 | RADEON 9550, 256mb AGP video upgrade card |
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 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 29.95 | $12.42 |  at 2 stores |
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 "For playing 2004 to 2007 directx 9.0c games" | 2008-02-05 |
| - Reviewed By growman | |
| 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. | |
 "Great Buy If Ugrading from 128MB or 64MB for under $100" | 2007-10-24 |
| - Reviewed By jbracciante | |
| 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. | |
 "ATI Radeon 9550" | 2007-06-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AJPCZOO1IYJ7U | |
| Good product. Too bad they shipped it with the wrong driver system. After consulting their tech service, had to go to the web site to download the right one. | |
| "world of warcraft burning crusade or not" | 2007-05-15 |
| - Reviewed By lyg802 | |
| this isnt a review but is this card compatible with world of warcraft? if so i will be a buyer | |
| "workhorse agp card" | 2007-05-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: ATEAPVF0RZFQT | |
| With two DAC's, this ATI 256mb 9550 card can drive two monitors, each with different a resolution if needed. Using mine with twin 22" LCDs. Also has switch to portrait mode, "built by ATI"'s better components,3 year no hassle warranty, and ulta crisp picture quality. This card is not for gaming, the 1950 series does that, but highly recommended for dual monitor productivity. As LCD's need native resolution, I've included below what took me a while to find :-) ATI Radeon9550 256mb Supported Video Modes Mode 0 : 320x200 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 1 : 320x200 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 2 : 320x200 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 3 : 320x200 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 4 : 320x200 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 5 : 320x200 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 6 : 320x240 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 7 : 320x240 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 8 : 320x240 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 9 : 320x240 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 10 : 320x240 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 11 : 320x240 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 12 : 400x300 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 13 : 400x300 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 14 : 400x300 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 15 : 400x300 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 16 : 400x300 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 17 : 400x300 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 18 : 512x384 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 19 : 512x384 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 20 : 512x384 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 21 : 640x400 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 22 : 640x400 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 23 : 640x400 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 24 : 640x400 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 25 : 640x400 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 26 : 640x400 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 27 : 640x480 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 28 : 640x480 256 colours (8-bit) 72Hz Mode 29 : 640x480 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 30 : 640x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 31 : 640x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 72Hz Mode 32 : 640x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 33 : 640x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 34 : 640x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 72Hz Mode 35 : 640x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 36 : 720x480 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 37 : 720x480 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 38 : 720x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 39 : 720x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 40 : 720x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 41 : 720x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 42 : 720x576 256 colours (8-bit) 59Hz Mode 43 : 720x576 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 44 : 720x576 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 45 : 720x576 64K HiColour (16-bit) 59Hz Mode 46 : 720x576 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 47 : 720x576 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 48 : 720x576 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 59Hz Mode 49 : 720x576 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 50 : 720x576 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 51 : 800x600 256 colours (8-bit) 56Hz Mode 52 : 800x600 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 53 : 800x600 256 colours (8-bit) 70Hz Mode 54 : 800x600 256 colours (8-bit) 72Hz Mode 55 : 800x600 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 56 : 800x600 64K HiColour (16-bit) 56Hz Mode 57 : 800x600 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 58 : 800x600 64K HiColour (16-bit) 70Hz Mode 59 : 800x600 64K HiColour (16-bit) 72Hz Mode 60 : 800x600 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 61 : 800x600 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 56Hz Mode 62 : 800x600 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 63 : 800x600 