ATI launches the 4550 and 4350

No Charlie, we won, the consumer.

This is perfect for me I dont do extreme gaming in fact my PS3 is for that but I have current a 6600GT and I am in need of a decent mid-range upgrade and this perfect. Guranteed GDDR3 memory a decent core speed it would be like upgrading a 6600GT but adding all the current new features like HD decoding etc.

If possible Inq can you get Uk PRICES soon you can half the $ but I can see it been slightly more than that.

They are just trying to get me to finally go PCI-Express. Maybe next summer.

i doubt nvidia will rollover and play ball as the ridiculously biased author suggests. ATI's advantages are seemingly all down to their fast jump to 55nm process, not architecture design choice or any other engineering advantage apart from what is beyond nvidia's control as a fabless company. already nvidia's 55nm parts look a lot stronger and i suspect they will take back the fastest card claim inside the next few months. at the midrange nvidia are pitching their year old G92 derived cards against ATI's new generation and hardly getting beaten badly, which shows how long its taken ATI to catch nvidia up. at the low end ATI have had the advantage for some time now, but us tech heads couldnt care less about whose low end part beats whose. good for the OEMs, but ATI have had class leading OEM parts for well over 1 year now, yet no one ever mentions it because no one seems to care!

now if they would only enable HD decode with windows xp 

then all those marvoulous htpc' ers would build thier own bluray players

Take it easy plasticman or you may at well eat your words in the next few months

plasticman, manufacturing process doesn't have nothing to do with performance, the HD 3870 is pretty much as fast as the old 80nm HD 2900XT, but since it has some improvements inside the core, more raw bandwidth it outperforms it most of the time. The nVidia's 55nm 9800GTX+ is faster than it's predecessor because it was clocked higher thanks of the 55nm manufacturing process which allowed them to ramp up the clocks, and still not enough to outperform the ATi HD 4850. nVidia's way to launch new line of GPU rehashing the old ones went overboad for far too long, disgusting seeing a 9800GT, 9600GSO, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 9800GTX all using the same identical GPU!! a noob which has a 8800GTs would buy a 9800GT thinking that's doing an upgrade, what a mistake once he figure it out that it's new GPU is even slower than it's predecessor. ATi's performance improvements has nothing to do because they jumped first on the 55nm bandwagon, ATi is also a fabless company because ATi doesn't use the AMD fabs to make GPU's, they use the same TSMC that nVidia use, nVidia couldn't use the 55nm before because their engineers weren't able to fit the G92 architecture or GT200 architecture in the 55nm without redesigning it and make it work properly, is a complicated process and is has been proven that ATi engineers are more capable, the ATi X2 GPU's are a magnificent piece of engineering, something that the nVidia's GX2 is not. Overall, the HD 4800 series architecture is identical to it's previous HD 3800, the stream processors are identical, the only difference are the fixes on the TMU and ROP which improves the performance considerably and some tweaks inside like faster and larger caches etc.

Ati has done a great job this time delivering a better product but the competition is fierce. Nvidia is like a turd that doesn't flush because people are still ecstatic about geforce brand. But if Ati also delivers next generation better then things might change and nvidia fans buckle. Nvidia still sells their rebranded lineup like dirt albeit with crappy margins.

So when do we get benchmarks vs Nvidia?

I couldn't care less about who won the vga war. Like DM says, it's about the consumer. "Us tech heads" have never come across decent performing hardware for 250$US until AMD stepped up their game. That's the point I'm trying to make here. No one gives a damn if you want to strap yourself into a nVidia GREEN spandex and show the world how much you dislike AMD. "Us tech heads" will be on the aside, enjoying our brand new, reasonably priced gaming graphics cards while you can rant all you want and show off your silly GREEN e-peeny.

lmao, charlie sounds more and more ridiculous with every new anti-nvidia article.

grow up

nvidia destroyed ati with its 8800 line the same way ati destroyed nvidia couple of years back with 9700.
the best chip ati can offer right now (4870) is barely able to compete with second best offering of nvidia (g260). it takes two best ati chips glued together (4870x2) to beat one of nvidia's (g280)
that's the main reason why ati cards are so cheap, no one would buy them otherwise.

no matter what you may claim as ATI having out engineered nvidia, process truly is the key and the only reason ATI can undercut nvidia in price/performance. the GT series for example were designed for the 65nm process, and are restricted as a result. nvidia didnt have the option to design their cards for 55nm unlike ATI. thus the GT280 is very fast, but pushing the boundaries of the process it is on and extremely large, hot, and thus expensive. had nvidia been designing for 55nm, it could be easily be faster and consume less power, and actually be viable to as a GX2 card. it would even be cheaper. ATI havent created a faster architecture, they havent out engineered nvidia, they have just had the luxury of designing and producing their cards on a more advanced process than nvidia. if you need any more evidence, intel's comeback and massive advantages have in no small part been down to them being at least 6 months ahead to the jump to smaller process, and designing on it. the advantage is enormous, AMD hadnt a hope in hell. now look at the latest report, AMD have shrunken their server parts, have room for more cache. guess what, they are being competitive again. process is the key, and even more vital when you are designing a huge GPU with over a billion transistors, ALL logic. there is no question

UNiX, its all about the process. as plastic man pointed out, the G92 was designed on 65nm. all nvidia have done is shrink it to cut costs, and increase clocks mildly. they are nothing but year old cards, with a die shrink. ATI's 48 series cards are all new cards. you can argue they use the same architecture, but its entirely beside the point, they were intended to be made on the latest process and have they streams squeezed on appropriately, nvidia's 55nm cards were designed to have their streams squeezed on a last generation process last year, they arent even the same generation but nvidia are still pitting them against the ATI cards. if nvidia now make a midrange card for 55nm, then they only need to whack on a few streams to a G92 along with the same exponential increase in other components, say 20 percent more everything to make the die the same size as it was for 65nm, you just know it would be faster than the 4850. ATI have done well, but its very hard to accredit them on an engineering basis when their main advantage has come from someone else.........

as always amd/ ati fails 2 deliver. this card and the 4670 are IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND IN MY FKN COUNTRY (ARGENTINA) but the 9500GT and
8800GS are everywhere and super cheap.
last time i wanted a ati gpu but ended with a lame
8600 for the exact same reason.

>> ATI is going to rule all price points, top to bottom, and all performance points, top to bottom.

Yeah whatever Charlie. Keep smoking the ATI handouts.

Go google GTX280 vs HD 4870.

Even a rabid spittle-flecked ATI fanboi like you has to accept that the GTX-280 is faster.

Same with 4870x2 vs GTX280-sli.