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If you plan on using this card in an HTPC setup... which it WOULD be perfect for except... they ship with a faulty BIOS in which half the features that should be available are not. I'm referring to the Advanced de-interlacing, noise reduction, edge enhancement etc. (although the only one that is important would be the de-interlacing). This is pretty much consistent on all the HD 4650 cards (there's a few exceptions but I haven't come across one and of course the manufacturers swear all theirs work correctly). Other than this problem the card would be great... although it's a bit loud. A passive heatsink or dual slot cooler would make this card silent but it doesn't matter since it doesn't work correctly to begin with.

Great price on a faulty card though!

Would this make a decent gamer? I have a 7600gt now.

#1 -- Not be dispute your issue with de-lacing, but a quick search of “ATI 4650 de-interlacing problem” doesn't provide any definitive forum discussion or reviews that validate your statement “This is pretty much consistent on all the HD 4650 cards”
Audio Visual Science has a thread on this but it sure doesn't appear to be a prevalent or certain as you entail.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1107049

Please I'd like to understand this more, can you post a few other sites, discussion or reviews that cover the topic?

Sorry #3 there isn't a lot of documentation regarding it. I have personal experience to back it along with those of the AVS forum. There isn't a large market out there for these cards since it isn't a gaming card really... not to mention owners are more than likely oblivious to this problem since everyone is so focused on HD rather than HD/SD content (these CCC panel features are very important to SD materials - specifically the deinterlacing because this all falls into the mpeg2 decoding abilities - i think it's the shaders that determine this). The worst part is that the majority of HTPC users use integrated video chipsets rather than discrete cards so there isn't a large test group there either.

I personally have used this listed card and found the problem to lie with this model, my friend has used a Sapphire (model 100254L I believe) with the same issue and then there's multiple accounts with different manufacturers on the AVS forum, primarily in this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16557713 , as you also so in that other thread.

I even tried flashing a different BIOS onto the card which didn't work out the problem because then I had memory issues. I tried the 8.10 CCC drivers all the way up to 9.3 and didn't see any fix. Eventually I found that MSI HD 4670 deal for $55 from ZZF and went with that instead... fortunately <a rel="nofollow" href="/merchants/newegg-coupons-53/jump/" target="_new">Newegg was nice enough to take the card back with nothing out of my pocket.

I went as far as to contact HIS and try to work with them on the issue. All they could offer me was an RMA (I'd pay shipping to them) and then there was no guarantee that my issues would be gone.

If you think it's worth the gamble then by all means go with this or another HD ... [Truncated]

#2 -- NO not a Gamer Card, although it's 5 rungs higher than the 7600GT on the Heirarchy chart, I'd say spend about twice that for a card that provides any modern gaming prowess.

Eggviews are amazingly positive with only 8 of 66 giving it 2* or below.

Lots of guys say “Did not come with DVI to HDMI adapter” although the Egg Spec's say it's included in the package. However, HIS Manufacturer Response, said that “no it is readily available as an accessory”? Newegg would be sending me one gratis that's for sure!

A lot of comments on the fan and being noisy...

While this comment struck me as odd, is this because they normally have us cut the UPC out of the box, and returning the in the non-original box... Wouldn't that be the case with any (with rebates) RMA? Never thought of it like that?
“I would not recommend filing for the rebate. You'd be paying 10 bucks to throw away your Newegg warranty, not worth it to me.”

drealit -- Thanks for that response and understand the frustration those issues bring. Don't know what would've cause that issue, but HIS isn't not my favorite ATI ABI manufacture. I hear their CS and support has waned over the last couple of years (which is sad as they were so much better several years ago) and given they are predominately Graphic cards (and many higer end) it's piss poor!

Yep it's true... I didn't have fun dealing with them. My friend suffered the same with Sapphire which is extremely unfortunate since they're my favorite ATI company (excluding XFX which needs to drop the prices of their ATI cards... I love their warranty).

And yes there will not be an HDMI - DVI adapter in the package. My package had that section of the box blocked out with black electrical tape... talk about cheap/lazy.

Very very strange... when I bought the card it was listed as nonrefundable and I had to be very polite in order to return it to Newegg when I gave up on it. Now the policy has changed to the standard return policy.

Sapphire is another that's taken a hit down on my list also.
XFX... you can't go wrong; that old adage you get what you pay for! Nice to having them offer ATI.
Asus and Gigabyte, are good but their not quick with responses. Heard others say Power Color has come up. Visiontek is said to be one of the better ATI supported cards, again you get what you pay for.
MSI for both Nvidia and ATI have been ok for me. Never had any issues that I've had to contact them for, they run a decent site and have good prices.

Five post about nothing, thanks for your opinion?