ATI Radeon 9550 Review

Many have been waiting for the price / performance king for the current generation of VGA cards. In particular, many have been looking for the spiritual successor to the fabled 9550 GPU from ATi.

This 7300GT Sonic that we have received from Palit towards the higher end of the spectrum of 7300GT cards, coming with a clock speed of 500Mhz for the core and 1200MHz for the Memory using 128MB/128-bit DDR3 chips from Samsung. Sporting the traditional white cooler from Palit and coming with their improved build quality, this baby also comes with a Dual-link DVI port for connectivity to a display with a resolution of up to 2560 x 1600. Unlike most budget cards, the bundle in the package is of above average value, coming with the requisite DVI converter, TV-out dongle, Cyberlink’s PowerDVD and TOCA Race Driver 3 (a fairly recent game).

The 7300 GT GPU from NVIDIA seems primed to take this sweet spot, given the tremendous leeway that NVIDIA has permitted in the implementation of its design; allowing core clock speeds from 350-575Mhz and memory clock speeds from 667-1500Mhz (DDR2 or DDR3). As it uses the G73 core (similar to that of the mid-range 7600 series but with 4 fewer pixel pipelines), the 7300 GT is definitely distinct from the rest of its 7300 brethren.

One thing though, do notice Palit’s new “environmentally” friendly packaging. Other manufacturers should pay heed as there is no use of having a Rohs compliant device if your packaging reeks of non-recyclable materials.