Sapphire Radeon 9550 128MB DDR -- Not as fast as the model number suggests

[Jonathan Eales]

Disappointing. This card gives a standard 3Dmark2001SE score of only 6215
compared to the Radeon 9200 (a repackaged Radeon 8500) score of 5789. So
for the £20 ($36) extra you get a slightly higher performance, double the
amount of memory, DirectX 9 support, and a small fan with a blue LED light.

Even when overclocked to the Radeon 9600 stock speed of 325MHz core and
400MHz memory and a 10% increased FSB you only get a 3Dmark2001SE score of
7563 with this card. The board does remain stable (at least for one day) at
this speed however.

You do not get a manual with this package and there is no 9550 manual on the
enclosed CD-ROM.

I continue on my quest to find a good quality, higher performance, mid-range
3D graphics card. Neither nVidia nor ATI offer a card at the £50-£60
($90-110) price point that improves dramatically on my present choice of
Sapphire Radeon 9200 with 64Mb DDR for only £36 inc VAT ($65).

This card/chip has been created by marketing not by design. Avoid.

 

[Peter]

A 9500 normally clocks at 275/540 - the Pro has 8 pipelines and non-pro has
4 - are you sure the 9550 clocks only at 400 memory ?

 

[Dark Avenger]

Disappointing. This card gives a standard 3Dmark2001SE score of only
6215 compared to the Radeon 9200 (a repackaged Radeon 8500) score of
5789. So for the £20 ($36) extra you get a slightly higher performance,
double the amount of memory, DirectX 9 support, and a small fan with a
blue LED light.

Even when overclocked to the Radeon 9600 stock speed of 325MHz core and
400MHz memory and a 10% increased FSB you only get a 3Dmark2001SE score
of 7563 with this card. The board does remain stable (at least for one
day) at this speed however.

You do not get a manual with this package and there is no 9550 manual on
the enclosed CD-ROM.

I continue on my quest to find a good quality, higher performance,
mid-range 3D graphics card. Neither nVidia nor ATI offer a card at the
£50-£60 ($90-110) price point that improves dramatically on my present
choice of Sapphire Radeon 9200 with 64Mb DDR for only £36 inc VAT ($65).

This card/chip has been created by marketing not by design. Avoid.

The 9550 is NOT a 9500 ... it's that simple!

It's indeed a relabeled chip... but it's NOT a 9500!

 

[Augustus]

Even when overclocked to the Radeon 9600 stock speed of 325MHz core and

400MHz memory and a 10% increased FSB you only get a 3Dmark2001SE score of
7563 with this card. The board does remain stable (at least for one day) at
this speed however.

The 9550 is slow, 200Mhz memory and 250Mhz core. In this respect it's
similar to many of the 128Mb Radeon 9100's.....but the 9100's has 2 TMU per
pipeline, while the 9550 has only 1. So this card combines the worst
features of the 9100 and the 9000 series. Kind of like the 9200. In fact
this card is identical in speed and pipelines to the Radeon 9200 but with
DX9 support.