watson wrote:Radeon 9000/9200 have universal AGP support, while most 9600 Pro cards don't.
I like the 9600 Pro because it's one of the most p […]
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Radeon 9000/9200 have universal AGP support, while most 9600 Pro cards don't.
I like the 9600 Pro because it's one of the most powerful cards that don't require external power (correct me if I'm wrong). That's why I use it in my main test system.
Not sure why people would hate on RV250/RV280, they are fine for what they are. Perhaps it's because of the 9200SE 64-bit variants.
All of the cards work perfectly for me out of the box with modern Linux distributions.
Also, the 9600 Pro should be relatively affordable, if you pay more than $15 for it, you're getting ripped off.
Universal AGP support was originally why I bought this 9200, since I wanted to have a card that works in virtually any AGP board.
You would be correct on the 9600 Pro being one of the fastest cards not requiring external power. Other cards I can think of like that are the 9600 XT, GeForce 6200, GeForce 6600 (not the GT), maybe some HD 2400 series, and the HD 4350. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of them aside from the 9600 XT.
The RV250/RV280 aren't bad cards if you don't have a 64-bit RV280. All those 64-bit 9200SEs and 9250s are so common maybe that's why "9200" in general tend to bring a bad omen. With old forum posts back in the day I kept hearing the 9200 was slower than the 9000, but that probably only applies to the 9200 being slower than the 9000 Pro, which would be true due to the lower clocks of the 9200. Though I'm not sure if the 128MB 9200 can make up for the lost performance from a 64MB 9000 Pro.
Now when you say I'm getting ripped off when I pay more than $15 for a 9600 Pro, that's exactly my problem. Finding faster AGP cards for low prices can get so tedious to where the cheapest 9600 Pros in the US can sometimes cost more than a few 9700s. I paid $16 for this 9200 back in May, and that's still too much in my mind but as long as it's $20 or less I'm fine with it. What's laughable but sad at the same time is that AGP card prices can get so bad to where the cheapest FX 5200, a notoriously bad card, is $15.
pixel_workbench wrote:I was going to say this exactly. I keep a Radeon 9200 128bit for this reason, for testing AGP motherboards. Plus it's passively cooled.
Back in 2002 I was using a 9000pro as my main gaming card, and it worked great until newer games like Half Life 2 came out. Still better than people who got suckered into buying a gf4mx, thinking it was a gf4 ti at the time. 🤣
I would definitely keep my 9200 as a testing card even if I was to get a faster card for primary use in my Athlon XP build. As I said with far more demanding games like Half-Life 2, I could just play that along with all the other DX9 games I'd want on my HD 4650 PC.
Fact, I almost ended up getting an MX 440 for my AGP card (at the time, I just wanted a faster replacement to a dying 8MB Vanta LT) but I'm glad I didn't get one. FX 5200 was also a card I was looking towards at the time, and again, glad I didn't get one of those either. Just before I settled on this 9200, I almost won an auction to a 9000 Pro thinking I would be the only bidder, but of course someone did a sneak attack and bid just after I did and won the bid.
Main PC AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, 16GB DDR4-3000, AMD Radeon RX 570 8GB, Asus Prime X470-Pro, 256SSD/2TBHD/2x750HD, W10 Pro 1903
Retro PC/2002 Custom Built AMD Athlon XP 2000+ TB-A, 512MB DDR, ATI Radeon 9200 128MB, Asus A7N266-VM/AA, 80GB, Win98SE + XP SP1