System setup and notes
Hardware
| Graphics cards | Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR3 | Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR4 | Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 512MB | XFX GeForce 9400 GT 512MB | XFX GeForce 9600 GT 256MB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current pricing, including VAT | £62 | £76 | £45 | £40 | £84 |
| Shader model | 4.1 | 4.0 | |||
| Stream processors | 320 | 320 | 80 | 16 | 64 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 750 | 600 | 550 | 650 |
| Shader clock speed (MHz) | 600 | 750 | 600 | 1,350 | 1,625 |
| GFLOPs throughput | 384 | 480 | 96 |
64.8 |
312 |
| Memory clock speed (MHz) | 1,400 | 2,200 | 1,593 | 1,400 | 1,800 |
| Memory bus width (bits) | 128 | 128 | 64 | 128 | 256 |
| Memory bandwidth (GB/s) | 22.4 | 35.2 |
12.8 | 22.4 | 57.6 |
| Video-acceleration tech | UVD 2.0 | UVD 2.0 |
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 | ||||
| Optical drive | ASUS BC1205PT Blu-ray drive | ||||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB - 32MB cache - SATAII (ST3500320AS) | ||||
| Graphics driver | CATALYST 8.12 | CATALYST 8.12 | CATALYST 8.11 | ForceWare 178.13 | ForceWare 181.20 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business SP1, 64-bit | ||||
Software
| 3D Benchmarks | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7, HEXUS
custom-recorded benchmark: DX9 - very high quality Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts v2.103: DX10 - very high quality Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.6, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark. OpenGL - very high quality Far Cry 2 v1.01 - very high quality Race Driver: GRID v1.2, HEXUS custom-recorded benchmark - ultra quality |
|---|
Notes
We've included cards that cover the £40-£85 range, thereby showing how well the two pre-overclocked Sapphire HD 4600-series perform in comparison.The XFX GeForce 9600 GT should hold performance sway at the higher resolution, and we've tested them using our mid-range settings, encompassing 1,280x1,024 and 1,680x1,050 resolutions with decent image-quality settings.
