ATI Radeon HD 4100 vs ATI Radeon HD 4270

The 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.