Ati 9550???

[Mt_Goat]

I am looking for a new card for my wife who doesn't game much but does a lot of photo editing and likes good detail along with good color rendition. She also has a TV card that she uses quite a bit. I noticed the 9550 which is kind of new to me but it looks like a decent card, especially for the money. I don't want her to be left too far behind as far as capabilities go but don't want to be overkill either. What's anyone think on this???

BTW
There are 64 bit and 128 bit versions and I will be sure to pick a 128 if I go this route. Here's a link to one of the ones I'm looking at. (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-371&depa=1)

[JChretien]

hmm i have a 256mb sapphire 9600 card and its ok.. but the memory speed is *supposed* to be 400mhz but really since its OEM, its slower.. only 378mhz.. but apparently his 9550 is a DX-9 part, so uhh it cant be all that different.. one more thing, dont expect to OC the memory very much.. its the older TSOP ram instead of the new BGA.. when you get a cheap card with lots of ram, its a recipe for crappy ram (-_-;;)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-320&depa=1
thats my current card...

-Edit - I have to add that the core O/Cs like crazy.. it came stock at 324mhz, im running it at 440mhz with the stock AMD barton cooler on it...

[qparadox]

Yep you can see the chips are definitely TSOP in the pic. It should do her fine and while it seems like a low end part to many of us, compared to what the vast majority of people use at work/home its really quite a bit better. The 256MB of memory is overkill and really a waste with it being that slow so if there's 128 bit 128 MB cards around they'd probably be a better deal.

[Mt_Goat]

I missed that it was 256MB part. The other 2 I am leaning toward are;

ELSA ATI RADEON 9550 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-119-124&depa=1)

PowerColor ATI RADEON 9550 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-250&depa=1)

[JChretien]

those look like they're using TSOP ram too.. so for 3$ or 7$ more, another 128mb of Vram... i'd go for the sapphire (the sapphire heatsink looks better too!)

[Mt_Goat]

Well I decided to get the ASUS ATI RADEON 9550 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-121-511&depa=1) since I try to stick with quality and have had good luck with Asus in the past.

Now to get this thing together (I am swapping parts and redoing my wife's 'puter. Work really sucks as I didn't get to finish.