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In just a few days AMD/ATI will officially launch the new RV870 graphics processor and first graphics accelerators based on it. Numerous reviews and benchmarks will start flowing into the web, and new fan wars will break out in many hardware forums. Before we move on to our reviews of ATI Radeon HD 5870/5850 graphics solutions, we decided to cross all t’s in the still current fourth graphics card series by offering you a brief review and in-depth test session of the most interesting graphics cards from this series. Our today’s goal is fairly simple: we are going to compare the performance gain on transition from a less expensive solution to a more expensive one against their price difference and try to determine the economical justification for paying extra. Therefore, we would like to start with the analysis of the recommended graphics card prices and their marketing positioning.
ATI Radeon HD 4xxx Graphics Card Family Overview: Prices and Specs
According to ATI’s official presentation, 4xxx graphics cards are positioned in three major segments, five Radeon HD 4xxx cards in each:
Enthusiast segment | Gaming segment |
Budget segment | |
If we remove all old Radeon HD 3xxx graphics cards from these segments and sum up all average prices and cards on a single chart, we will get the following picture:
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The gray rows mark the graphics cards that we do not consider current anymore. The first two – Radeon HD 4350 and HD 4550 – are of no interest even for those who play games rarely, not to mention the real gaming fans. Radeon HD 4830 has already been discontinued and is almost impossible to find anywhere in retail, because it has been replaced with a cheaper, more energy-efficient and actually faster Radeon HD 4770. And the last “gray” graphics card – Radeon HD 4850 X2 – has become so rare, I would even say exclusive, that we don’t think it makes any sense to include it into our today’s test session.
So, we are left with eight graphics cards from Radeon HD 4xxx series, which we are going to test today. But before we start the session, let’s check out their specifications real quick:
Click to enlarge
