AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-07-10, 01:28:

Hi!, […]
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Hi!,

So, I bought online a second hand PCIe video card (which hasn't arrived yet), but on closer inspection of one of the pictures I fear I will be sent a Radeon HD 4550 instead of the advertised GeForce GT 9400 (both low profile).

A quick search on comparing sites (which I don't really trust) gpuboss, gpu.userbenchmark.com gives the Radeon as better in some aspects and worse in others, only slightly favourable to the Radeon overall. But if capacitors are something to go by it doesn't look like the Radeon is superior or even on par.

And I also happen to have an HD 3450 already.

My guess is the owner replaced the Radeon with the GeForce and now I'd get the old card i the new box (I know it's not that uncommon).

What do you think, should I dispute this or keep the Radeon?...

Presumably this has a money back option.

Thanks in advance.

To quote Borat : "Very nice, how much ?" 😉

In other words, how expensive was the thing ? If it was cheap enough and in working condition, I would probably keep the Radeon and add it to my spares bin, but that's just me (and letting the seller know as a courtesy and heads-up about being more careful next time). As you said it, if the original owner (maybe not even the seller) put his older card in his new card's box, it is, IMHO, probably an honest mistake on the seller's part . It's not like you ordered something expensive and rare and got significantly short-changed in the processed .

Just my 2 cents worth of an opinion .

The HD 4000 and 5000 series are really interesting for stuff like groovy mame and switch res in retroarch. You can install up to 120 mod lines on those cards while nvidia cards are typically capped at 60 mode lines or less.

For gaming I don't think there is any significant different. There are so many better options for low profile cards, even from that era.

hum... ok, interesting angles there...

I'll try to elaborate on some details

"Expensive" is quite relative to where you live and what else you can get in your country for that money, so in this case I 'd like to compare them against each other.

For what I just saw the few HD4550 are listed around the same value than the 9400GT and I got this at a price _most_ sellers are asking for a GF 7300GS, but then there is the odd one asking the same for a 8400 or an HD 5450, so it is very blurry to me...

I'm sure there are better cards, but gaming is not that important to me and this is for *maybe* get back to playing Freespace and some UT, so I am looking for a reasonable value build.

I tend to opt for fanless cards to avoid noise, that's the extra reason why I don't look at the most powerful cards.

Yet, I'd be very happy to hear suggestions.

The way I see it is: I was happy paying X amount of money in a good deal for a 9400GT, by getting an HD4550 will I regret it? Will I be having an equivalent to the 9400 or to a 7300GS? People might be asking much for a HD4550 but it might still be crap....

As for a spare bins, I'm trying hard to refrain myself, because ever since I got this "Vogons Effect" everything looks so valuable, so "purchasable" that I'm loosing control 😜

I'm not sure it was an honest mistake... One could argue that the pictures were carefully crafted to be misleading and the offer, while not "too-good-to-be-true", was still "very good"...

An HD4550 with GDDR3 is just as good as a 9400. And it clocks down when it is idle, for lower power consumption.

DDR2 is obviously not as good, so if you get one with DDR2 then maybe send it back...

If the listing specifically called it a GeForce GT 9400 then you can return it, honest mistake or not.
Doesn't really matter how the cards compare performance wise. You can Get a GF6200 much cheaper then a much less powerful Voodoo card as an example.
Of course contact the seller first politely telling him of the mix up, most times I've found sellers happy to resolve the issue if it was a mistake and not a scam.
You could also offer a different (but fair) price for the card as an alternative to returning the card.