Powercolor ATi Radeon 9200 Chipset

[LanciaBoy]

Powercolor ATi Radeon 9200 Chipset
256MB DDR
AGP 8X
TV out & DVI

Anyone got/used/had any sort of experience with the above mentioned card?

Any other suggestions as to other good quality/kick-*** performance options?

[Martin_89]

Ive used a 9200 before and it was really slow for games, if your on a real budget try and get a 9550 or if you can afford one a 9600 as the 9200 is pretty bad (try and get a 128MB though as their is no difference in lower end cards)

[LanciaBoy]

I wouldn't say I am on too tight a budget. What card would you recommend?

[Martin_89]

id have a look at the ATI radeon 9800PRO if thats too pricey check out the ATI radeon 9600PRO/XT

[Todd a]

Radeon 9550 (128 bit) is the cheapest card I'd get, like this one for $65:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...125-141&depa=1

The next best buy on a budget is this Radeon 9600Pro for $106:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-408&depa=1

It is only about $15 more than the 9600 and performs quite a bit better.

Stay away from the SE/LE cards with only 64 bit memory busses. This drops about 30-50% off the performance of the card and usually does not cut the cost by more than 10% or so. The Radeon 9200 or under, GeForce4 MX, or GeForceFX 5200 all perform pretty bad and should be avoided if you can. A GeForceFX 5700LE is OK too for about $80 (should perform about the same as the Radeon 9600 non-pro and costs slightly less):

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...141-012&depa=1

[LanciaBoy]

I have phoned a number of my local suppliers, all of whom say that the Radeon 9800 series has been discontinued, and replaced by the X800 series. There does not seem to be much on the interent to support their claims though.

The one that is available is the 9800 Pro with 128mb chipset. And it costs a mere ZAR4995.00 - which for those not in tune with 3rd world currencies, works out to a real bargain - us$ 879.40!!!! For that amount of money I could buy another faster computer...

Will probably have to wait it out for a few months until new stock comes into the country. Unless of course I get to inpatient and have alook at what nVidia have to offer!

btw - Martin - I see you may be selling your card. How much are you looking for? A good mate of mine is coming over next month, maybe we can make a deal...

[Todd a]

They are not discontinued, but supply is pretty tight. Both nVidia and ATI and many other computer hardware companies did not build enough for this Christmas season. They are all kicking themselves right now. Intel is running short on chipsets for motherboard and some mobile chips, AMD is running low on 90nm parts, ATI is having loads of problems with the x800 chips and this is overflowing into their x700 and 9800 chips. nVidia is having trouble with their 6800 chips and this too is overflowing. Sony ran out of PS2 in the UK and this caused xBox sales to sore through the roof so they ran out. World of Warcraft ran out of all their first print until they can upgrade their servers to handle the load so they can print more. Nintendo sold 85% of their supply of the GBA DS on the first day and supplies of things like the GBA SP are very hard to find at places like Walmart and Toys R Us. Just think of all these companies kicking themselves because last year they got left sitting on tons of inventory and this year they ran out.

It looks like high tech toys are a hit this year. I think MS might actually start making money this year on the xBox (and possibly quite a bit with xBox Live included). I bet a few high-up people at Sony are going to get fired over their supply issues. They have a zero tollerance for mistakes like that.

Of course Ford and GM overbuilt cars AGAIN and are doing rolling layoffs AGAIN. They did this about 5 years ago (you know when Clinton was in office... right after that whole Y2K thing)... I work for a company that makes car interior parts in Michigan and had a total of 2 months of lay-offs spread throughout 2000 as they slowlyt reduced about 6-9 months of surplus inventory for certain car models. I'm starting next year with 2-4 weeks layoff in January. It looks like this one should not be so bad though and numbers should pick back up before summer. I guess I get an extra long Christmas break.