Low Profile AGP Card

[cefoskey]

Im getting ready to trade a micro desktop I built for a laptop my buddy has and he wants to be able to do some casual gaming on the machine. Its made difficult by the fact that since the case is small, it only accepts half height cards. So far, the only half height cards I have found that actually come with a brakcet are from Powercolor. I am thinking about a radeon 9250 or 9550 for this case.

Do any other manufactureres sell low profile cards with half height brackets? Whats the best value between the 9250s and 9550s, both 64 and 128 bit versions? Aside from DX9 support and clock speeds, what is the main difference between the 9250 and 9550?

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon 9800PRO, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[Frodog]

I have the same problem and am looking at one of those cards to buy.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-285&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

 

[cleeve]

The Radeon 9550 is basically an underclocked Radeon 9600, which is a decent DirectX 9 gaming card. In the great majority of cases, you can overclock them to at least 9600 PRO speeds on the core with a cheap GPU cooler. However, only the 128-bit versions are good! 64-bit versions cut the memory bandwidth in half, and are very bad!

The 9250 is essentially a Radeon 9000, which in turn is a neutered Radeon 8500. Good DirectX 8 cards if they're 128-bit, but they're not half the card a 128-bit 9550 is.

Remember, stay away from 64-bit versions! A 64-bit memory bus destroys any performance potential the card may have!

128-bit memory bus, or nothing!

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[cefoskey]

I was familiar about 64 bit versions being considerably slower, but I wasnt aware that the 9550 was nearly as good as a 9600 Pro.

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon 9800PRO, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

IIRC, the low-profile are all TSOP SE versions of the R9550, I haven't seen an full 128bit 9550 in low-profile.

I know there are also regular R9600s out there so I wouldn't be surprised either way.

Cefosky, be sure to get one with the added VGA connector option, as many come with JUST the DVI, and why give up dual monitor unless you have to?


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[cefoskey]

Luckily, all the powercolor low profile cards have the 15pin on a ribbon cable for the VGA cutout slot cover the case comes with.

In what ways (performance wise) would a 128 bit 9250 differ from a 64 bit 9550 or even a 64 bit 9600(SE)?

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon 9800PRO, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[cleeve]

In general, at 1024x768, a 128-bit 9250 would probably be slightly faster than a 9600SE/64-bit 9550 in older titles, but in newer shader heavy titles you'd rather have the 9600 based cards, even though they're bandwidth limited.

64-bit cards do well at low resolutions (800x600 or less), but throw 1024x768 or higher at them and a 64-bit card turns to sh1t. The memory is just too slow to push decent resolutions.

If you can stand gaming at 800x600, a 9550 64-bit is a great card, almost as fast as a regular 9600 128-bit at that resolution.
But no 1024x768 and certainly no AA allowed with any 64-bit card on anything but the older generations of games (i.e. Quake3).

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[cefoskey]

Excellent, thanks for the advice.

Before I purchase....are there ANY other cards besides PowerColor that come with the half height tabs?

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon 9800PRO, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Gigabyte has/had half-height R9600 and R9600SE, but not sure what's still available in the market.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK