System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | ATI Radeon HD 4550 512MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 512MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB | XFX GeForce 9400 GT 512MB | XFX GeForce 9500 GT 256MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £30-35* | £29 | £39 | £55 | £40 | £53 |
| Shader model | 4.1 | 4.0 | ||||
| Stream processors | 80 | 40 | 120 | 320 | 16 | 32 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 600 | 725 | 750 | 550 | 550 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 600 | 725 | 750 | 1,350 | 1,400 |
| GFLOPs throughput | 96 | 48 | 174 | 480 |
64.8 |
134.4 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 1,593 | 1,000 | 1,600 | 2,000 | 1,400 | 1,600 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 64 | 64 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Memory bandwidth (GB/s) | 12.8 | 8 |
25.6 |
32 | 22.4 | 25.6 |
| Video-acceleration tech | UVD 2.0 | UVD | UVD |
UVD 2.0 | PureVideo 2 | PureVideo 2 |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz, 1,333MHz FSB, dual-core) | |||||
| Motherboard | Foxconn P45A-S | XFX nForce 780i | ||||
| Motherboard BIOS | P05 | P01 | ||||
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 9.0.0.1008 | NVIDIA device driver 15.17 | ||||
| Memory | 4GB (2x 2GB) Corsair DOMINATOR PC8500 | |||||
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15 2T @ 1066MHz | |||||
| PSU | Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W | |||||
| Monitor | Dell 24in 2405FPW - 1,920x1,200px | |||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB - 32MB cache - SATAII (ST3500320AS) | |||||
| Graphics driver | Radeon HD 4550 press driver | Radeon HD 4670 press driver | Radeon HD 4670 press driver | Radeon HD 4670 press driver | ForceWare 178.13 | ForceWare 177.79 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit | |||||
* estimated pricing
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.301: DX10 - high quality Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.5 (demo_00010.dem, map Valley): OpenGL - vhq Call Of Duty 4 v1.7.568 custom HEX benchmark: DX10 - highest quality |
|---|
Notes
We're being extremely harsh on these low-end cards by running them using our mid-range settings, encompassing 1,280x1,024 and 1,680x1,050 resolutions with decent image-quality settings.
Race Driver: GRID has been removed this instance because the game simply isn't playable on the vast majority of el-cheapo cards with our settings. The menus load up, but that's about it.
NVIDIA and AMD has been telling us that new GPUs are inordinately faster than the ones they replace at a particular price-point, so we're looking to provide the proof.
