Sapphire Radeon HD4650 OC Edition (512MB)

Not that long ago we took a look at Sapphire’s Radeon HD4550. This turned out to be a nice entry level GPU that would fit perfectly in any HTPC system. Now we have the 4550’s slightly bigger bother the Radeon HD4650 (Over Clocked Edition). Just what will the extra 100 points in the name get you?

Read below to find out.

Product: Sapphire Radeon HD4650 OC Edition 512MB DDR3
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: November 18th 2008
Product cost: $70-95
Manufacturer: Sapphire Technologies
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Accessories}
Packaging and Accessories:
As with the HD4550 the HD4605 comes in a small box with Sapphire’s version Ruby on the cover and the usual logos heralding the selling points of the card. The items that will stand out are the OverClock Edition sticker and the 3820×2400 resolution sticker. The OC Edition ships with a stock 50MHz overclock (from 600 to 650MHz) and also features GDDR3 clocked at 900MHz instead of the usual GDDR2 clocked at 1000MHz.
The accessories are the same as we found in the 4550.

{mospagebreak title=Specifications and Features}
Specifications and Features:
The ATi Radeon HD4650 is more than just a step up from the 4550.  ATi really intended for this card to stand out in its price range as it ships with 4 times the stream processors of the 4550 (320 Vs 80). Sapphire’s version bumps the GPU clock up by 50MHz and throws GDDR3 into the mix for better memory scaling.

Other features are shown below:
ATI Radeon HD™ 4600 Series – Key Features

320 Stream Processing Units- Enough power to tackle the most demanding HD games and applications.

Microsoft DirectX® 10.1 – Play today while preparing for tomorrow with state-of-the-art DirectX 10.1 graphics capabilities.

Enhanced Anti-Aliasing (AA) & Anisotropic Filtering (AF) – High performance anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing (4X AA) smooth jagged edges and create true-to-life graphics, for everything from grass to facial features.

ATI CrossFireXâ„¢ Technology – Dual mode ATI CrossFireXâ„¢ technology offers superior scalability.

PCI Express 2.0 – Support for PCI Express 2.0 will prepare you for bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications.

Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2) – UVD 2 frees up your CPU for other tasks so you get The Ultimate Visual Experienceâ„¢ for the most processing-intensive content. Take full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-stream, picture in picture capabilities.

Upscale Beyond 1080p – Watch the hottest Blu-ray movies or other HD content at full 1080p display resolution¹ and beyond.⁴

Enhanced DVD Upscaling – Watch standard DVD movies in near high-definition quality with DVD upscaling.⁴ The GPU uses post processing algorithms to enhance standard and low resolution videos and movies on your HD display.

Dynamic Contrast – Dynamic Contrast automatically adjusts the contrast and brightness during scenes to consistently deliver a crisp, vibrant picture.

HDMI – Enjoy the latest audio technologies using HDMI with 7.1 digital surround sound support delivering 8-channel audio. Also, xvYCC support allows the user to enjoy a wider range of colors when connected to a capable HDTV.

Integrated DisplayPort technology⁵ with audio

Consumes Less Than 75 Watts under full load – ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 4600 Series graphics cards consume less than 75 watts under full load, eliminating the need for an external power connection and making them easy to install.

Dynamic Power Management – ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series graphics cards feature ATI PowerPlayâ„¢ technology, delivering high performance when needed and conserving power when the demand on the graphics processor is low.6

More Performance Per Watt - ATI Radeon HD 4600 series deliver up to 3x the performance per watt of AMD’s previous generation GPUs.⁷

Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process – Second generation 55nm chip uses the industry’s most energy efficient manufacturing process.

{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
But the proof is in the pudding as they say so let’s see if all f the new features and extra stream processors will do any good or are we looking at just another number increase.

The test system:
Intel QX9770
Asus P5E64 WS Evolution
Sapphire HD 4650 512MB GDDR3 (OC Edition)
Asus EAH3850 Smart OC (used for base line comparison)
2GB (2x1GB) Kingston DDR 1600 6-6-6-18
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB HDD
Plextor PATA BluRay Drive
CoolerMaster 850Watt PSU (RS-850-EMBA)
Microsoft Windows Vista x64 Ultimate
Cyerlink PowerDVD 8 Ultimate (BluRay Playback)
Catalyst 8.11 drivers used for all testing.

