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ATI 100-437105 Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP Video Card | List Price: $79.00
Discount Price: $38.00
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Brand: ATI
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Best performing graphics card in this price segment.
- Superior image quality for a variety of digital applications, such as viewing digital photos, streaming video and gaming.
- Digital video support for single and multi-displays on a VGA monitor, flat panel and TV screen.
- A four pixel shader pipeline architecture and up to 256MB of DDR memory for fast action graphics.
- Driven by ATI's CATALYST¿ driver software suite for the most in stability and reliability.
ATI Radeon 9550 [Posted on 2007-07-10]
Great card, worked right out of the box. Good card to boast your system with 256 video ram freeing up the processor and getting the most out of your slightly older AGP 2X and 4X slot without upgrading motherboard and power supply. The DVD playback software was much better than the preinstalled software in my machine. All in all well worth the money. The extra RAM sure helps with CAD-CAM software.
Radeon is junk [Posted on 2007-10-06]
I've had 2 Radeon video cards and both of them have had the cooling fan break-of course after the warranty expired. it is impossible to replace the fan so the only option is to blow hundreds of dollars on a new card.
if you want to buy a new video card every 2 years then go with Radeon.
I'm going with Nvidia...
Great Buy If Ugrading from 128MB or 64MB for under $100 [Posted on 2007-10-24]
I ordered this product from Amazon Sunday and it came Wednesday. The reason for upgrading was my Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 128MB had crapped out due to a nv4_disp error. So far the card has worked fine and improved performance. Where as my Geforce stuttered when playing Halo at 800X600 meduim settings, this card blows through the game at 1024X768 with max settings.
Very pleased.
Makes me want to pull out all my hair [Posted on 2008-01-08]
Well, Day Four of my attempt to play Half Life 2 Episode One with my Radeon 9550. I have installed and reinstalled different sets of drivers more times than I have eaten during that time, and still the thing blows up in my face. Oddity of Oddities: the oft repeated advice to keep your driver updated to play games seems to be out the window here. A driver from like two years ago runs the game better than the current driver (though it still blows up, at least I get to the game menu first)
ATI support has nothing, nothing! on this problem in their support site. I sure am sorry I bought this card. Unless you get it for peanuts, stay the heck away!
Use at your own risk.
For playing 2004 to 2007 directx 9.0c games [Posted on 2008-02-05]
This is an AGP card, not PCIe.
I recently got this card because it is very cheap and is mainly to replace my old broken ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 MB card which lasted since 2004 until 2008. I am getting a new rig but I want to have a video card in my old rig. Instead of replacing the 9800 pro I decided to get an ATI Radeon 9550 because the 9800 pro was prone to overheating problems and the technology is very sensitive, plus the fan is not good quality (mine fused to the metal box which sits over the card to cool it). I never overclocked.
You might ask why not get Nvidia instead? The answer is I will be (my old RIVA TNT2 from 1999 never gave me trouble), but just not with this old box. Instead I will give ATI another chance, but a cheaper model will go in while a cutting edge Nvidia (probably a GeForce 8800) will go into the new box.
I learned a lot about ATI from the 9800 pro model. It played games like no other card in 2004 and even maintained high performance gaming right through to 2007 but by then it emerged that the latest games where really pushing it.
I did try to update the drivers to the latest Catalyst versions (7) however I would not recommend doing this with ATI. When you run ATI you stick with the drivers in the box or else you risk a problematic experience with driver updates. Personally, with ATI, I will never risk driver updates with this 9550 card. The drivers I got with it are the drivers that will always stay with it.
So this card is running with a 2004 Intel P4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB Ram, 600 W PSU (updated from 300W), MSI MOBO with AGP. Anyway this rig was nothing but hell from day one because of the ATI 9800 pro and a 300W PSU. It blew the PSU and probably damaged the video card within 3 months of purchase. I didn't notice that the video card had been damaged and just got a better PSU, 600W and a Zalman heatsink. The fan in the video card had been burnt out but the Zalman seemed to keep the system cool enough for the card to run for a few more years. In 2008 the card finally packed in. So there is my story.
Essentially the 9550 is little less than a 9800 pro without all the problems attached. You can even play games from 2007 with medium to high setting with this such as S.TA.L.K.E.R so I am quite happy with it. However any of the cutting edge games from 2007 onwards are really Directx 10. The 9550 is for DirectX 9.0c.
The 9550 can play games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, Doom 3, FarCry and Half-Life 2.
It is a nightmare if you setup your card on a television and then forget to change it back for use with a monitor. So learn a lesson well about these monitor/television compatible cards. Make sure to change the Display Properties to whichever type you are using next because if you don't then you will not see anything and thus can not change it back unless you use the last source type again. The 9550 doesn't make as much noise as the 9800. It sounds less than a 50cfm fan in your box. You do not need a very good environmental setup to keep this card cool.
So if you have the kind of rig mentioned above, or something similar, and are looking to run the top end games released between 2004 and 2007 then the 9550 can do just that. It is also VISTA compatible and can run Aero.
I will keep you updated on if this 9550 lasts.
At the end of the day you are probably happier not chancing overclocking unless you are rich or have access to lots of hardware. I just want a system that works, doesn't overheat, doesn't explode and doesn't give me headaches like the last one did. Hopefully this review will give you some ideas of what the whole industry of PC gaming can be like.
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