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 70Hz Mode 64 : 800x600 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 72Hz Mode 65 : 800x600 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 66 : 848x480 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 67 : 848x480 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 68 : 848x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 69 : 848x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 70 : 848x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 71 : 848x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 72 : 1024x480 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 73 : 1024x480 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 74 : 1024x480 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 75 : 1024x768 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 76 : 1024x768 256 colours (8-bit) 70Hz Mode 77 : 1024x768 256 colours (8-bit) 72Hz Mode 78 : 1024x768 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 79 : 1024x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 80 : 1024x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 70Hz Mode 81 : 1024x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 72Hz Mode 82 : 1024x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 83 : 1024x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 84 : 1024x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 70Hz Mode 85 : 1024x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 72Hz Mode 86 : 1024x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 87 : 1152x864 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 88 : 1152x864 256 colours (8-bit) 70Hz Mode 89 : 1152x864 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 90 : 1152x864 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 91 : 1152x864 64K HiColour (16-bit) 70Hz Mode 92 : 1152x864 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 93 : 1152x864 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 94 : 1152x864 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 70Hz Mode 95 : 1152x864 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 96 : 1280x720 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 97 : 1280x720 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 98 : 1280x720 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 99 : 1280x720 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 100 : 1280x720 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 101 : 1280x720 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 102 : 1280x768 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 103 : 1280x768 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 104 : 1280x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 105 : 1280x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 106 : 1280x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 107 : 1280x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 108 : 1280x960 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 109 : 1280x960 256 colours (8-bit) 70Hz Mode 110 : 1280x960 256 colours (8-bit) 72Hz Mode 111 : 1280x960 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 112 : 1280x960 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 113 : 1280x960 64K HiColour (16-bit) 70Hz Mode 114 : 1280x960 64K HiColour (16-bit) 72Hz Mode 115 : 1280x960 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 116 : 1280x960 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 117 : 1280x960 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 70Hz Mode 118 : 1280x960 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 72Hz Mode 119 : 1280x960 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 120 : 1280x1024 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 121 : 1280x1024 256 colours (8-bit) 70Hz Mode 122 : 1280x1024 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 123 : 1280x1024 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 124 : 1280x1024 64K HiColour (16-bit) 70Hz Mode 125 : 1280x1024 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 126 : 1280x1024 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 127 : 1280x1024 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 70Hz Mode 128 : 1280x1024 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 129 : 1360x768 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 130 : 1360x768 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 131 : 1360x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 132 : 1360x768 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 133 : 1360x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 134 : 1360x768 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 135 : 1360x1024 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 136 : 1360x1024 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 137 : 1360x1024 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 138 : 1360x1024 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 139 : 1360x1024 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 140 : 1360x1024 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 141 : 1440x900 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 142 : 1440x900 256 colours (8-bit) 75Hz Mode 143 : 1440x900 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 144 : 1440x900 64K HiColour (16-bit) 75Hz Mode 145 : 1440x900 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 146 : 1440x900 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 75Hz Mode 147 : 1680x1050 256 colours (8-bit) 60Hz Mode 148 : 1680x1050 64K HiColour (16-bit) 60Hz Mode 149 : 1680x1050 16M+ TrueColour (32-bit) 60Hz Mode 150 : 640x480 16 colours (4-bit) Mode 151 : 800x600 16 colours (4-bit) | |
