ATI Radeon 9550 video cards surveyed - passive or fan?

DougS · Post by **DougS** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 7:41 am

Company     Website                                                        9550SE     9550(128MB)  9550(256MB)
Abit        http://www.abit-usa.com/products/graphics                      Passive    Fan          n/a
Asus        http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/vgaindex.htm                  Fan        Fan          n/a
ATI         http://www.ati.com/products/gamer.html                         n/a        n/a          Passive
Celestica   http://www.celestica.com/products/Radeon.asp                   n/a        n/a          n/a
Connect3d   http://www.connect3d.com/products/agp_9550.htm                 Passive    Passive      Passive
Crucial     http://www.crucial.com/store/listmfgr.asp?cat=Video+Card       n/a        n/a          n/a
Diamond     http://www.diamondmm.com/stealth.php                           n/a        n/a          Fan
ECS         http://www.ecsusa.com/products/vgaCards.html                   n/a        n/a          n/a
Elsa        http://www.elsa.com/EN/Products/series.asp?key=FALCOX          Passive    Passive      n/a
GeCube      http://www.gecube.com/mbu/productCategory.php                  Passive    Fan (quiet?) Fan
Giga-Byte	http://www.giga-byte.com/VGA                                   Passive    Passive      n/a
Hercules    http://us.hercules.com/products/index.php3?t=1                 n/a        n/a          n/a
HIS         http://www.hisdigital.com/html/vga.php                         Passive    n/a          Fan
Jetway      http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/vga/vgalist.htm         Passive    Passive      Passive
Joytech     http://www.joytech.com/product%20line.htm                      n/a        n/a          n/a
MSI         http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_list.asp?class=vga&cpu=2  Passive    n/a          n/a
Power-Color http://www.power-color.com/products.htm                        Passive    Fan          Fan
Rosewill    http://www.rosewill.com/product/vga_index.aspx                 n/a        Passive      Passive
Sapphire    http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/products.asp                   Fan        n/a?         Fan
Soltek      http://www.soltek.com.tw/soltek/product/index.php?catid=2      Passive    Passive      n/a
Transcend   http://www.transcendusa.com/VGA/Index.asp                      n/a        n/a          n/a
Visiontek   http://www.visiontek.com/all_products.html                     Passive?   n/a          n/a

Comments:

1) can someone confirm the Visiontek and Sapphire info?
2) did I leave out any manufacturers?
3) be careful when shopping, many 9550's are the 64-bit variety but are NOT labeled as "SE"
4) best buy imo: 128-bit/128MB Jetway, Giga-Byte or Rosewill can each be had for about $70

Doug

bomba · Post by **bomba** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:03 am

I have a passive Jetway 9550-128 purchased dirt cheap as a Newegg refurb. Supposedly these are the same as a 9600-128 except firmware. This site gives info how to flash them with 9600 BIOS, essentially turning them into 9600's. I believe the 9600-128 and 9600-256 can be overclocked to PRO speeds, but not to XT speeds as 9600XT has faster DRAM. Thus, it may be possible to get 9600Pro performance out of the 9550.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:27 am

9600 pro's have faster ram than 9600np's, 9600XT's also have slightly different GPU's.

I always assumed 9550's use lower grade chips than 9600's, which use lower grade chips than 9600pro's, or perhaps they're undervolted.

Kevin Ar18 · Post by **Kevin Ar18** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 7:00 pm

All the Sapphires appear to be passive according to newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/app/SearchProduct ... asp?DEPA=0

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:09 pm

I can confirm that the Sapphire 9550 128MB does indeed have a fan, as I've just got one.

As so many of these cards seem to come without fans, I presume I can replace the stock fan with a passive sink without problems. What would you recommend I use?