Introduction

AMD recently released their HD 4650 and HD 4670 cards which are based on the AMD RV730 graphics processor. The cards are targeted at the sub-$100 segment which is also where the NVIDIA 9600 GT and 9600 GSO are positioned.

While other AIBs have designed their own PCBs to reduce cost or optimize it to their own design goals, Sapphire has chosen to use ATI's reference board design. Unlike the reference design, the clock and memory speeds are increased to 650 MHz and 900 MHz - far from the maximum as our overclocking tests will show later.

Packaging & Contents

Sapphire uses their "small" packaging for this card. The front and back of the package have all the important product highlights. Dear Sapphire, please update the 2002 list of awards you have on the back of the package.



You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Documentation + Driver CD
• TV Out adapter + cable
• DVI adapter, HDMI adapter

The Card

As expected the Sapphire HD 4650 Overclocked uses a small cooler with a single slot design.


The card has two DVI ports which is the most common output configuration today. In case you need an analog VGA output, you can use a DVI adapter (included). To connect big digital TV screens you can use an HDMI adapter (also included). The HDCP output then features the usual HDCP+Audio, which allows easy setup of a media PC. AMD has integrated a Realtek 7.1 audio device inside the GPU which means that the sound card's HDMI output shows up as sound device in Windows. In my opinion this is an easier solution than on NVIDIA's cards where you have to route an audio cable from your motherboard to the VGA card. Compared to the previous HD 3000 Series' 5.1 audio, you are now able to output 7.1 audio.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

Sapphire's heatsink is a very basic piece of metal. You won't find any fancy stuff like copper or heatpipes here. It's not needed given the low heat output of the RV730 GPU.


Two, three or four cards can be combined in CrossFire to improve performance or image quality.


An additional power supply is not required for operation of the card.


The GDDR3 memory chips are made by Hynix and carry the model number H5RS5223CFA-N0C. With a latency of 1.0 ns they should be good for at least 1000 MHz.


AMD uses their new RV730 GPU on the Radeon HD 4670 and 4650. The GPU has a die size of 145 mm², is made in a 55 nm process and sports 514 million transistors.