ATI Radeon HD 4100 vs ATI Radeon HD 4200 vs ATI Radeon HD 4270
ATI Radeon HD 4100
► remove from comparisonThe AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4100 or just Radeon 4100 is an integrated graphics card (shared memory) for laptops. Compared to the HD 4200, the HD 4100 probably features a lower clock speed (and perhaps also some features are stripped down). According to differencebetween.net the clock rate is just 350MHz and therefore below the low power HD 4225.
ATI Radeon HD 4200
► remove from comparisonThe AMD ATI (Mobility) Radeon HD 4200 is an onboard (shared Memory) graphics chip (on the RS880M chipset). It is based on the HD 3400 graphics core and features the UVD 2 video engine to decode HD videos.
Compared to the old HD 3200, the 4200 now supports DirectX 10.1 and features the UVD2 video decoder. The later announced Radeon HD 4250 is just a higher clocked version of the HD 4200.
Hybrid CrossfireX is a new feature of the chipset, that allowes to use the onboard HD 4200 graphics core in conjunction with a dedicated graphics card (of the Mobilty Radeon HD 3400 series) in Crossfire combination to increase the performance (similar to GeForceBoost / HybridSLI of Nvidia). Every frame is rendered by a different graphics core with this technique.
The UVD 2 video engine is able to decode HD videos (H.264 and VC-1 in all stages, MPEG-2 only IDCT) and allows the fluent playback of HD videos (e.g. Blu-ray) with a relative low CPU utilization (called Avivo HD). The HD 3200 was the first onboard graphics card that allows the fluent playback of Blu-ray videos. The UVD 2 on the HD 4200 supports the decoding of two video stream and therefore got a full Blu-Ray support.
The graphics core of the HD 4200 stems from the Mobility Radeon HD 3400 and is therefore DirectX 10.1 capable. Because of the missing graphics memory, the performance of the card is a bit lower than of the HD 3400. Theroretically, dedicated memory chips can be directly added to the chip, making it a dedicated graphics card. Because of pricing it is unclear if any manufacturer will add memory to the chip.
Still older games like Doom 3 or Quake 4 should be barly playable. Compared to older onboad graphic chips (e.g., GMA X3100), the HD 4200 is much faster. Even the Centrino 2 graphics core (GMA 4500M HD) is noticeable slower than the HD 4200. Compared to the HD 3200 the performance should be similar
Using Windows XP, the HD 3200 seems to have problems with current and older drivers, as there is no 2D accelleration. This leads to very slow interactions with windows and scrolling (especially with Firefox as reported in various discussion boards). More information on the topic can be found at Planet 3D Now (de) or the AMD forum. It is still unclear if the HD 4200 also suffers from this problem.
ATI Radeon HD 4270
► remove from comparisonThe AMD ATI Radeon HD 4270 (sometimes also ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4270 called) is an onboard (shared Memory) graphics chip in the RS880M chipset. It is based on the HD 3400 graphics core and features the UVD 2 video engine to decode HD videos (Avivo HD - can decode two HD streams simultaneously). Compared to the HD 4250, the 4270 is a higher clocked version.
Compared to the old HD 3200, the 4270 supports DirectX 10.1 and features the UVD2 video decoder.
The UVD 2 video engine is able to decode HD videos (H.264 and VC-1 in all stages, MPEG-2 only IDCT) and allows the fluent playback of HD videos (e.g. Blu-ray) with a relative low CPU utilization (called Avivo HD). The HD 3200 was the first onboard graphics card that allows the fluent playback of Blu-ray videos. The UVD 2 in the HD 4270 supports the decoding of two video stream and therefore got a full Blu-Ray support.
The graphics core of the HD 4270 stems from the Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series and is therefore DirectX 10.1 capable. Because of the missing graphics memory, the performance of the card is a bit lower than of the HD 34x0. Theroretically, dedicated memory chips can be directly added to the chip, making it a dedicated graphics card. Because of pricing it is unclear if any manufacturer will add memory to the chip.
Current (and less demanding games) like Starcraft 2 or Left4Dead are playable in low details in conjunction with a fast CPU. Furthermore older games like Doom 3 or Quake 4 should also be playable with slower processors. Compared to older onboad graphic chips (e.g., GMA 4500MHD), the HD 4270 is much faster. The new Intel HD Graphics in the Core ix Arrandale CPUs, offers a similar performance, but the driver support by AMD should be better.
| ATI Radeon HD 4100 | ATI Radeon HD 4200 | ATI Radeon HD 4270 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radeon HD 4000 Series |
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| Architecture | RV6xx | RV6xx | RV6xx | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 40 - unified | 40 - unified | 40 - unified | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 350 MHz | 500 MHz | 590 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 512 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.0 | DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.0 | DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| technology | 55 nm | 55 nm | 55 nm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 01.11.2009 | 10.09.2009 | 01.05.2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Codename | RV620 | RS880M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | Avivo HD (UVD 2), PCI-E 2.0, Vari-Bright, HDCP support, Display Cache | Avivo HD (UVD2), Hybrid Graphics Technology, PCI-E 2.0, Vari-Bright (Bildschirmhelligkeit automtisch anpassen), HDCP support, Display Cache |
Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + ATI Radeon HD 4200
Average Benchmarks ATI Radeon HD 4100 → 100% n=2
Average Benchmarks ATI Radeon HD 4200 → 102% n=2
Average Benchmarks ATI Radeon HD 4270 → 96% n=2
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
| ATI Radeon HD 4100 | ATI Radeon HD 4200 | ATI Radeon HD 4270 | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | ||||
| Fifa 11 | 59 | 29.8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| ATI Radeon HD 4100 | ATI Radeon HD 4200 | ATI Radeon HD 4270 | |||||||||||||||||||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | | | | | | | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 1 | | 1 | | | | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | | | | | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
