Radeon 9250 - It says it only supports DirectX 8

[The Pentium Guy]

Hey guys,

I'm building a computer for my dad, who does NOT play games. I saw some good reviews on this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-121-525&depa=1

However the problem is, NewEgg says:
Support 3D API: DirectX 8.1, OpenGL 1.3

Does this mean it can't support DirectX 9?

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Peter]

It's DX8 hardware. Radeon drivers do install and run under DX9 regardless.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Awesome. Thanks

 

[daveybrat]

for someone who won't be playing games, a 9250 card will do fine. However, that card is $55 shipped, a little too much for that card. Try the Gigabyte brand instead, same card, better price:

Gigabyte 9250 128MB AGP

$42 shipped! 🙂

 

[Peter]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-444&depa=1

Over the Gigabyte, it has DVI and twice the RAM bandwidth (because it's not a low-profile card w/ 64-bit memory). The latter might not be important, but having DVI right there and ready will be handy when your old folk decide they want one of those stylish flat screens.

 

[kmmatney]

Definately go for the Sapphire card with 128-bit memory, and DVI. I think its worth the extra $9.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Wow guys - thanks a lot! I'm going for the sapphire then 🙂.

 

[Tom]

Along the same topic, as a PCI card where does the 9250 stand compared to other PCI options ?

and in a PCI version, does the bit rate matter, since I think PCI is 64-bit maximum, right ?

also, would a 64-bit 9250 perform the same, whether it's PCI or AGP ?

 

[Peter]

AGP is a 32-bit bus. That's nothing to do with how wide the GPU attaches to its _local_ RAM.

The same card design would perform almost the same on PCI and AGP. However: On PCI, the power budget per slot is a lot lower than on AGP. That's why you don't see high-performance PCI cards. Also, ATi's later chips don't even support PCI mode of operation anymore, e.g. you can't make a 9600 PCI card.