System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 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 | £45 | £40 | £65 | £40 | £53 |
| Shader model | 4.1 | 4.0 | |||
| Stream processors | 80 | 120 | 320 | 16 | 32 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 725 | 750 | 550 | 550 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 725 | 750 | 1,350 | 1,400 |
| GFLOPs throughput | 96 | 174 | 480 |
64.8 |
134.4 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 1,593 | 1,600 | 2,000 | 1,400 | 1,600 |
| Memory bus width (Bits) | 64 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Memory bandwidth (GB/s) | 12.8 | 25.6 |
32 | 22.4 | 25.6 |
| Video-acceleration tech | UVD 2.0 | 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 | CATALYST 8.11 | CATALYST 8.9 | CATALYST 8.9 | ForceWare 178.13 | ForceWare 177.79 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit | ||||
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.
The £65 Radeon HD 4670 stands out from this
mid-range crowd by
having considerably more processing power and a touch more bandwidth
than anything else, and we'll see how that holds up in games.
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.
