PC Zenith v4

Nakon testa “termalnog eliksira” tvrtke Scythe, na test smo dobili nasljednika popularne paste TX-2, tajvanske tvrtke Tuniq, ogranka tvrtke Sunbeam. Model TX-2 smo testirali u usporednom testu krajem 2007., a gdje je pokazao zavidne performanse pred oštrom konkurencijom. Danas ćemo performanse usporediti između TX-2 i TX-3 modela na dvojezgrenom sustavu, te provjeriti hoće li novi sastav paste dati bolje performanse.

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While the card is yet to appear on our local shores, local pricing in the states puts the card at around the $60 mark. How’s that compare against the 9500 GT which for the most part performs at twice the speed? Not great, since an extra 50% is going to literally yield you double the performance. And considering our thoughts on the 9500 GT, it doesn’t look good for the HD 4550. This is where it becomes hazy, though; is there anyone out there who’s really going to buy a HD 4550 for gaming? Well, we hope not, because the chances are you’re going to be severely disappointed, which means that the card isn’t exactly aimed for that particular market. The performance isn’t the only give away, though; the inclusion of the low profile bracket caters for a cliental that doesn’t game and the inclusion of the HDMI adapter means it’s an option for HT enthusiasts who want something that offers hardware decoding. Sapphire HD 4550 @ Tweaktown

Unshackle your PC’s performance from the coin in your pocket as the SAPPHIRE HD 3870 liberates your inner gamer without compromising your wallet. Hard pressed to find a comparable product on the market for the price, the SAPPHIRE HD 3870 extinguishes all doubt that the Radeon HD 3870 core is a mid-range performing product. With features such as: DirectX® 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support, integrated HDMI and HDCP support for Blu-ray™/HD DVD decoding and for the extreme enthusiast, CrossFire X™ support, the SAPPHIRE incarnation of the HD 3870 will own your imagination and accelerate your performance on the virtual battlefield of your desktop!  The Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 is currently going for about $249.99 US @ NewEgg, which puts it right inline with the lower end 8800 cards. This is about the ideal spot for the pricing seeing that the card performs at about the same level. Read full review plus many more expert and user reviews @ Testfreaks.

AMD’s new HD 4550 is a great evolutionary step up from the HD 3450. The 3D performance has greatly increased, yet this is definitely not a gamer’s card. While you can certainly play most games at modest resolutions with some eye candy, many people have just gotten used to turning up everything to the max to match what they see on marketing and review screenshots. If you are just looking for something that plays better than your integrated graphics, the HD 4550 may be for you. On the other hand, for a few extra bucks you can get a HD 4670 or 9600 GT which offer much more performance per dollar. The media playback features, compared to the HD 3450, have also made a step forward, but there is nothing revolutionary. UVD 2 now offers decode acceleration for a second HD video stream which is often used for director’s comments in special editions. On previous generation products this decode was done on the CPU, now it is done in hardware. But since the secondary stream is running at a lower bitrate and resolution it wouldn’t tax your CPU that much anyway. Another area where incremental improvements have been made is the HDMI Audio feature. On the HD 3000 Series you could go up to 5.1 audio over the HDMI link, now 7.1 is supported. But obviously your decoder and speaker setup needs to support that as well on the output side. If you are building a media PC on the tightest possible budget, the HD 3450 would still your weapon of choice. Read more @ TechPowerUp.

As far as the performance of the HD 4670 goes, it is one of the best among its price bracket. Despite its being priced a for budget market, it is capable of performing so much better than its competitor, the GeForce 9500GT.  In every tests, its performance was not only far superior to the GeForce 9500 GT, but it is also capable of performing close to the 8800 GTS, the midrange card that cost approximately $200 eighteen month ago. For a budget card, it’s an excellent choice. Read more @ Bjorn3D.