• Asus A9550GE

    Asus A9550GE

    Soham Raninga, Oct 05, 2004 0000 hrs IST

    Today we look at the new entry-level card from Asus that's based on the ATI Radeon 9550 chipset

    Good performance, Competitive pricing, Three-year warranty

    No over-clocking, No games/demos bundled

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We have been reviewing all the possible fast and furious high-end AGP cards since some time now, but today we look at the new entry-level card from Asus. Reviewing an entry-level card was a pleasant change for a number of reasons, firstly we didn't have to go through a nervous break down after discovering its price and secondly the chipset itself is an interesting one.

The Asus A9550GE is based on the ATI Radeon 9550 chipset. The 9550 chipset is a fresh entrant in the value segment, slightly lower than the 9600 chipset, offering affordable DirectX 9 functionality. Targeting the value conscious gamers, the A9550GE is an attempt to inject new life into the value segment.

The Card, specifications and package
Housing the ATI Radeon 9550 chipset the Asus A9550GE is powered with 128 MB DDR RAM. The 256-bit GPU runs at a clock speed of 250 MHz and the 128-bit, 128 MB DDR RAM is clocked at 400 MHz. The RV350 core is exactly the same as the RV360 core, which powers the Radeon 9600 chip. The core clock speed for the Radeon 9600 (non-Pro) is 325 MHz, while the memory is the same at 400 MHz. Clocked 75 MHz lower than the Radeon 9600, the Radeon 9550 is placed between the 9600SE, which has a 64-bit memory interface and the Radeon 9600.



Powered with four pixel pipelines and two vertex pipelines, the Asus A9550GE is a DirectX 9 card supporting Pixel and Vertex shaders version 2.0. The back panel comprises of the usual VGA Out, an S-Video connector and a DVI Out connector for flat panel displays.

The Samsung RAM chips K40261638E-TC50 used in the card are rated at 5 ns and are hence clocked at their full potential of 200 MHz (DDR). There aren't any heat sinks on the RAM and the GPU is cooled by a modest sized cooler, which seems more than sufficient for the RV360 core clocked at 250 MHz. The overall build quality is pretty decent for an entry-level card.

Coming to the accessories bundled with the card, there is a DVI-VGA converter and the S-video cables for video-out. The software bundle comprises of the usual drivers and utilities disk, which also includes the Asus GameFace software and the Asus Video Security II application. There isn't any full version game bundled with the card.



Let's move over to the Benchmarks and find out whether this value card can take the heat.




