The HD4350
This card is the entry level card of the AMD ATI HD4xxx series using the RV710 chip. It comes with 512mb of GDDR2 VRAM on a 64-bit bus and fully supports DirectX 10.1. That said, I wasn't expecting groundbreaking results with performance when I bought it. The XFX model in particular cost RM135 and is basically the reference model bar the new heatsink, more on that later.
The contents
Packaging was rather striking, with the red XFX sleeve that is sure to catch anyone's eyes. Upon opening the sleeve, there was the box itself in the regular green and black XFX colours.
The bundling itself was quite decent, alongside the card itself is an S-Video cable, a low profile bracket, 2 installation manuals (yes, 2!) a driver disc and a door hanger. Personally I find the decision to package the card in a hard plastic casing as odd as most other manufacturers wrap their products in anti-static bags but maybe it's for protection.
A closer look
The HD4350 is based on the RV710 chip by ATi. This lowest member of the 4xxx series has a total of 80 unified shaders to work with and is built on the 55nm process. Equipped with 512MB GDDR2 memory on a 64-bit bus as standard although some have managed to squeeze 1GB on it, it should be a step up from the entry level cards of yesteryear. The clocks are also modest, with a 600MHz core and a paltry 500MHz (1000MHz DDR2) memory clock. The card is also based on a low profile PCB so it can fit almost any case comfortably. The fact it doesn't need a PCIe connector makes it a low power consumption card.
The card also has distinct ATI tech on it, namely ATI HyperMemory and ATI AVIVO.
The card is passively cooled which mean silent, fanless cooling, most likely anodized aluminium since it is black. The memory chips as well as the GPU has been hidden under the black metal heatsink.
The card come with 3 connectors, the S/Video, DVI and VGA. The S/Video connector is a strange addition as most cards designed for HTPC usually would include a HDMI connector instead but I'm guessing this is a cost cutting measure by XFX to keep prices down. An even stranger thing is that the low profile bracket actually loses the VGA in favor of the S/Video.
Overclocking
Can't say much bout OCing. The core and memory values seemed to be locked at 650 (8% increase) and 549 (10% increase) respectively when I tried to tweak it using MSI Afterburner, with any values higher resulting in a clock reset.
Benchmarks
My test system includes:
Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.8GHz @ 3.8GHz
Asus P5GC-MX/1333
4GB Corsair Gaming DDR2-800
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7,200
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
All games tested at maximum settings with 4x AA (if applicable) at 1440 x 900 resolution.
COD Modern Warfare 2 obtained a decent frame rate to my surprise. Averaging in the 30's and dipping to single digits during intense gunfights and explosions.
Rainbow 6 Vegas 2's Unreal Engine however was really straining the card, posting frame rates of less than 20 almost everytime.
Sudden Attack which is based on an older engine, performed at a smooth sailing 80 fps on average.
Throughout the testing, the GPU topped 63C at maximum while idling at 44C, not fantastic but it certainly won't overheat for a passively cooled card.
Conclusion
Overall, the HD4350 brought some surprising results. It was designed as an affordable card for the masses to use, particularly those that just use their computers for word processing, video editing and some light gaming. While it could hold it's own in most modern games, it's better off with those that prefer something faster than an IGP but couldn't spend more than a hundred Ringgit or so on a new piece of hardware as spending a bit more can net you something with more punch for gaming.
Final verdict
Pros: Very affordable, performs well for price, passive cooling, low power consumption
Cons: 64-bit bus, paltry OC potential, not really for gaming
Performance: 5/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 8/10
Total: 6.3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment