AMD ATI Radeon HD 4550

The ATI Radeon HD 4550 is being billed as AMD's low-cost option and the competition for the Nvidia GeForce 9400 GT. Price-wise, both cards are coparable, which should make for an interesting battle as the two battle at the bottom rung of the graphics ladder.

Entry-level graphics cards rarely blow us away with their benchmark scores, so we weren't expecting above-average performance from the HD 4550 at high-quality settings. We were still a bit surprised, however, that it produced less-than-playable frame rates in Compay of Heroes, World in Conflict, and Crysis at medium-quality. What it can do, though, the 4550 does in cool silence, thanks to its passive cooling.

Overall, the Radeon HD 4550 isn't a bad card, so long as your expectations are in line with its price tag. But when you consider the ongoing improvement of integrated graphics, it become apparent that IGP could easily catch up to this card in no time. In other words, the 4550 needs to work a little harder to impress us.

by Joanna Safford




Computer Power User January 2009