Overclocking Results:

stock overclocked gpu (core) speed: 600 750 mhz memory speed: (400) 800 mhz (500) 1000 mhz ddr if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

Overclocking mainstream videocards almost always gives you the most benefit for the effort. It's generally not too hard to push a little videocard up a few levels, so it's well worth a bit of tweak time to see what kind of "free" performance there is for the taking. The ASUS EAH4550 ships with it core clock at 600MHz, while its 512MB of GDDR3 memory is running at 800MHz.

As usual, overclocking was done through the ATI Catalyst Control Center and ATI Overdrive which unlocks GPU and memory clock speed. PCSTATS started with the GPU first, pausing to test the results with a quick 3D benchmark before continuing. We take note of any stability problems or the appearance of artifacts, and then list the maximum stable and artifact-free overclocked speed the video card can attain.

Overclocking was done in increments of 5MHz, starting with the core clock. The ASUS EAH4550 was quickly brought from its stock speed up to 700MHz, and then all the way up to 750MHz, without any hitches or artifacting taking place. Memory was then overclocked from 800MHz, and proceeded easily to a maximum of 1000MHz. The sliders wouldn't go any further so that's where we had to leave it.

Not a bad performance boost at all! With some more time and some dedicated tweaking it'd probably be easy to take this videocard to even faster speeds.

Now it's time to put all this into perspective, and see how the ASUS EAH4550 videocard stands in our benchmark charts.

Prelude to Benchmarks

The details of how the ASUS EAH4550 videocard test system was configured for benchmarking; the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below. All benchmarks for the videocard were run in Windows Vista Ultimate, the reference video cards were tested in both Windows XP and Vista for the DX10 benchmarks.

PCSTATS is in the process of making the transition to a Windows Vista and Intel CPU test platform, so keep this in mind as you scan the benchmark results. In the second column are the general specs for the reference cards this Radeon HD 4450 videocard is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next page.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system reference system processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (775) AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (AM2) Clock Speed: 15 x 200 MHz = 3.0 GHz 14 x 200MHz = 2.8MHz Motherboards: MSI X48 Platinum (Intel X48 Express) Foxconn C51XEM2 (NF 590 SLI) Videocard: Palit Radeon HD 4870X2 ASUS Radeon EAH4850/HTDI/512MA MSI Radeon R3870X2-T2D1G-OC ASUS Radeon EAH3870X2 1G Diamond HD 3650 Pe 512 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC ASUS EAX1900XTX/2DHTV/512M/A ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC nVidia GeForce 8600GTS SLI Foxconn 8600GTS-256 MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E-OC MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H SLI Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E Gigabyte GV-NX76GT256D-RH Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS Albatron 8600GT-256 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC ASUS EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M/A Palit 9600GT Sonic Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN * Memory: Corsair DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-1800C7D (DDR3) Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C3 (DDR2) Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 CDROM: ASUS BC-1205PT-BD Blu-Ray Drive Monitor (1080p): ASUS MK241 24" HD LCD Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 750W Heatsink: Intel E6600 Reference Athlon64 FX-62 Reference Heatsink Test System Setup: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Intel INF 9.0.0.1008 Catalyst 9.2 Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit* Benchmarks: 3DMark06 3DMark Vantage FEAR Crysis Call of Juarez Lost Planet

Benchmark results are organized by GPU manufacturer first (AMD/ATI or nVidia), then by GPU generation, and then by GPU class (high end, mainstream, value). This approach provides a clearer view of how performance can differ from generation to generation, and class to previous generation. The product being tested is marked with the red colour bar.

On with the benchmarks!

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1	Source: FutureMark

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 Performance Overall: (P) Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 9116 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 8852 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5579 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 5149 ASUS EAH4550 512M 1184 GPU Score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 12983 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 12252 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5905 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 5269 ASUS EAH4550 512M 932 CPU score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 4814 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 4830 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 4786 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 4821 ASUS EAH4550 512M 6197

3DMark Vantage obliterates this entry-level videocard as we expected it would. This test platform is using a faster E8400 CPU which is why the CPU score is higher than the previous result set. Okay, let's see what 3DMark06 has to say now...