ATI Debuts Radeon HD 4550, 4350

ATI takes aim at mainstream graphics users with its new Radeon HD 4550 and 4350 graphics cards, offering DirectX 10.1 support and affordable prices.

Sure, AMD subsidiary ATI might be known for cranking out some high-end graphics solutions that fuel gamers’ dreams, but lately they’ve also been focussing on mainstream graphics solutions that can give a boost to an “ordinary” PC and make it more viable for modern gaming titles and HD entertainment. To that end, the company has announced its new ATI Radeon HD 4550 and HD 4350 graphics cards…at easily affordable prices.

“The ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon 4350 graphics cards are the final pieces of the puzzle in rounding out the highly successful ATI Radeon HD 4000 series family,” said AMD Graphics Group senior VP Rick Bergman, in a statement “Today we offer a complete family of graphics cards that delivers on our commitment of winning performance in each market segment.”

The ATI Radeon HD 4550 is based on the Radeon 4880 family, built on a 55nm process, and features 512 MB of dedicated DDR3 video memory, 80 stream processing cores, and 96 GLOPS of processing power. The card supports DirectX 10.1 games and operates at less than 20 Watts of power consumption under full load. Expect to see it in October for less than $59. AMD claims the 4550 can handle games that were previously unplayable by cards in its price range—and by “playable” AMD means handling at least 30 fps at 1280 by 786 or 1820 by 1024 on games like Company of Heroes and Call of Duty 4 on a 2GB AMD Phenom-powered box running 64-bit Vista.

The ATI Radeon HD 4350 will offer 256 MB of dedicated video memory: it should also be available in October for under $39.

Both cards offer a DVI-HDMI adapter, 7.1 audio support via HDMI and Displayport, and enhanced DVD upscaling capabilities.