Opinions on the Diamond Stealth 9250 PCI 256mb graphics card?

[Delvius]

Hello all! I wanted to get a few opinions on the Diamond Stealth Radeon 9250 PCI. I'm building a budget gaming rig and this seems to be a decent card for the money. I've read some good things about it but the honesty of others is always better knowledge.

Thanks!

 

[Ika]

If you want to play real games, don't get it.

 

[LW07]

If you have an AGP/PCI-Express slot or are going to get a motherboard with one of those slots, forget about the 9250. If all you have is PCI, get the 6200 that's in my sig, but even then you won't be turning much details up.

BTW, welcome to the Anandtech Forums!

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

Originally posted by: LW07
If you have an AGP/PCI-Express slot or are going to get a motherboard with one of those slots, forget about the 9250. If all you have is PCI-Express, get the 6200 that's in my sig, but even then you won't be turning much details up.

you mean PCI

 

[LW07]

Yes, I mean PCI. I was typing too fast and wasn't thinking.

 

[betasub]

256MB of RAM on a budget dx8 card, why? Don't be suckered by the amount of RAM, it's slow (probably 64-bit interface too). 6200 is a better option if you are PCI-only (no point getting a version with more than 128MB).

 

[Delvius]

Thanks everybody. I believe that the card suopports Dx9. According to Diamods website.
Diamond Stealth 9250 PCI Please correct me if i'm reading it wrong.

 

[betasub]

Supports DX9, yes, and that may be enough of a requirement to allow you to install/run some DX9 titles. But as for gameplay, you are probably limited to 640x480 (low-med detail) or a slideshow in many DX9 games.

 

[Peter]

/Supports/ DX9 in that the drivers are DX9 compatible. The 9250 chip hardware however is a DX8.1 device.

This means you can install the card in a machine that uses DirectX9 core, but you will get NONE of the features that have been added since 8.1.

 

[Delvius]

Ahhhhhhh! Thank you for the clarification. The 6200 would be the better choice out of budget cards then.

 

[Peter]

... in that it brings the more recent feature set, yes. Performance wise, they'll both be no fun at all in today's games.