Are you looking for a budget graphics card for your home theater PC with enough kick to really game with? So a graphics card that is energy efficient but also has enough power to play the latest and greatest games. If that's not enough for you how about you throw in 320 stream processing units, up to 1GB of memory and support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 games, the ability to watch Blu-ray movies and play high definition content. What you would get as such is a very feature rich video card that just has to all, but also still keeping an eye on the budget. Well Sapphire has done just that with the Radeon HD 4650 OC edition graphics card. And perhaps even a bit more than just that. Not possible you say? - Modders-Inc

Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 OverClock Styling Preview

And today we take a look at Sapphire's latest offering from the very successful Radeon HD 4600 series of graphic cards. Sapphire has been making ATI cards for some time now and we can usually count on them to offer the consumer and the enthusiast something that is just different than the usual factory reference designs. The Radeon HD 4650 that we are looking at today is no different. With it's blue PCB, the 512MB of GDDR3 memory and an out of the box overclock, Sapphire has done just that. Looking at the packaging that the graphics card comes in you see that they predominately display the main features of the card.

On the back of the packaging you see that the list of features continues. Taking a closer look at the Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 we delve inside the packaging to find the card itself wrapped inside a anti-static bag along side a sparse but very functional bundle. Included in the bundle is a CD with the driver software, DVI to analog adapter, DVI to HDMI adapter, etc. Nothing extravagant but everything that is essential is there. Looking at the card itself you will notice that is a single slot style with a small aluminum heatsink. There are two DVI ports for video as well as the analog video output connection located between the two.

You will also notice that the card is CrossFire capable and has two connectors at the top front of the card. There were no ribbon cables included in the bundle, however we believe on the newer CrossFire boards you don't need the cables to run CrossFire. You will also notice something that you rarely see on today's graphics cards. There is no 6-pin PCI Express port to power the hungry GPU. That is because the new 55nm process allows for a much more efficient graphics card. The Radeon HD 4650 gets all of it's power straight for the mainboard and makes it a perfect choice for those home theater PC users.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 is using AMD's latest fab process of 55nm so the chips themselves should stay pretty cool. Still with the small aluminum single slot cooler that comes stock and the fact that it comes overclocked straight from the factory we were wondering how hot the card would get. The autotune feature pushed the card from it's stock overclock of 650MHz core and 1800MHz memory up to 690/1980MHz respectively. Testing this card was really a hoot. It surprised us all around and is really a bargain for what we're assuming it's going to cost. For the market it is aimed for it is well and above the expectations.

This card isn't going to put you in the major leagues but if you just want a taste of the newer games then this card will be perfect for you. If you currently have an aging card like my old Radeon X1900 that is starting to show it's age, or you just feel you need to replace it with something that is more energy efficient this card will certainly do you right. In short this card isn't for everyone. This little card has some kick for the price and if you are in the market for a graphics card and you've got a budget we would definitely put this on your list of cards to consider, this card is a pretty sweet card.