Radeon 9200 to 9550?

  • Thread starter Thread starter S. Smith
  • Start date Start date
S

S. Smith

I currently have a Radeon 9200 128 MB card in my system,
but I have an opportunity to buy a 256 MB 9550 card cheap
(under $50).

My question is, would I see that much of an improvement from
the 9200 to the 9550? Would the extra 128 MB of RAM make
a big difference?

The system this would be in is: Pentium III 1 Ghz, 512 MB RAM,
80 GB hard drive.

I'm building a new system later this year, but want to keep
squeezing the most out of my older system too. Just wondering
if the 9200 to 9550 upgrade would be worthwhile.

Thanks in advance.




- Scott Smith: (e-mail address removed)
Sludge Report: http://www.sludgereport.org
 
S. Smith said:
I currently have a Radeon 9200 128 MB card in my system,
but I have an opportunity to buy a 256 MB 9550 card cheap
(under $50).

My question is, would I see that much of an improvement from
the 9200 to the 9550? Would the extra 128 MB of RAM make
a big difference?

The system this would be in is: Pentium III 1 Ghz, 512 MB RAM,
80 GB hard drive.

I'm building a new system later this year, but want to keep
squeezing the most out of my older system too. Just wondering
if the 9200 to 9550 upgrade would be worthwhile.

Thanks in advance.




- Scott Smith: (e-mail address removed)
Sludge Report: http://www.sludgereport.org
Click to expand...


To some extent, it depends on what you want to do with the system.

In your case, I think the 9200 is well-matched to the P3 system. I
would save the $50 and apply it to an Athlon64 system in the future.
 
There would be a minimal difference between the two cards.
Click to expand...

Actually, I just double checked. I am using a Radeon 9000 Pro
128 MB card right now, not a 9200.

Would there still be little difference between a 9000 and a 9550?



- Scott Smith: (e-mail address removed)
Sludge Report: http://www.sludgereport.org
 
S. Smith said:
Actually, I just double checked. I am using a Radeon 9000 Pro
128 MB card right now, not a 9200.

Would there still be little difference between a 9000 and a 9550?
Click to expand...

Yes..the 9550 is slower, lower bandwidth (250/200)and FWIW is DX9.0 and
AGP8X compliant. Although you have nominal DX9 ability, the card is a bottom
feeder. Your 9000 Pro is faster overall (275/275), is DX8.0 compliant and
AGP4X. The AGP 4X/8X difference is meaningless. An X800XL can't saturate the
AGP8X bus. Keep it or spend the bucks for at least a 9600XT which is a real
and inexpensive upgrade from a 9000 Pro.
 
Isn't there some way to mod a 9550 into a 9600 or a 9600 Pro? I read it
somewhere, although I can't remember for hte life of me where it was.
I'm pretty sure it's a softmod though, so it shouldn't be too hard to
manage. If that's possible, he should see a very significant increase
over a 9000 Pro.
 
Augustus said:
Yes..the 9550 is slower, lower bandwidth (250/200)and FWIW is DX9.0 and
AGP8X compliant. Although you have nominal DX9 ability, the card is a bottom
feeder. Your 9000 Pro is faster overall (275/275), is DX8.0 compliant and
AGP4X. The AGP 4X/8X difference is meaningless. An X800XL can't saturate the
AGP8X bus. Keep it or spend the bucks for at least a 9600XT which is a real
and inexpensive upgrade from a 9000 Pro.
Click to expand...

No sense in this case. The CPU is 1GHz P3, which will not be able to use
the 9600XT better than the 9550. OTOH, if the original poster buys the
XT, he will spend his valuable assets to a card, which will be obsolete
(well, maybe not obsolete, but it will be at least cheaper) later this
year when it is time to do some reserach for the new machine. Actually,
if I were the original poster, I'd sell the current 9000, buy a pint of
beer and a second-hand Radeon 8500 (or a R8500LE or even 9100) with the
money acquired. The 8500(LE) is a lot better than the 9000 and money
spent on beer is never wasted :-)
 
Hukuis said:
Isn't there some way to mod a 9550 into a 9600 or a 9600 Pro? I read it
Click to expand...

