Upgrading my cousins horrid PC with a horrid Vid card...

[AnimalCracker]

My cousin wants to upgrade his PC, and after hearing of him buying a new HDD to make it go faster, I decided I needed to step and use some of my limited experience to help the guy out.

He does not want to spend more than $50 for a graphics card, and he wants to use his walmart gift card to get his card. They had the fx 5500 and the Radeon 9550 from $40 each. I know the 5500 is 256mb, I dont know if the 9550 is a Pro or even if its 256mb... this is al i know. I wish I wish they had something like the Radeon 9600 there or the ti4200, but they dont.

Ive searched and searched Tom's Hardware for a review of these cards but I cant find em! Which leads me to believe they are remakes of older cards, or some sort of budget cards for back in their day. I then read here that the 5500 is indeed a marginally upgraded 5200.

Which card should I tell him to get?

 

[BlacKJesuS]

9550 is a underclocked 9600....and they usually overclock to around 9600XT speeds

 

[Captante]

You are correct.. neither one of those cards is very good & I can't recall seeing a benchmark comparing them myself. My guess is that the Radeon 9550 is the lesser of two evils here, so thats what I'd suggest.

Edit: Just did a quick search & the 5500 is a slightly higher clocked 5200 which means its total crap... 256mb's of RAM is worthless on a card of that level, so go with th 9550 for sure.

 

[AnimalCracker]

Hmmm. I dont have too much experience with overclocking, well, I mean, I overclocked my x700pro, but Im kinda weary to do it for his PC...

Anyways, the box on the fx5500 says its OCed out of the box... I doubt that means much. Would you still recommend the 9550 if I wouldnt oc it?


I should mention he really just wants to play WC3 with me online (dota is too fun to pass up) and maybe some Battlefield 1942.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: AnimalCracker
Hmmm. I dont have too much experience with overclocking, well, I mean, I overclocked my x700pro, but Im kinda weary to do it for his PC...

Anyways, the box on the fx5500 says its OCed out of the box... I doubt that means much. Would you still recommend the 9550 if I wouldnt oc it?

In this case, no question about it.

Of course you could tell him to buy my old 9600XT for $60 shipped off FS/FT!

 

[AnimalCracker]

Did the 9550 have a Pro edition? Im used to Radeon having its 'Pro' edition/series/model/what have you when it came to the 9XXX series. Meh. I think any of them will be fine for WC3.

And i dont think I could convince him to not use his gift card, sorry.

 

[Captante]

Don't worry ... I was kidding about him buying my old card... although it is for sale if you know anybody else interested!

Anyway, only the higher end ATI cards got a special name like "Pro" or "XT"... the 9550 isn't a high-end card by any stretch, its just a much better card then the 5500.

Are you sure those are the only choices in his price range?

 

[F1shF4t]

9550 as long as its not 64 bit, will be milles above the fx5500. My 9600xt i bough cheap second hand is around 2.5 times faster than the fx5700 in dx 9 stuff, even though the 9600xt has slower ram. (128bit 500mhz vs 128bit 600mhz ddr2 on the fx 5700)

The fx5700 is roughtly 2.5 times quicker than the fx5500, so anyways get the 9550 with 128bit mem and overclock it.