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Last week we took a look at a $80 mainstream ATI card, the HD 4670. This time around, we are going to look at something from the next rung down on the performance ladder -- the value, or sometimes referred to as the budget, segment of the market. Released today, this is the HD 4550. For about $50, it is aimed at people that have weak integrated graphics accelerators, wanting to take a step up into something a bit more capable of handling the sometimes graphically intense applications people typically come across every day.

The HD 4550 isn't aimed at gamers at all, but that didn't stop us before looking at gaming on a HD 3450. Today we'll run the HD 4550 on a very grueling array of benchmarks, trying to squeeze every last electron of performance out of it, seeing how it stacks up to last week's HD 4670, last generation's value-priced HD 3450, and older generation mid-range 8600 GTS and HD 2600 XT cards. We're going to punish the HD 3450 both in the name of fun and science. Sure, the HD 4550 marketers never claimed it could handle high res', high quality gaming -- but we wanted to see just where the breaking point is; and just how big this break is indeed.

Sure the HD 4550 isn't the world's flashiest video card -- but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that about as much people end up buying the gaming titan cards (such as the HD 4870X2 and the GTX 280) as do these more modest, 'Can it play Blu-Ray's and Sims 2?' video cards. The name of the game for the HD 4550 is offering a whole slew capabilites and features for about $50 USD.

A little sister of the HD 4550 also came out today -- the HD 4350. The HD 4350 has slower memory than the HD 4550, relegating it to have even more difficulty handling games. But: selling for only about $40, the HD 4350 offers a great deal of functionality beyond gaming that makes it appealing.

With the today's release of the HD 4350 and HD 4550, it HD 4000 series has come full circle. Our reviews of ATI's 4000 series enthusiast / ultra-high-end  (HD 4870 X2), high-end (HD 4870 / HD 4850), mid-range (HD 4670) have all been positive -- let's see if the HD 4550 wins the sames accolades for the ATI's value line.