BluRay and HD TV playback:
As with  the 4550 the HD 4650 handled BluRay and HD payback at 1080i (and 1080p for BluRay) without any issues at all. The quality was excellent with sharp colors and good contrast. The 7.1 sound through the HDMI port was good and did not seem to hinder video playback.

Gaming:
The 4650 is in the sub $100 category of GPUs, and as we saw with the 4550 most GPUs in this realm are not going to cut it with high resolution gaming. Will the 4650 be different?  To find out we used the same games that we used for the 4550 testing and compared it to the same EAH3850 from Asus to see what type of gaming performance we could get out of it.

3DMark Vantage:
Ok, here we see our first indication that the 4650 is more than just another number change. The 4550 gave us 3DMark Vantage scores of less than ½ what the 3850 could do while the 4650 is just over 600 points behind, quite a difference.

HD3850 1GB DDR2	HD4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

Assassin’s Creed (DX10)
The HD4650 is keeping up the pace here as we are just 2 FPS behind the 3850 in our DX10 testing in Assassin’s creed.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	21	42	28.202
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	19	38	26.202

Bioshock:
Next up at bat is Bioshock; with the 4550 I had to seriously adjust resolution and image quality to get a playable (frame rate wise) game. With the 4650 I was able to play Bioshock at 1920×1200 with all the eye candy turned up and had frame rates just under my 32FPS mark. The game seemed smooth and quick.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	27	86	47.103
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	19	61	30.489

Crysis Warhead (DX10)
One of the hardest games on a system out at the moment Crysis Warhead follows in its older brothers footsteps of making even the hardiest GPU cower and beg at high resolutions.
Here we see that the HD4650 can keep up with the 3850. The Sapphire HD4650 came in less than 1 FPS behind the EAH3850 with 1GB of DDR2 at the same settings.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	11	51	35.397
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	12	52	33.779

*note, the settings show 1280×800 for the 3850 however game play ended up shifting to 1280×1024 despite still showing 1280×800 in the settings screen.*

HalfLife 2 Portal:
Portal is a forgiving game as Valve’s engine has always handled rendering differently than most of your heavy handed game developers.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	0	50	34.431
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	0	88	60.299

Here we see something very interesting, the HD4650 actually outperforming the HD3850 1GB card at the same resolution and with slightly higher settings (reflect all Vs Reflect World) the HD6450 almost passes the 3850 by almost 26 FPS.

Call of Duty, Modern Warfare:
In Call of Duty 4 we see the HD 4650 running almost as fast as the HD3850 while running at a much higher resolution (the 3850 was at 1680×1050) very impressive indeed.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	31	64	45.558
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	30	72	44.061

Spore:
Our last game on the list is Spore, this is a great game and can provide hours of fun. Surprisingly Spore is hard on a GPU. With the 3850 we were able to play at 1920×1200 with most settings on high and receive good frame rates. With the HD 4650 I had to reverse the settings 1920×1200 was viable but I had to set the visual settings to medium for most things.

HD 3850 1GB DDR2	HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3

	Minimum	Maximum	Average
HD 3850 1GB DDR2	20	32	27.777
HD 4650 OC 512MB GDDR3	18	33	30.659

{mospagebreak title=Value}
Value:
 The Sapphire HD 4650 OC edition will cost you anywhere from $80-$95 which is quite a value for the gaming performance you can get out of it. This card should be on quite a few holiday shopping lists for mainstream and regular gamers looking for a very quick and inexpensive card.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
When I looked at the Sapphire HD4550 I was disappointed in the gaming performance but very pleased with the way it handled HD playback and BluRay. This made the HD 4550 a great value for any HTPC system (in fact I just put a couple in the ones in my house). But now with the HD4650 you can get the same great HD playback AND great gaming. This turns your HTPC into a console gaming station further extending its use and enjoyment. I have swapped out the HD4550 in my living room system for this card and now can enjoy even new titles at good resolutions and great frame rates. The Sapphire HD 4650 OC Edition fills in a neglected area in the GPU market; the High performance Gaming HTPC system. It also fills in the top of the budget/main stream gamer food chain with a very tasty offering indeed.
If you are looking to improve your HTPC gaming experience or just want a lot of graphical power for a little money then go out and grab the Sapphire Radeon  HD 4650 OC Edition.

We are happy to award the Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 OC Edition (512MB) both our Best on the Planet award and our HTPC Recommended Hardware awards.
 

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