Sometimes, yes. It depends mostly on 1) the memory bus width (in some
9550's it's only 64bits wide, vs 128 bits in 9600/Pro and 2) the
(nominal) speed and quality of the memory chips used on the 9550 and 3)
the quality of the core specimen in the 9550. If you go wrong in 1), you
are screwed, the performance (if clocked to speeds of 9600/pro) is
reduced to half of the 9600/pro. If 1) is OK but 2) or 3) not, you still
have some hope to squeeze some more out of the poor 9550.
somewhere, although I can't remember for hte life of me where it was.
I'm pretty sure it's a softmod though, so it shouldn't be too hard to
manage. If that's possible, he should see a very significant increase
over a 9000 Pro.
Click to expand...

I used to have a 8500LE (clocked a little bit, to 295/295 IIRC) in my 2G
Celeron system. Then I found a nice 9600 to go with the C rig, sold the
8500 and ran some tests. The 9600 (non-pro, clocked stock 325/400
core/mem, overclocked to 420/450) didn't perform so much better than the
8500 and the 8500 seemed to act a lot better in old games (smoother and
yes, even faster). At first glance it looked like the 9600 performed
WORSE than the 8500 did but it was a driver issue. I had forgotten to do
a complete driver cleanup after uninstalling the 8500 and there was some
old stuff causing the weird results.
 
No sense in this case. The CPU is 1GHz P3, which will not be able to use
the 9600XT better than the 9550.
Click to expand...

I disagree. You'll notice a significant difference going from a 9000 Pro to
a 9600XT on a PIII 1000. I've had one (went from an 8500 128Mb (which is a
better card than the 9000 Pro), to a 9600XT), and it was a decent upgrade.
I then went to a 9800 Pro on the same PIII 1000 and that was a major jump
again. A PIII 1000 isn't as much of a dog as you remember.
 
Augustus said:
I disagree. You'll notice a significant difference going from a 9000 Pro
to a 9600XT on a PIII 1000. I've had one (went from an 8500 128Mb (which
is a better card than the 9000 Pro), to a 9600XT), and it was a decent
upgrade. I then went to a 9800 Pro on the same PIII 1000 and that was a
major jump again. A PIII 1000 isn't as much of a dog as you remember.
Click to expand...

What I meant to also say is that A PIII will show a marked 3D performance
increase from a 9550 to a 9600XT.
 
Well, Intel gave the PIII a die-shrink and out came the Pentium M. The
architecture is competitive with the Athlon FX at equal clock speeds.

Damn, imagine what would've happened if Intel didn't let its marketing
department design the P4...
 
Augustus said:
I disagree. You'll notice a significant difference going from a 9000 Pro to
a 9600XT on a PIII 1000. I've had one (went from an 8500 128Mb (which is a
better card than the 9000 Pro), to a 9600XT), and it was a decent upgrade.
I then went to a 9800 Pro on the same PIII 1000 and that was a major jump
again. A PIII 1000 isn't as much of a dog as you remember.
Click to expand...

Happy to hear that :-) I just happened (really, this is a nice
coincidence) to get a 9600XT for 20 euros to install on my 1GHz P3
system :-) to replace existing R7500 :-) So, probably my UT games will
not be slideshows ay more :-)

The rig is actually purely for work, but there's gotta be some fun, too.
The Bad Thing is that when I replaced the old 800E with the 1G I found
out that the caps on the mobo are gone. They all bulge and some of them
even leak. I dropped the FSB on the P3 to 100MHz to reduce the load,
removed the case sides to keep the temps lower and didn't install the
9600XT. All this to keep the system as stable as possible for as long as
possible 'cause I donät know when I'll get another i815 mobo. Yes, it's
gotta be a i815, I don't want to mess around with a system working nice
and flawlessly.
 
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