Graphics card manufacturer GeCube has presented a new graphics card based on the relatively ordinary graphics circuit Radeon HD 4550. The RV710 core gives Radeon HD 4550 a total of 80 shader processors that together with a 64-bit memory interface won’t scare anyone, or offer any real gaming performance. But through its 55nm technology it not only offers low power consumption but also ATI’s latest video processing features.
ATI’s Unified Video Decoder (UVD 2) has blessed the card with powerful features for playing and handling video formats just like its much more expensive sibling, which is really the only thing that matters with HTPCs.
GeCube GC-HD4550LP3-E3;
- Radeon HD 4550 GPU (RV710) at 600MHz
- 64-bit memory bus
- 800MHz 512MB GDDR3 memory
- DirectX 10.1 and UVD2 support
- D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs
Thanks to the low power consumption GeCube has managed to strip the card of active cooling and just use a single heatsink. GeCube GC-HD4550LP3-E3 is also low-profile which makes it fit inside basically any case. Several manufacturers have chosen launched similar cards based on AMD’s Radeon HD 4550 graphics circuit, but few use passive cooling.