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Discussion Board
ray
,noen, on Apr 22, 2008 05:30 AM
i have a problem with my my asus ASUS A9550GE (video card), NBA 2003 EA PC GAMES hangs up during the game and i don't know why, i have already directX 9.0 installed and win xp service pack 2 also, pls help, thanx! more power!
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Giovanni
,Pretoria, on Dec 13, 2007 06:14 AM
Hi I have a AMD Athlon 64, motherboard Asus a8v, 3000+ chip,2 gig ram and the A9550GE card.when I play games it throws me out and then it wants to send a error to ATI and most of the games I must run on there lowest settings like Stalker.Can someone help me with this?
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John2K
,CBE, on Oct 07, 2004 04:23 PM
where is AsusTek located in India ? does any other dealers source the latest cards from them ?? please list their addresses too
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jim
,Melbourne, on May 08, 2007 06:46 PM
Can anyone tell me if this would be a good upgrade from a GeForce 3Ti200? 64mb ram?
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Pradeep
,Mumbai, on Oct 22, 2004 10:41 AM
This card is no better than GeForce FX5200 in features as well as performance. Both have 256 bit GPU 128MB DDR memory, however in case of ASUS 9550GE memeory speed is 400MHz as against 333 or 350 of GeForce FX 5200. Both have a core speed of 250MHz and support Direct X9.0 with pixel shader support. The draw back of ASUS9550GE is u cannot Over Clock as it resets to default values when attempted but in the case of Geforce FX5200 u can over clock core speed from 250MHz to 300MHz and memory from 333Mhz to 450 Mhz safely and still games sail smoothly without ant hitch ! and cost near Rs. 3000/
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chuddyknight
,chuddyknight, on Oct 25, 2004 03:32 PM
Ya but u missed one Crucial point...the GE version has 128bit mem bus unlike Xfx 5200's here that have 64bit bus...this makes a hell of a diff.
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Manu Vajpai
,Bilaspur, on Dec 16, 2004 06:37 PM
FX5200 is very much obsolete when compared to 9550 . This is due to its mediocre dx9 and pixel shader 2.0 performance. It is infact slower than the Ti4200 in dx8.1 and opengl modes. Hence it is just a revamp of older architechture unlike the 9550 which is based on the (then) new 9600 series. It offers superior performance. This comparison is somewhat like between athlon XP 2800+ with athlon64 2800+.
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YoungOC
,ho chi minh, on Oct 30, 2006 05:13 PM
Nvidia FX5200 has only 2 core feature of DX 9 : Pixel Shader 2.0 & Vertex shader 2.0. It doesn't fully support DX 9. Remember all the FX 5200 ( except the ultra edition ) use 64bit DDR Ram. Radeon 9550 is much more better than FX 5200 ( and also FX 5500 ) You can also OC Radeon 9550 to gain 'bout 10k 3dmark 2003
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gogo
,bombay, on Oct 06, 2004 10:56 AM
Dude you can overclock this card. All you need are modded/Omega drivers. With the official cats, the 9550/9600(non pro and SE) are clock locked. First do some research before you say the card cannot be overclocked.
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DeToX
,Mumbai, on Oct 06, 2004 11:04 AM
With the memory clocked at it's max (400 MHz)potential, there wont be any boost in performance if one OCs the GPU from 250 to 300, the Ocing has to be sync in terms of memory and GPU clocks for a performance boost, hence even if you do the modding and stuff, you wont get any performance boost/FPS. So the bottom line, No-point Ocing the clock unless you change the ram chips and put 3.6ns rams, which ofcourse you wont do so, whats the big deal!
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G2Blast
,Santiago, Chile, on Oct 13, 2006 07:00 AM
yap, you are allright, u just buyed this card, i used to have a radeon 9250 and i oc that card from 240/180 to 280/220 (with 5 ns mems) in fact this guy went to stock to 346/220!!! without active cooling http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1638&page=2 my 9550 comes with 4 ns mems wich arent samsung, the stock clocks are 250/200 and i oc mine up to 430/280, impressive!!, and all this without modifying the heatsink nor the fan, and all this with the originals ati catalyst drivers, the latest ones (6.9) and i tuned it up with ATi Tolls, bye!!!
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kowkow
,delhi, on Jun 05, 2006 03:06 PM
why did you test this card with doom3 at 1024X768, should have kept the resolution at 640X480
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Imran khan
,Bangalore, on Dec 17, 2004 10:43 AM
i need the price fro amd 64fx processor & its compatible(best) asus mother board. best 128 or 64 bit agp crad for the same mother board
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mahendra desai
,bangalore, on Jul 10, 2005 09:57 AM
contact mr mahendra desai , bangalore computers 934-17-71-934
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vaibhav
,delhi, on Dec 23, 2004 10:25 PM
will this 8x agp card with my motherboard that has a 4x interface? please help
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Pete
,San Diego, on Jul 01, 2005 07:23 PM
