FX5700LE vs Radeon 9550

[scottstevens]

All prices in $New Zealand OK...Here goes. I am not a huge gamer, my PC is used mainly for DivX and DVD tasks, I am one of those people who might tinker with doom 3 every now and again if I had it (but I would like the experiance to be good if i did sort of thing). Currently I'm running a GeForceMX 440 IGP in my little shuttle box (once again, its more used for entertainment than games) I would'nt mind upgrading the card to something with a bit more muscle for the occasional game - but I'm also cheap. A week ago in one of our dealers shops here I saw an FX5700LE /128MB RAM (it was in a white box, so those were the only specs I could see) for $190. I also have a price list here for a radeon 9550/128DDR/128bit for $135 (its cost price) Thoughts? Whats the LE like? I've always lumped anything with xE in its name in the special (crippled) edition category.

 

[cleeve]

I believe the 5700LE has a crippled 64-bit memory interface... the 9550 (128-bit) has a 128 bit memory interface for double the bandwidth, so stick, it'll kick the 5700LE...

Not to mention, the 9550's are monster overclockers, the core will likely go as fast as a 9600XT with an aftermarket cooler, probably as fast as a 9600 PRO with stock cooling.

Either way, the 9550 128-bit is the obvious choice here.

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<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>