What the HELL is a Radeon 9550?

[Zak33]

Oh I DO TRY to keep up to date with this....but what on EARTH is a Radeon 9550? when it's at home?

I mean...a 9000 Radeon and a 9000 Pro were still out performing 9200 chips last time I looked....and a 9800 Lite has no realtion to a 9800 Pro or XT...and after all's said and done an X800 Pro aint the same gravy as an X800 XT.,....BUT,,,

what the HELL is a 9550?

[Korky]

9800 Lite isnt a card, its more of a sort of golden sample nvidia style.
I myself havent heard of the 9550 but id imagine it was a version of the 9500 :S

[iMc]

gawd knows, where u see that?

[unrealrocks]

I've noticed this - I presumed it was a new take on the old 9700 chip.

[Agent]

9800 Lite isnt a card, its more of a sort of golden sample nvidia style.

Lite refers to the package it comes in (its virtualy an OEM package with no software ect...), not its overclocking abilitys.

[StarkMjolk]

Read about that card on theinquirer a few weeks ago. It was earlier just released in japan, but will come to US and Europe now aswell. Believe it was a low-end card to compete with FX5200...

Ok, found the article here: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15771

[DeludedGuy]

They had a 9550 on Ebuyer a few days ago, for £130 if I remember correctly. I was unsure, thought it must be a typo.

[Zak33]

Ebuyer.....

I WISH ATI'd stop this arsing about

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=62208

I MEANT to say 9800SE (not lite) in my above post, which goes to show I've lost it totally anyway.....I mean, when 9600 Pro was higher clock but slighty inferior to 9500 Pro , we "in the know" sussed it, but General Public were clueless....but then of course the ram started increasing in AMOUNT and decreasing in quality (ie speeds) and there was a time when you could come in here and trust someone to know...

but its now a shower of......pooh

[Zak33]

see....look at that lot above..../\

we've kinda seen it and thought "typo" while one person was wondering if a Lite was a top notch version of something else...

back in a mo...

[Zak33]

In PRICE order from Sapphire only....to keep it comaprable:

7000 32mb
7000 64mb
9200 SE 64mb
9200 SE 128mb
9200 Lite 64mb
9200 128mb
9600 SE 128
9200 Lite 256mb
9200 128mb Lite VIVO
9600 SE 128mb
9600 Pro 128mb VIVO (Atlantis...wtf is THAT?)
9600 Pro 128mb Lite
9600 256
9600 Pro 128mb
9600 Pro 128mb
9600 Pro 128mb Lite
9200 SE AIW 128mb
9600 Pro 256mb Lite
9600 XT 128mb Retail
9550 128mb Retail
9600 XT 256mb Lite
9800 SE 128mb Lite
9550 256mb Retail
9600 Pro AIW 128mb Lite
9600 Pro Ultimate 128 mb Retail
9800 Pro 128mb
9800 Pro 128mb Atlantis (yep..both look same to me, but hey ho)
9800 Pro Atlantis 256mb Lite
9800 Pro 128mb AIW Retail
9800 XT 256mb Retail
X800 Pro 256mb DDR3 Retail
X800 Pro 256mb Lite (I mean, WTF is that about......Lite more dough than Retail DDR3)


Right....someone tell me

W H Y

[StarkMjolk]

From what I've understood that card was supposed to be cheaper than 9600... Inq suggested somewhere between $80 and $100 USD. I don't know the prices on the other low-end cards though...

It doesn't make sence how it places itself in your list... 9600XT cheaper than 9550? I don't understand that ether where you got the prices from?

[Zak33]

we have...in that MESS.....(and they are in PRICE ORDER guys) the following nightmare...

a 9600 XT with 256 mb mem for £94.98 plus vat....and the new kid on the block....a 9550 256mb for £102.15 plus vat.

Now that 9550 is gonna have to be KICK ASS to justify that..huh?

and yes..one is Lite Retail...one is Retail....but IN BETWEEN them is a 9800 SE 128mb at £96...

come on ..... WHY? I hate this...its not fair on anyone....

I tell ya what.....if I was a regular clueless gimp, I'd give up and go buy a few crates of beer instead...

I mean....WHAT to buy

And the funny thing is.....the OLD models that are not for sale anymore would make it worse...

8500....no worries
9500 ...and 9500 Pro....different...very different..
9700 etc etc....

Im quite angry now...can ya tell

[Zak33]

come on guys....dont just sit there...

type....

one day maybe some bugger will get a life and sort this....

its all marketing hype....its all very naught I think....

Imagine you have a 9000 Pro.....and you go order a 9200..

you'll be GUTTED!

Imagine you have a 9500 Pro and you order a 9600 SE with 128mb....

Imagine you have a Geforce 3 Ti 500.....your mate has a 9800 Pro...and you are very very jealous....

but you can afford a 9600 which one? .....what the HELL do you do with your dough?

[StarkMjolk]

The ATI marked has become a real nightmare indeed... I'd have no clue of what to get from ATI... but then I'd never buy another ATI card anyways, they scared me away a long time ago

[steve threlfall]

Its a pain in the arse for sure. Confusing and beneficial only to the marketting department who are thinking of nothing but flogging more cards. Most users who arent really in the know still have geforce 4's though.

Its underhand and there really is no need for all this confusion. Confusing customers is a sure fire way to drive them elsewhere.

[SilentDeath]

its less confucsing than nvidias cards though imo.

first there were 8500 cards, these got renamed to 9000 9100 and 9200 in varieing clockspeeds, same core iirc. These are gf3/4 level cards.
Then the 9500, 9700 came along. These cards were too expensive to make, and were released quickly to match (and beat, by a long way) nvidias gf4 and gffx.
They were then replaced by the 9800, which is just a cheaper version, but also withbetter layout and better suited compnents giving better speeds.
ATI then decided to experiment with the 13nm process to produce the 9600, it had half the pipes and so needs approximatly twice the clockspeed to match the other cards.
Names for the different versions:
_SE - buget version, usually has the damaged or less able cores, and so are slower clocked or have pipes disabled.
_lite - cheaper packaging, usually no bundle and sometimes no cables.
_pro - higher clocked than the np, slightly higher in ability due to stock voltage
_XT - the faster r300 based core (r360)

256mb versions of the 9800xxx core are normal speed mem (same as the 128 versions) or better afiak. Only in the very crap cards, 9600 and 9200 are the 256mb versiosn utterly poinltess and might have any speeds...


Atlantis is afaik used on all sapphire product boxes, it doesnt represent any special features or product version.

The x800, and 9550 are new, so I dont know much about it...

There are also the mobile versions, m9600, afaik is just very low clock 9600. There is also a newish mobile9700, which acctually closer resebmles the 9600 core, but has slightly higher performance, it should have been called the m9800 (as the 9700 were discontinued).

And no, before you ask, im NOT not going into the power color product range, AVIOD THEM!!!!