is this a good video card to play games with if i dont have alot of money?

Question

heres the video card.

Sapphire Radeon X1550 512MB DDR2 PCI-E Video Card 100173, Vista Ready, HDTV, w/ DVI, VGA, TV-Out

Answer 1

These guys don't seem be very well informed (except the guy above me), sorry if I come off as a jerk for stating that.

The card you mention actually has some pretty cool features, but it's not going to be playing games.

Could you tell me your budget?

If you are looking to buy this for games only, I will first assume you have WinXP. That means you are limited to DirectX 9.0c as far as D3D api's go.

The first source will take you to a pretty decent DirectX 9 card that maintains the same price point as the model you're inquiring about, after rebate.

Now if you don't mind spending a little bit more I highly recommend my second source as the card to buy.

There is one downside to these two cards I have shown you, they are both PCI-E slot graphics cards. This is the current standard for video cards and you have yet to divulge what type of slot your motherboard carries...whether it's PCI-E (not to be confused with PCI) or AGP 4x/8x.

I also want you to know that both of these cards are DirectX 9 hardware. That means they support the D3D api's in version DirectX 9 but not DirectX 10. DirectX 10 is only installed on Vista operating systems and I would assume you'll buy another graphics card before you make the move to Vista. Anyways, if you grab the card that I recommend, you might be able to play DirectX 10 games at low settings (if and when they arrive). However, they still have yet to release any games that take advantage of D10 and this other card should get you through the year and possibly into the next.

Moving on, my last source is to an interactive performance chart for graphics cards. Just pick the two cards you'd like to see and it will show you the frames per second they can achieve in different games, etc. It's cool because you can get an idea of how well these cards play on the major game engines that majority of the video games are built around.

I took the liberty of choosing the two cards I suggested at a resolution of 1024x768 using max settings under Battlefield 2142. This should be some pretty good gameplay at 47fps using the card I recommended. But the other card, which is better than you're inquiry, gives an abysmal 21.1fps.

The sweet point for playing games is about 60fps (frames per second) but you can get away with an average of 30fps(some scenes can be choppy as the min. frame rate will be below 30).

Email or send a message with other questions as needed. Good luck

Answer 2

If you play the occasional game at lower resolutions with minimal to medium details, framerates are half decent. Higher gaming resolutions are too much for this small videocard!!!

To be honest you'd be better off saving your money and getting something better if you want to play games. Any modern game, take F.E.A.R for example, will push that card way beyond it's limits (14 Frames Per Second at 1024x768!!!) you will literally have to turn every graphics option off and all the settings to minimum to get it to be almost playable.

Even quite an old game like FarCry will only run at 23 FPS at 1600x1200 if you start turning options on and that game is really quite old now.

Also when it says 'vista ready' that's a bit cheeky, ok it will allow you to actually run vista but it is not DX10 (Direct-X 10) compatible, which is the only reason a gamer would think about vista.

I'm sorry to sound harsh but it's really not what I'd class as a gaming card and I'd rather give you my honest, fact based opinion; it will run most of today's games at really low settings, but in 6 months you'll need to buy another one to be able to play any newish games.

Buy nice, don't buy twice!

Link to a review of same card (made by different company, but the card is the same).

Hope all this helps, happy gaming!

~®

Answer 3

Looks like an OK card. I read some downsides to it and I don't like that it has a heatsink and no fan. Gaming can heat a card up so if the system doesn't have cooling that can overcome this you might want to reconsider.

Another card that does have a fan, same company, slightly better card, $5 difference, is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102084

You may need to go to ATI's site to get drivers for Vista if you have it, according to some reviews, but this would appear to be a good budget card that would work with lots of games.

Answer 4

sorry, i don't know much about this graphics card. but the general rule of thumb for graphics cards is the more expensive, the better.

there are a few different levels. there are the sub 100 dollar cards which are basically crap.

then there are the 100-250 dollar range which are pretty good, and the best for people with little money.

then there is a jump to 300-400 dollar range which is only slightly better than the higher end 100-250 card, so it's not worth your money

and then anything over 500 is amazing.

Answer 5

If you can find that one cheap, it sounds like it'll work. If your trying to run the newest games, such as games specifically for vista, it wont be as good. It will run games like Halo PC (Halo 1) and games like that pretty good, from the sound of it. ATI is a decent brand for a video card, but imo I prefer nVidia.

Answer 6

quite, human beings choose the situation you're in. i assume human beings can not come across a woman that likes enjoying video games and would not choose 'wide-spread' romantic issues. Why no longer play some video games that she does and discover out in case you like it. The bonding will improve and the dating will develop.

Answer 7

Not bad for the money. I prefer nvidia over ATI. I really like the 8600gt. that will be my next card. I like to have the SLI dual card option. If you want that card on the cheep follow the link below. $29

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127292

Answer 8

Yes. ATI is of a very good brand!

Answer 9

looks good to me, but if you want speed, go for nvidia

Answer 10

yea its decent