Which video card is better for gaming...?

Question

Right now I'm using a ATi 9550 256 MB DDR AGP on my Medion M3 Composer 5200. It has a single PCI Express x1 slot, so I have to use a card compatible with that.

I'm considering getting a Radeon X1300 512MB HyperMemory with 128MB Onboard as an upgrade.

I have been considering an upgrade because while my current card has served me well, I've noticed my framerate gets choppy when I play newer games like Company of Heroes.

I want to be able to play Bioshock (when it comes out) at a decent framerate / detail settings but am worried that even the x1300 won't do it for me. Can I get an honest opinion on this? If the x1300 isn't a serious step up from my existing card I'm just going to get an xbox 360 and not worry about upgrading my PC.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I disagree somewhat with the previous poster. First of all, the Radeon 9500 series cards are notoriously poor performers.

The amount of video memory is much less of an issue than the core/clock speeds and pixel/shader pipelines, all areas where the X1300 is better than the 9550. That said, the Hypermemory feature which allows it to steal from your system RAM isn't a good thing. I agree with him that a card with 256mb of dedicated onboard memory is preferable.

The X1300 isn't any speed demon compared to more recent cards, most review sites don't even include it their graphics cards roundups because it's not competitive with the other entry level cards. The problem is, there just aren't many choices in the PCI-E X1 interface.

I'd recommend a Geforce 7300GT instead- see review below. I don't know if a PCI-E X1 version of the 7600GT even exists, but if it does... go for it!

I've also included a link to Tom's Hardware's picks for best gaming cards, but I don't think they include X1.

Answer 2

I don't think that it would be an upgrade at all. The 9550 has 256MB Dedicated while the X1300 only has 128MB Dedicated and the rest steals from your system memory. I would go with a GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB of DDR3 memory for only about $100. It would be drastically better than either one of those.