Sapphire Radeon 9550

[Nick]

Just bought one of these cheap..never installed a card before, could anyone
give me any pointers? Should I use the CD that came with it for the drivers
or get newer ones from ATI site.

I realise Im gonna get some flak here but if anyone can help me out I'd
appreciate it!

 

[felixcct]

Just bought one of these cheap..never installed a card before, could anyone
give me any pointers? Should I use the CD that came with it for the drivers
or get newer ones from ATI site.

I realise Im gonna get some flak here but if anyone can help me out I'd
appreciate it!

If you are a casual PC user, install from the CD that came with it -
finding, downloading, and installing the right software from ATI is a
chore.

If you like to stay up to date, you'll have to forget the CD and
download the latest software versions from ATI. Drivers will be ok, but
you may not be permitted to install some optional ATI software since
you don't have a retail-box ATI card. I would recommend that you avoid
ATI's new Catalyst Control Center software and select the older and
simpler ATI Control Panel instead (the former is a gigantic piece of
software that uses .Net to accomplish pretty much the same thing as the
smaller and more efficient Control Panel).

In either case, be absolutely sure that you first uninstall any old ATI
software or any other custom driver software that came with your old
video card, and then reboot in plain-old-VGA mode. Don't install any
new hardware when prompted by Windows.

The you can run the ATI driver install, either from the CD or from your
downloaded file.

Don't ever try to update the ATI software without uninstalling the
previous version first, or you will get to play ATI's delightful
Nightmare Software Upgrade game.

 

[Sleepy]

Just bought one of these cheap..never installed a card before, could
anyone give me any pointers? Should I use the CD that came with it for the
drivers or get newer ones from ATI site.

I realise Im gonna get some flak here but if anyone can help me out I'd
appreciate it!

go to the control panel and add/remove programs.
run the uninstall of the drivers for your current card.
power down your machine and switch off either the
power switch on the power supply at the back or failing that
at the wall socket. open up the case and remove the old card.
if your old graphics is onboard the motherboard and not a plug-in
card then on bootup go into the bios and disable it.
fit the new card (including the power lead if thats required - same type of
connector as a FDD)
and connect the monitor lead and boot up your machine.
insert the cd that came with the card.
when windows finds the new hardware let it install the drivers off
the cd and then it'll want to reboot your machine. let it.
just stick with insatlling the basic drivers and control panel for now.
then pick a 3d game to try it out. if you get any problems post back here.

 

[CguLL]

Just bought one of these cheap..never installed a card before, could anyone
give me any pointers? Should I use the CD that came with it for the drivers
or get newer ones from ATI site.

It'll work either way. As someone else has already said, if you know
what you're doing, grab the latest full Catalyst install (currently
5.9) from ATI's website.

If not, then just install from the CD which came with ethe card.

9550 is a solid budget unit, and Sapphire's is fine.

CguLL

 

[Harry]

Just bought one of these cheap..never installed a card before, could anyone
give me any pointers? Should I use the CD that came with it for the drivers
or get newer ones from ATI site.

I realise Im gonna get some flak here but if anyone can help me out I'd
appreciate it!

Top card!

I have the 256mb version and its great. I flashed the BIOS to a
9600Pro (doubling the click speed) and it runs like a dream.

Gets a bit warm in the summer but a new GPU cooler will sort that one
out.

Still if you are a keen gamer then get the latest drivers from ATI,
otherwise use the CD.

HTH

Harry

 

[Nick]

Thanks everybody who replied for the advice! And not one bit of flak...maybe
the ng's have changed since I used to look at them!

Thanks again