AMD Radeon HD 4550
Technology
The AMD Radeon RV710 graphics processor is directly
descended from the RV770 from AMD's flagship Radeon HD 4870 and 4870 X2 graphics
card, although much of the original card's complex microarchitecture has been
stripped down or removed to make the RV710 GPU much less expensive. While the
RV770 launched with a 256-bit memory interface and 800 stream processors, the
RV710 has a 64-bit memory interface and only 80 stream processors, which means
that while the Radeon 4450 does have entirely new architecture behind it, it's
processing power will likely be on par with videocards like the Radeon 3650 and
2600 from last generation.
The RV710 GPU is also DirectX 10.1 and PCI Express 2.0
compliant, although these standards still only exist for the sake of
future-proofing cards for later compatibility and haven't been required in any
major software or hardware revisions so far.
 Blu-Ray 1080p High
Definition Content Playback Tests
|
With the success of Blue Ray, today's mainstream media center PCs need HD
decoding acceleration like never before. Normally PCSTATS runs these HD playback
tests in our IGP motherboard reviews, like the ASUS M4A78T-E, but today we'll toss them at the
ASUS EAH4550 since it is being sold as a quick and cheap way to bring HDMI into
an older media PC system.
Blu-Ray High Definition content demands a lot of PC
processing resources during playback, if CPU load becomes too high that can lead
to jittery video quality or other artifacts. Many integrated graphics processors
now feature Blu-Ray and High Definition H.264, VC1 and M-PEG2 content
acceleration decoders to offload this processing from the CPU, freeing up system
resources for other tasks.
The PCSTATS Blu-Ray HD content playback test scenario
monitors average CPU utilization. Lower CPU utilization values are best,
provided video playback remains smooth and stutter free.
How PCSTATS Tests:
Each IGP graphics chip or videocard is connected to an ASUS MK241 wide
screen 1920x1200 (1080P) resolution LCD display with an HDMI cable.
The Blu-Ray movie "10,000
BC" (VC1 encrypted) is then played back from Chapter 22 on an ASUS
BC-1205PT Blu-ray combo drive, using WinDVD
Platinum software and the average fluctuation of CPU load recorded.
| Motherboard |
Core Logic IGP |
Blu-Ray Playback
CPU Utilization |
Video Playback
@ 1080p
Quality |
|---|
| Intel DG45ID (Intel G45) |
Intel GMA X4500HD |
32% - 38% |
No issues |
| ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45) |
Intel GMA X4500HD |
38% |
No issues |
| Biostar Tpower N750 (nVidia nForce 750a) |
Nforce 750a |
18% - 20% |
No issues |
 ASUS EAH 4550 Videocard |
AMD HD 4550 |
7% - 10% |
No issues |
| ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX) |
AMD HD 3300 |
6% - 9% |
No issues |
| ASUS M3A78T (AMD 790GX) |
AMD HD 3300 |
6% - 9% |
No issues |
| Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX) |
AMD HD 3300 |
14% - 24% |
No issues |
The ATI Radeon HD 4550 handles HD decoding just fine so
there is no significant load on the CPU during Blu-Ray playback at 1080p.
Hard Drive 720p/1080i Video
Playback
Playing high definition content on current generation
PCs can bog down even the fastest processors because there is more data to
handle. To test the integrated graphics processor's capabilities at HD content
accelerating capabilities, we played the High Definition video clip, "The
Discoverers" at 720P and 1080i from the hard drive while monitoring the
percentage of CPU utilization through Task Manager. Lower CPU utilization is best.
Again, there's not much system load when playing
back HD content from the hard drive. The ASUS EACH 4550 manages to best the
HD3300 IGP by a few points in these 720p/1080i playback tests.
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