Radeon 9550 128MB publicized in mid 2004, was originally manufactured for Asia only but became available worldwide later. Although ATI do not support the R9550, the card’s manufacturer ambition was basically combine 9200’s economical price and the 9600’s power. In this review, we’ll take a look at the R9550’s features and performance.
Key Features:
• 128MB/256MB Memory.
• DirectX 9.0 Support.
• Support AGP 8X/4X.
• SMARTSHADER 2.0 technology.
• SMOOTHVISION 2.1 technology.
• FULLSTREAM technology.
• Output: DVI-I / TV-Out / D-Sub.
Performance:
In Old games, The R9550’s average FPS in Call of Duty and Halo was 43 and 25 respectively. In new games, the average FPS in Far Cry and splinter cell was 15 and 25. The settings were high quality and resolution was set on 1024x768. The results: each game was simply unplayable with the exception of call of duty although setting the quality at medium definitely boosted the framework to a playable level.
Conclusion:
The Radeon 9550 is a fascinating card with reasonable DX9 performance and cheap price. Although the cards’ lack of ability to run games smooth at high resolution, its still far superior then the Geforce4 MX and 5200 series. However, The R9600 or R9800 are considered a better option. R9550’s price is around 350- 400 Riyals.
Score: 6/10
