Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter developed by Crytek. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, DirectX 10 for graphics rendering, and includes the new engine—the CryEngine 2—that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the DirectX 10 framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Crysis 1.2 (no AA) - DirectX10 1280x1024 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 40.46 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 39.7 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 39.105 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 39.4 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 40.835 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 36.55 ASUS EAH4550 512M 9.77 1600x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 38.2 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 34.2 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 37.17 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 33.8 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 30.79 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 27.46 ASUS EAH4550 512M 7.05 1920x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 35 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 29.9 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 34.07 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 29.7 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 26.2 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 23.43 ASUS EAH4550 512M 6.38

Crysis is a beauty at crushing videocard hopes and dreams, and the ASUS Radeon EAH4550 fairs no better than 9.77FPS at 1280 with High Quality effects enabled. As the Radeon 4550 is the only entry-level videocard PCSTATS has tested in Crysis we can't say how well it compares to the Geforce 8600GTS, or Radeon Hd 3650.

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest video cards run at a crawl.

Sierra FEAR SS Disabled 1600x1200 - AA/AF Tests 4x AA / 4x AF Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 203 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 117 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 110 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 81 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 77 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 83 ASUS EAH4550 512M 17 Diamond HD 3650 PE 512 12 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 133 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 71 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 76 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 77 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 71 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 79 Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC 48 MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 45 Palit 8800GT Super+ 1GB 74 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 72 Foxconn 8600GTS-256 24 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC 25 Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS 38 8xQ AA / 8x AF Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 144 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 68 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 125 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 39 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 59 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 52 MSI R4830-T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 56 ASUS EAH4550 512M 17 Diamond HD 3650 PE 512 8 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 82 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 43 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 46 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 46 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 42

Like many entry-level videocards, the ASUS Radeon EAH4550 simply can't run FEAR with anti-aliasing turned on and get acceptable frame rates - the best it manages is 17FPS.With all the benchmarks done, it's time to take a final look at the ASUS EAH4550 videocard...

An entry level videocard for your HDMI needs?

The ASUS EAH4550 entry-level videocard makes a strong case for itself as an affordable way to easily bring HDMI into an existing HTPC or budget office system. It also fills a role in older PCs that may now require a graphics card that's a little stronger than the integrated graphics originally supplied on the motherboard.

The ASUS EAH4550 videocard is priced at $70 CDN ($50 USD, £35 GBP) and includes a half-height IO bracket with dedicated HDMI jack that outputs audio. In the benchmarks it did manage good results for its entry-level class, outperforming the Radeon 3650 by a small margin. With that said, playing the latest 3D games at high resolutions was never the point of this videocard, and it still fares well for 2D gaming or lightweight gaming in titles that are a few years old or with detail settings on low or medium quality.

While gamers will want to opt for something that's a little more powerful, PCSTATS found that the ASUS EAH4550 was more than powerful enough to playback High Definition 1920 x 1080 content, and AMD has done a great job of having this card take the task of decoding HD off of the CPU's workload and letting the RV710 GPU handle it. Plugging it into an 1080p-capable, audio-equipped monitor like the ASUS VH242H via HDMI was effortless and neither sound or picture quality had any signs of distortion or artifacting. Total system power draw with this graphics card was idle 76W, peak 111W.

Those that have been looking for a good low-profile half-height videocard for small form factor and HTPC cases will find that the ASUS EAH4550's features handle pretty much all of your media playback needs. The EAH 4550 offers a compact package that runs cool, quiet and is dirt cheap. Throw in hassle free HDMI output and this AMD Radeon videocard could be the perfect complement for a computer that will be playing HD content.

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