Sapphire Radeon HD4550 512 MB DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card 100252HDMI

Comment: I got this to go in a Dell Optiplex 960 (compact chassis) my employer gave me to use for work from home. The integrated video in the Dell only had one video out (VGA) but it did have a low profile PCIe x16 slot available so I bought this card to replace the on-board video and allow me to run dual monitors. I'm using the DVI out and the cabled VGA out on two flat screen monitors in Windows 7 x32 with no issues. Before I installed the card I downloaded the latest version of the Catalyst 4500 series drivers from ATI's support site and installed those -- didn't even bother with the included driver CD (which is probably junk bundled trial software). Works great with the ATI drivers. So, for what I am using it for -- a work system, no games, dual fairly high resolution monitors and no HDMI (yet), I give it a 5 out of 5 because it works in that capacity PERFECT. And for the price -- Wow.

Comment: I read all the good reviews before buying it and it came on time in good order. It was for a Media Center Computer, not a Gaming machine, since it has an HDMI port. I installed into a new Compaq Win7 machine to replace onboard chip. Everything was fine for two days. Then I turned off the machine, and it would not restart (wouldn't even POST) until I pulled the card. So I put it into an older Compaq XP machine and it was fine for two more days. Then out of the blue, my screen went into a Herringbone pattern and wouldn't display properly until I removed the card.

I'm not a kid (in my 60's.) I have a degree in CompSci and build systems as a hobby. I did all the right things on install and got latest drivers for the card but no joy. Both machines have 400W + power and I conclude the card was defective. Amazon was very good about returning for refund, and I bought an HD 4350 card that works fine.

Every now and then a good company or a good product is defective. I suggest buying from Amazon since their return policy is great if you need it. You can even print a prepaid postage label when you do the return process, so you don't even have to go to the Post Office. Go Amazon!!

Comment: I have a Dell Dimension 9200 Core 2 Duo system which recently refurbished with the fastest hardware components I could find that are plug and play. I recently ran various benchmarks for its components. I was surprised to find that my video card was an Achilles Heel, less than half the performance of any other component. To see what I mean I'll just give a simply example that anyone could replicate on their own computer. You can simply run Windows 7's Performance Tools (from the Control Panel) and you'll see that Windows Experience Index makes assessments between 1.0 and 7.9 of a number of components. Everything in my system was 6.1 or over. The video card, however, was only 3.1. Quite a difference! There are many more sophisticated benchmarks that can be run to validate findings from multiple sources.

Anyway, I was looking for a reasonably priced video card that would approach the same kind of performance as the other components. This Sapphire Radeon HD4550 512 MB DDR3 Video Card not only did the trick, but beat all the other components. I read the reviews here and made my decision based on that.

It is simple to install. Just shutdown your system, replace the old card with the Sapphire. Power up! Windows 7 recognized the card and installed its own drivers and software. Upgrade this with the software that came in the box. Check for updates to get the latest version, and that's it! It's Cookbook! And, it was a great price!

Just a caution: that one of the requirements is a 300-watt Power Supply.

Comment: I bought my son a refurbished dell Optiplex GX620 small-form-Factor after his P.C.'s mother board went.
Unfortunately, his onboard graphics were not enough to play his games. The Psu is only 280W, and there is no Psu upgrade available for this machine. This cut my options down considerably. I also needed a low profile card, further reducing my options.
I opted for this card after i saw many positive reviews.
It was the right choice!
It was easy to install in the machine (I had to change it to the low profile brackets).
It was a breeze to install the software.
My son was able to play STALKER with no issues.
Sons Happy----Dads Happy

Comment: This card is great solution to your Home Theatre PC needs. 1080p video is streamed with no issues. I had no compatibility issues with my Compaq CQ5320F running Windows 7 Home Premium x64 with a 250-watt PSU, and the card worked even before the drivers were installed. There was no problem connecting cables to the ports, but it does come with extra brackets. It's important to note that the card does not have an S-Video output like the image on Sapphire's website, it has a digital DVI-I, a digital HDMI, and an analog VGA output. However, no cables are included. On Amazon, you can get VGA cables for $4, DVI cables for $5, and HDMI cables for $6, so that's not a big deal. I was able to set up a dual-monitor display using the DVI and VGA outputs (two 1280x1024 monitors), but I didn't try the HDMI output. 3D modeling with Google SketchUp was smooth. Judging by its performance it should be able to do some gaming, although I didn't really test that. (Based on my research, a 1 GB card would probably be optimal for gaming).