of memory to have on a midrange card (slipping further down the midrange as other things get released).

You can now get a 4670 with 1GB for less than the price quoted in the review of this 4650 - looks like 1GB graphics is no longer that much of a premium

MSI HD 4650 1GB GDDR2 DVI VGA Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer - MSI do the 4650 with 1GB as well, even cheaper than this one has gone to.

__________________
Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

trekman1701

Thanks for your opinions guys. I was looking at the amazon website and they have both cards. The 4650 is £58.01 and the 4670 £59.98 which I thought werent bad prices to pay so I think that I might as well go for the 4670. The 4670 only has 512mb ram compaired to the 4650 which has 1GB but I dont think that I really need 1GB because as I said I am not really a serious gamer. Once again thanks for your opinions guys.

IvanV

That's an ok choice, but the prices are a little high. I checked eBuyer and found this 4670 1GB by PowerColor for just £50, as well as this one by HIS which comes with a custom cooler for £52.56. Also, they have a card similar to the one from the review, MSI HD 4650 1GB, at only £38.60 (it's the same one Matth found).

The MSI card offers great value for money, but the two 4670s are also decently priced (lower than both cards you found on Amazon) and a little faster, so it's your call. Whichever you choose, I think that you won't make a mistake and that it'll be a big change from the 8400GS.

__________________
Feed the porkers and don't touch the buttons!

trekman1701

Just noticed the ebuyer site just before I got your response. I think its probably time to get out the credit card!!! Once again thanks for your help.

Matth

One thing, make sure you have the PSU capability, when it says 400W, that means a decent 400W, and some supposed 500-600W cheapies could actually be WORSE!

The 4670's look like they are no PCI-E power cable, but they are pretty much at the slot power limit of 75W

For a bit more performance, there is the HD4730, but it has a seriously bad power consumption for its performance, worse than a 4830 - the 47xx range could almost be power consumption rejects from the 48xx series, downclocked.

One other choice to look at, maybe a 4650 silent heatpipe
XFX Radeon HD 4650 Silent Heatpipe 1GB DDR2 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer
If quietness is important - note that this one is dual DVI, no VGA out - not sure if any special support is needed to use with DVI-VGA adaptors?

__________________
Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

trekman1701

After a couple of days thought and looking around I have finally decided to go for the HIS one with the custom cooler that IvanV suggested. Placed my order a couple of minutes ago and it should be here tomorrow.