Mad Dog Dominator FX5500??

[gstope]

I just saw a video card at a microcenter store for 79 us dollars with a 35 dollar rebate.

The question I have is there anything with direct x 9 support agp that would be better than this for around the 80 dollar price range.

The card says it is 256 bit processor with 128 meg of ram and has direct x 9 support?

Is this a good card for this price? I want to use it on a computer for my kids to play a few games and basic internet stuff. I have been playing hl2 on my computer listed in the specs and wonder if this game would play well with the fx 5500 card?

Here is a link to the manufacturers web page.

http://www.mdmm.com/products/graphics/fx5500AGP.asp

[shadowbreaker513]

Bah, fx series are a waste of money IMO. They have dx9 support but perform so horribly in it, they default to 8.1 in almost everything. The fx5500 still wouldn't be a good card even if it could do dx9 well. I think you can find a 9600/9600 pro for around $80 which is a much better card.

[gstope]

How about the 9550 from mad dog. http://www.mdmm.com/products/graphics/RDO9550AGP.asp

They both are about 49 dollars after rebates. Does this compare to the fx5500 or is it closer to the 9600 se?

I have not been able to find the 9600 pro for under $100.

[shadowbreaker513]

9550 is slightly above the level of a 9600xt I think.

[gstope]

between the two mad dog cards listed, the 9550 and the 5500, which would be better?

just a clarification. I am not planning on replacing the 9600 xt i have in my computer. I want this card for a different computer for my kids. That computer, has a celeron d 2.8 processor and 512 meg of ram with an old trident 9680 video card. I want to add a low price video card to the system. Low price but as good a value as possible.

[shadowbreaker513]

9550 is better.

Also, I was thinking of the 9500 pro before. The 9550 performs about the same as a 9600 non pro.

[kram 2.0]

Radeon 9550 would be the better choice. I would recommend making sure that it's a 128-bit Radeon 9550 as a 64-bit R9550 is no better than an SE card.

kram

[gstope]

thanks for the replies shadow and kram.

I have found out that the 9550 has 128bit graphics processor data width and 64 bit memory bus.
the 5500 has 256 bit graphics processor data width and 128 bit memory bus.

because of the concern for the 64 bit 9550, I'm leaning toward the 5500.

any comments to that direction. by the way, the rebates end tomorrow so I'll buy soon.

[glc]

Either one is going to make your Trident card look like doo-doo. You will get better DX9 support with the 9550, no matter how many bits it is. The lower end Nvidia FX5xxx cards have rotten DX9 support.