HD 4670 Review: Mainstream muscle card? - PAGE 1

If you have been reading many hardware reviews over that last little while, you've undoubtedly come across more than one or two filled with ebullient praise of the recently released HD 4850, and HD 4870, from ATI.

After a long stretch of offering video cards that were competitive with NVIDIA's offerings, but not decisively superior, ATI turned the tide and won one battle with the surprisingly speedy and cost effective HD 4800's. But of course: one battle does not make a war. Somewhere some guys in lab coats, and engineers and driver specialists are turning out the next step; the next latest and greatest. While the dust might have settled for the big guns, the GTX 280 and the HD 4870X2, a new battle has just begun. The battle for the mid-range.

But this time around, in this generation, the mid-range is more afforable than has been in some time. Think under the $100 mark.  

A new generation is always kicked off with the higher-end, 'enthusiast' class cards that showcase the technological gains made during the latest stretch of research and implementation. Then the second wave breaks: which carries this card we are going to take out today, the HD 4670. Ah, the mid-range. Cards a bit cheaper than the fastest; cards that are capable performers for the large segment of the gaming market that does not have the inclination or disposable cash to invest in the higher-end hardware. 

Out of the naming conventions employed by AMD (CPU department), Intel, NVIDIA and AMD (ATI video cards), probably the easiest to decipher is the system currently employed by ATI for the last few generations. Following almost exactly as the cards were laid out with the HD 3000 series, you got your high end cards signified with an '8' (HD 3800), and this followed by a subset two models, generally an '7' or a '5' (HD 3870, HD 3850.) The middle-of-the-road carries a '6' (HD 3600), and the budget line, a '4' (HD 3400).

There are currently three models of the 4600: the HD 4670 512MB, HD 4670 1GB, and HD 4650. Today we will be looking at the HD 4670 512MB.

Priced at $80 - $89, it would be hard to argue that the HD 4670 is not affordable for most. But it's a tough market out there -- really, a fantastic market for card shoppers. NVIDIA has its on inexpensive 9600 GSO to match this model, and last gen's high end wonders like the 8800 GT and HD 3850/3870 are not all that much more expensive than today's HD 4670. 

ATI's goal was for this card to deliver 30 FPS in the majority of today's games with detail settings on 'High'. On both price and performance lets endeavor to find out if they have delivered.