| "Windows Vista?" | 2007-04-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1VCZ4H814QPNV | |
| This is not actually a review and i know this is not the place to be doing this, but i am curious to find out if this card is compatible with the Windows Vitsa OS? | |
| "EXCELLENT" | 2007-04-01 |
| - Reviewed By podermayor | |
| La recomiendo ampliamente, mueve los poligonos a velocidad vertiginosa y ademas es Barata, facil de instalar (lo hice en menos de un minuto), perfecta desde VENEZUELA | |
 "Go with NVidia" | 2006-12-30 |
| - Reviewed By frootbat31 | |
| I got this card due to cost but also had limited choices at the local Circuit City store. Boy was this a mistake. I had to get a new video card to play the Elder Scrolls Oblivion game. This card barely made it run, and even, I had issues with the graphics and having my desktop settings screw up. What makes this such a poor choice overall however is the bloated software you get. I noticed it also will start up CTI.EXE on startup, then this will startup several copies of itself. I saw FOUR CTI.EXE running at the same time, gobbling up 64 MB of ram!! Since when does video drivers hot that up?! Settings are also tricky for a newbie to figure out, and my computer kept resetting displays as well, and I have only the one monitor. I admit I'm no huge gamer, and this sytem is also nto a gaming sytem, but geesh- this is the LAST time I buy anything from ATI. | |
| "ATI's excellent low budget alternative..." | 2006-03-27 |
| - Reviewed By razeal35 | |
| I purchased this card as an upgrade to my HP pavillion a706n, for the purpose of preparing to run the newest episodes of HALF LIFE 2. I wanted the full directx9.c compatibility, but I didn't want to spend too much money since the newest cards are currently 1) too expensive, and 2) about to become outclassed by the even newer cards anyway. I decided to settle on the RADEON 9550. It was very easy to install. AGP cards have that nice little hook on one side of the pin assembly, making it next to impossible to install the card backwards. Driver installation was simple, but one has to remember to remove any old drivers from old graphics cards (even if you previously had an NVIDIA card). The manual attempts, I kid you not, to confuse you with lots of recomendations to update BIOS drivers, Motherboard drivers, etc... if you have a fairly new computer, you can ignore these. Once that's done, you have to look up the newest Catylist drivers, which is found on ATI's website. Now about performance. I went to ATI's website and sound thier demo page, and proceeded to download thier demos and screensavers. They have archived there many different demos from many different cards, from the mobility 9000 cards to the new X1000 cards. All of the demos wordek up to but not including the X series cards. One demo for the RADEON 9700 called "Debevec RNL", which is a realtime High Dynamic Range lighting demo, run like a dream and is my favorite I use to Demo the card's capabilities. Even the famous Gargoyle clock screensaver for the RADEON 9800 ran on this card. Now about it's performance with Half life 2. I run my games under a separate account on my computer that I've stripped down and streamlined so that as little as possible runs in the background. I have Half Life 2 running on a Sceptre Naga widescreen flat panel monitor, running at the full native resolution of 1280 x 768. The processor is an AMD 3000+ 2.1 gig, frontside bus 400 mhz, memory is 1 gig pc2700 333mhz. Color is set to default 32 bit. The game settings are as follows: Texture resolution = high; shader detail = low; Model detail = low; water detail = reflect world; shadow detail = high; Antialiasing = x2; filtering mode = anisotropic x2; HDR = Bloom (if available). Running the video stress test for counter strike: source gave fps of 28.7. With antialiasing disabled, it increased to 31.8. A benchmark from Half Life 2 during "route canal" (dl_canals_06) , showing full water reflections, reflecting world... gives a frame rate of 24-30 FPS. By contrast, Ravenholm shows a frame rate between 28-52. Overall, very nice. And best of all, there's no skipping of audio! Half Life 2: Lost coast... Yeah, I thought I'd try to fry the card. I set the HDR effect to full, and left the other settings the same as above. I got an abysmal 13 frames per second. But it's not like I didn't expect it, after all, lost coast is designed to push even high end cards to sparks and smoke. One caveat is that I've had a bit of trouble getting T&L games to work, but I believe it might be due to the games I tried being beta games rather than full versions. Overall, if your looking for a graphics card that will give you directx 9 compatibility, give a respectable frame rate and not cost an arm and a leg, you can't go wrong with a RADEON 9550. | |
| "Yuck!" | 2006-02-15 |
| - Reviewed By omegaknight | |
| After trying this card for a few days all I can say is YUCK to ATI. Stick with Nvidia if your a seriour gamer. On both my systems with the lastest drivers installed, this card had strange glitches when multitasking (chatting, surfing, etc) not only that but your could really tell a visual difference between this and the card rival (Geforce 6200 series). Another bother was when the driver CD was installed as complete, ATI put more junk on my system with their utilities then anything. Everything Windows Media Player does for the most part. The cards ok for the occasional gamer but not for serious ones (on a budget). | |
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