ATI Radeon HD 4670 review

Whereas ATI’s excellent HD 4800 series of cards are all capable of handling modern games, the HD 4600 GPUs are a different kettle of fish: not quite as adept at handling demanding titles, they’ll best suit those who don’t need huge amounts of gaming power.

The HD 4670 is the most powerful of this “weaker” series and comes with a still-reasonable set of specifications. A 750MHz core clock is complemented by 320 stream processors – half that of the HD 4830 – and 514 million transistors.

While the core specification may not be as impressive as other ATI offerings, the HD 4670 has several features that will please those keener on media than games. A bit of searching will reveal cards with HDMI outputs, and the petite dimensions of the HD 4670 – as well as smaller, quieter fans – make it an option for media-centre machines with more emphasis on noiseless operation than fast frame rates.

Nevertheless, the HD 4670 isn’t without graphical grunt. While it can’t compete with more expensive cards, it managed a respectable 48fps in our medium Crysis benchmark and ploughed through Call of Duty 4, even with the most demanding options selected. Far Cry 2 was also playable at high-quality levels.

If you’re after a good mid-range performer then the HD 4670 is worth considering. The GeForce 9600 GT is slightly quicker in some of our tests, and holds its own better at the higher quality levels. However, if you really want to game, we’d spend a little more than both of these cards.