"Sapphire R9250" or "PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500"

scanner_2

Hello

I hope some of you guyz can help me with making my mind up.

I bought a dell dimension 3000 earlier this year. I want to add a graphics card to my system. Unfortunately it does not have any PCIe or AGP slots. So therfore I am restricted to PCI cards only.

I have found two possible cards (both PCI) at ebuyer.co.uk.

1. Sapphire R9250 128M 64-bit DDR PCI VGA/TVO/DVI-I @ £27.50

2. PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR PCI TV-Out @ £39.50

Now there are pros and cons with both cards. The main ones I picked up are:

1. The Radeon 9250 has DVI but the GeForceFX 550 does not.
2. Although both the cards have 128mb DDR memory, the GeForceFX 550 has a 128-bit memory interface but the Radeon 9250 has only 64-bit.

Can someonle explain to me what this 128/ 64 bit memory interface is? And how important is it? From my understanding, the PCI slots are 32bit so would it make any difference having a higher bit rate on graphics card?

I am more inclined to go with the Radeon 9250 because of the DVI slot. Would you agree with me that DVI slot is more useful to have than say the 128bit memory interface?

I have privided the links to both the cards below. I will really appreciate your responses on this.

many thanks



Sapphire R9250 128M 64-bit DDR PCI VGA/TVO/DVI-I
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=86640

PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR PCI TV-Out
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=90380

Lawbag_2

Im a nVidia fan and recommend them and their drivers (one driver works for every card!)

blinky

A DVI is avantageous is you ever plan on getting a flat screen.

64 vs 128 bit memory - think of it as lanes on the motorway, the more lanes so more traffic.

Any modern GPU (graphics chip) will be held back by a 64 bit memory interface, but only in games.

If you are looking to play games then go for the Geforce otherwise go for the Radeon

boogiemaster

If it has 128 Megs and has dual monitor inputs then it will share the 128 Meg of memory between the two inputs.
The new motherboards are 64 bit and can take the new Athlon 64 bit Cpus.
The old motherboards are 32 bit and the graphics card uses the 64 bit processor and that means twice as fast as the old graphics card.

Memory DDR meaning double data rate, 64 bit is better than 32 bit.
I Think 64bits per second I maybe wrong, I’m tired.
Plus I haven’t read up on memory so I’m guessing about the bit rate.
Plus someone will put me right if I’m wrong? They always do on here.

blinky

boogiemaster wrote:

If it has 128 Megs and has dual monitor inputs then it will share the 128 Meg of memory between the two inputs.
The new motherboards are 64 bit and can take the new Athlon 64 bit Cpus.
The old motherboards are 32 bit and the graphics card uses the 64 bit processor and that means twice as fast as the old graphics card.

Memory DDR meaning double data rate, 64 bit is better than 32 bit.
I Think 64bits per second I maybe wrong, I’m tired.
Plus I haven’t read up on memory so I’m guessing about the bit rate.
Plus someone will put me right if I’m wrong? They always do on here.

been to the pub ???? :rolleyes:

Rave

Lawbag, ATi have had integrated drivers for years and they work fine.

I assume you're looking to improve your 3d game performance scanner- there's no real point buying an add-in card if not.

scanner wrote:

1. The Radeon 9250 has DVI but the GeForceFX 550 does not.

Assuming your monitor has a DVI input then a card with DVI output will give slightly better image quality- in terms of colour, noise etc. There's unlikely to be a great difference though.

2. Although both the cards have 128mb DDR memory, the GeForceFX 550 has a 128-bit memory interface but the Radeon 9250 has only 64-bit.

Can someonle explain to me what this 128/ 64 bit memory interface is? And how important is it?

I couldn't actually see anything about the FX5500 having a 128MB memory interface on the Ebuyer page but if it does that's a big advantage. The memory bus width determines how much data can get from the memory to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), for a given memory speed a 128bit interface transfers twice as much data as a 64bit interface. 64bit cards are usually really hampered by a lack of memory bandwidth- I wouldn't buy one if I could avoid it.

From my understanding, the PCI slots are 32bit so would it make any difference having a higher bit rate on graphics card?

Yes, it does, they're completely different interfaces. To grossly oversimplify, the processor tells the graphics card what objects should be in the image, what colour and where they, and the lights illuminating them, are. This data goes through the PCI bus. The graphics card then has the job of drawing everything, colouring it in, drawing the shadows, and rendering all that into an image to output to the monitor- which involves a LOT more data. The latest £300+ graphics cards can talk to their own memory 10 or more times faster than they talk to the outside world. That's why the 64bit memory is a limitation.

I am more inclined to go with the Radeon 9250 because of the DVI slot. Would you agree with me that DVI slot is more useful to have than say the 128bit memory interface?

Well, since you are (or should be) buying this to improve your gaming experience, I'd say the FX5500 is a better buy since it'll perform a lot better in games. A 9250 with 64bit memory is basically a pretty sucky card.

Unfortunately though, that price on the 5500 is much cheaper than I could find elsewhere, and ebuyer is out of stock- in my experience that means they won't actually be getting any more:(. It's worth a try though:).

scanner_2

oh well, Radeon 9250 it is as the nvidia is out of stock now!!!

I dont play games really, mainly for watching videos/dvd..

Rave

What's your reason for wanting to upgrade? Does the system not play DVDs as it is, or is it the TV-out that you're after?

scanner_2

it does play dvd but not as smoothly. I also would like the option of tv out. My main reason is because I only have 256mb ddr ram on my system. So therefore my inbuilt graphics display is sharing 64mb from my ram. This can slow the system down at times.

So I have two option: (1) to upgrade the RAM or (2) install a dedicated graphics card.

The er are two reasons why I did not opt for RAM upgrade: (1) was not sure what memory is compatible with my M/B as there is always an issue with what brands are compatible with particular motherboard. (2) I read that the performance only increases by around 20% if you upgrade from 256 to 1gb ram. So that's why I opted for the dedicated graphics card.

Does all this make sense to anyone? And are my reasoning valid?

I will not play power intensive games on my system - most likely arcade style shoot-em up at most. Not your Halo, or doom stuff.

blinky

Putting a dedicated graphics card will help more than the extra memory.

Rave

Well, if you add another 256MB of memory you'll then have 512MB - 64MB = 448MB of memory which realistically is plenty for normal Windows XP use. If you say DVD playback is not smooth this could be for one of two obvious reasons- either the processor isn't powerful enough or you're running out of memory. If you watch the computer with a DVD playing and notice that the picture stutters at the same time the hard disc light comes on, that implies you don't have enough memory, and the computer is having to use the page file. If that's not the case, you can check the CPU usage in Task Manager, if it's above, say, 75% when a DVD is playing, then that's probably your problem.

Personally I reckon it's a lot more likely to be a lack of system memory, but it's easy enough to find out. Adding in a graphics card will help with the lack of memory by freeing up the 64MB shared memory, but it's more expensive than a 256MB stick of RAM that will help even more (as I said- 256 vs. 448). If the problem is that your processor isn't up to the job, then get the add in card as it should offload the task of decoding the DVD from the CPU.

Buying RAM for computers isn't hard, you use the tool on the crucial website to find out what kind of memory you need, and then shop around for the cheapest price on it;).