GeCube Radeon 9550 Extreme 128MB Review

[Dave Baumann]

http://www.beyond3d.com/siteimages/b3dsmall.gif (http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/gecube/9550/)ATI have gradually transitioned DirectX9 compliance down the line into the entry level boards with the introduction of the Radeon 9550. Here we are looking at GeCube’s 9550 Extreme Edition, which adds a little extra on to the standard core speeds of the 9550.<blockquote>"The heatsink base is a fairly thick piece of aluminium, shaped so that it lies flat on the processor core and the 4 memory chips that surround it. Glued or welded to the base are several pieces of what appear to be thin steel, whose purpose being to increase the total surface area of the heatsink. Unlike many heatsink designs, the fan is not located above the core - instead cool air is drawn in and directed across the pieces of steel and sink base via the plastic shield."</blockquote>Read the full review here (http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/gecube/9550/).

[vb]

OC results/benchmarks?

[Tim]

"Transistors ~160 Million" that must be a typo.

[AlStrong]

so basically... a 9600 pro with it's memory chopped a bit. How convenient that the name is just "50" away from 9600. :lol:

[Neeyik]

OC results/benchmarks?

Overclocking is something that we only tend to do on preview or first model samples, to see where the weak spot is. In the case of the GeCube 9550 Extreme, it's quite clear from the review that the memory speed holds it back; on page 2 there is some information with regards to this and overclocking.


"Transistors ~160 Million" that must be a typo.

Yes - it should be ~75 million. Sorry about that.

[Anonymous]

in some cases, unbranded models are actually cheaper and come with more local memory
One should be very careful with this. I've seen even branded 9600 Pro cards that come with 256MB of 400MHz RAM, as opposed to the standard 600MHz or the 500MHz of this 9550. Such cards will actually be slower. Apparently, the flip coin of a 9550 running at 9600 Pro speed is having something called 9600 Pro but having slow memory.

[Anonymous]

9600PRO is RV350...
9600XT is RV360...

9550 is... ?

[Neeyik]

9600PRO is RV350...
9600XT is RV360...

9550 is... ?
Page 1 of the review has your answer.

[Anonymous]

9600PRO is RV350...
9600XT is RV360...

9550 is... ?RV350

[Neeyik]

Oooh - good point. Just to clarify things then: the "standard" 9550 is a RV350 chip, whereas the reviewed GeCube model is a RV360 (as indicated in the first page).

[Anonymous]

Nice review, helped me to decide. A bit too technical, perhaps. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, just maybe you should put a explanation at the end of each page for us laics - say, "it did good on this particular test" or "it could do better" although the conclusion just about covers it.
Other that that, I'm very sattisfied.

Sebastian Juric