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The Synthetic Benchmarks: Synthetic testing is an easy way to compare cards with most tests available in free or trial versions for your home use. Each benchmark was run using the default settings after a fresh boot of the test system unless noted. I ran the benchmark a minimum of three times and took the highest score. More tests are run if a large variance is discovered. All testing was done using the latest ATI drivers version 9.4. As with any benchmark, your results may vary. First up, let's take a quick look at the good ol' standby, 3DMark06: 3DMark06:
I will be using Version 1.1.0 professional. The free downloadable version can be found here.
The 4382 score shows about a 16% increase over the last HD4550 we tested. For a card with passive cooling and DDR2 this is still a solid score but nothing out of the ordinary when compared to some of the GDDR3 based HD4650 cards we run through the lab. 3DMark Vantage "Performance":
For the Performance test, the PowerColor HD4650 provides another set of solid if not remarkable numbers. Next up, we will take a look at some real time gaming benchmarks. Crysis Warhead:
To get an idea of just how well this performance would carry into one of the most demanding games out on the market today, we turned to the recently released Crysis: Warhead. Using the HOC benchmarking tool, I captured the following numbers. (Demo: Airfield, Quality: Very High, Direct X 10 mode with 0xAA)
As with other mid-market 4600 series cards, the HD 4650 falls prey to the demands of the Crysis engine. You might find turning down the goodies will make things playable on the HD 4650 but the numbers are just not cutting it. For the skeptical, I did use the in game optimizer to retune the HD4650 and played a stable hour plus session of Warhead with the details down a notch or two to insure it was playable. It was. World in Conflict:
Next up is Massive's World in Conflict. WiC has a fantastic built in benchmark that taxes video cards with an amazing amount of simultaneous actions. WiC is one of my favorite games and besides any Benchmark that ends in a Nuke can't be all bad right? (Tested at 1920x1280 with detail set to Very High)
As you can see World in Conflict continues the trend of games that are playable on the HD 4650 but not without sacrificing much of the eye candy. Company of Heroes:
For our final gaming benchmark we will be using Company of Heroes. Featuring a mix of complex RTS play and cinematic elements CoH taxes video card processing power on several levels. (Tested with DX10 at 1920x1200 with all settings set to High)
As with all previous tests our PowerColor HD 4650 SCS3 provides us with a marginal performance. Still a single card with a price tag under $70 should be satisfied the game still runs under these settings. And that doesn't even take the passive cooling into account.
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