Yes. It supports 2x, 4x, 8x AGP
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Dark Ride
,Utopia, on Jun 19, 2005 06:56 AM
I'm getting this card in the bext few days.Can't wait :D It will be a quantum leap for me, since I had a GeForce 2 MX 400 for 3 years.
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sus
,kolkata, on Jun 04, 2005 01:13 PM
where to get this card in kolkata.......?
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hocson
,hanoi, on Apr 08, 2005 12:23 PM
nguyenhocson
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Fata1ity
,LA, on Jan 06, 2005 04:57 PM
what a hell are u talking about how about 350 mhz core and 513 Mhz memory(with a stock cooler) 11300 2001 se marks
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Siddharth Mish
,Delhi, on Oct 13, 2004 04:16 PM
Where in Delhi is this card available? With Rashi or is there a separate ASUS dealership in Np now?
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Atul
,Delhi, on Jan 05, 2005 10:18 PM
So anyone found a dealer selling this in Delhi yet? Comeon TT we are not reading this only for timepass. Tell us where we can buy it from.
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sensas_sen
,chennai, on Dec 02, 2004 12:09 PM
so where can i get this card asus 9550Ge in chennai does it supports 4x agp
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ravyor
,delhi, on Nov 21, 2004 09:17 PM
Whats the difference b/w power clolor radeon 9550 and asus radeon 9550 ge
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vijayshimla
,Shimla, on Oct 13, 2004 09:52 AM
Gads, why R we poor Indian favoured with prices DOUBLE that of U.S., specially in Graphics accelerators and sound cards, why are we not allowed to buy and get a 9550, for US 61 , by MSI, ASUS & others? Are we the children of a lesser God ? ( Babus ruling India, please wake up, the money earned by Indian is very very Hard earned, do not leave us at mercy of Shylocks who trade in computer parts in India, let there be open competition, and let all Indian import computer goods freely for private use too.
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Legendkiller
,Chennai, on Nov 21, 2004 05:56 PM
yeah!! Lets Start A Revolution!!!!! (i was gonna get the geforce 6800 GT anyway!!!!)
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SHIVANSH
,DEHRADUN, on Nov 08, 2004 12:19 PM
IS THE CARD COMPATIBLE WITH THE ASROCK AGI8X INTERFACE
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David
,Bangalore, on Nov 01, 2004 09:33 AM
Anyone in Bangalore interested in a 9800 Pro 256 MB for 11k, 1 year old. Contact 9448464946 for more details.
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Meherdad
,Mumbai, on Oct 28, 2004 09:51 PM
GOD how I wish I had laid my hands on the 9500 when it was out I wouldve softmodded it to the 9700 ............cursing ati for cutting it out of the market.Lol still searching The net for 2nd hand 9500 for my 4X agp mobo as not wanting to invest much in my old mobo as an upgrade in da future would also include a new mobo + the highest end card at the time(not verry far from now)
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Wajahth
,Hyderabad, on Oct 22, 2004 02:30 PM
can someone tell me where i can buy a 9800 pro in hyderabad? any help will be surely appretiated... :)
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Shyam Pandit
,Pune, on Oct 22, 2004 11:06 AM
Heh, this a very dum card. One would be MUCH better of with a Radeon 9800 Pro or Geforce 6600 GT
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Karan
,Delhi, on Oct 15, 2004 12:11 PM
where is this card available in delhi
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Harshal
,Mumbai, on Oct 06, 2004 03:11 PM
Yo man....When you got a MID-Range ohhh sorry lets use your words....Entry Level Card........why in d world n who in d world compares it to X800 Pro n 6800, which are by far the latest n greatest both Graphic-Chip Companies have to offer.....no where but @ TT u get such Comparision...Good work man.
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Harshad
,mumbai, on Oct 06, 2004 06:21 PM
And you never saw the 5700 and the 9600 in the comparison chart, good observation fella.
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Harshal
,Mumbai, on Oct 08, 2004 03:27 PM
Yo Harshad my man.... its ok but I dont think u have got my point. Leading Products from the Companies are not to be comapred with Entry-Level.... dats what I meant...5700 n 9600 does provide good idea about performance of 9550 but its childish to compare Latest offerings to be compared to Entry-level.
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Hunt3r
,Bangalore, on Oct 15, 2004 01:49 AM
i totally agree. for an entry level card comparisons should be made with other cards in its class. where is the fx5200 and 5600 (fx 5500 or 5300 too anyone?). not to mention radeon 9200 and 9500. also how abt the radeon 9100 igp.
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Abeer
,Delhi, on Oct 13, 2004 10:02 PM
Hey why do you say it performs just under fx5700 , its performance is nearly double in most benchmarks with AA and AF off and i bet one would run games with AA and AF off for entry level cards like this one, 'cause games are not playable if you get 10fps
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