ATI launches new HD 4000 series at sub-$100 prices

ATI’s HD 4850 and HD 4870 have proved themselves tremendous successes in the market, but up until today, there’s been no next-generation ATI GPU for buyers wanting a card under the $100 mark. Today, that changes with the launch of the ATI HD 4670 and 4650, priced at $79 and $69, respectively. Certain enthusiasts might sneer at the idea of spending so little on a graphics card, but ATI and NVIDIA sell a tremendous number of cards in the sub-$100 range, and depend on it as a major source of revenue.

Performance and market positioning
Unfortunately, ATI’s sample card didn’t arrive until yesterday, and 24 hours is too short a time for a proper performance examination. We’ll be discussing card performance over on Kit, starting tomorrow,where I’ll examine performance in 3DMark: Vantage (I’m curious to see how the 4670 compares to the 3850 in certain feature tests), Call of Duty 4, and World of WarCraft. Past that point, I’ll be taking suggestions on what benchmarks and results readers would like to see; plan to weigh in if you have preferences.

Read more: arstechnica.com