ATI Radeon 9550 (AGP 8x, 256MB)

Pros: Looks pretty flash -a 256mb video card

Cons: Can't handle most PC games, crashes on most basic of applications.

Summary: So you found a nice old Windows 2000 PC in the back of the garage, and decided as a weekend hobby, that you'll do it up. Firstly lets replace that motherboard with a nice new one, not flash, but able to handle XP.

So you decide to get an OK video card. In the shop you see a lovely cheap $99 Radeon 9550 (this card). You think, "what a perfect find". Mistake number 1.

After a hands on checkup I find the Radeon 9550 not good at all.

Rise of Nations Gold Edition -crashed.
City Life -crashed.
Half-Life 1 & 2 -crashed.
Farcry -obviously crashed.

You get the idea. But suddenly out of the blue:

Internet Explorer -crashed due to a video card error.

ATI thankfully decided to respond to this review:

"The Ati Radeon 9550 graphics card was not designed to play high-definition, or high level graphic, games, including the examples above. The error involving Internet Explorer has occurred in numerous occasions, we have been alerted to situations where even the simplest of programs have crashed, for example, Notepad, Wordpad, Paint.

The Ati Radeon 9550 is not the fault of these problems. The fault lies with the monitor. Usually your monitor is too old for the video card, but quite often it can be affected by the monitor drivers. Make sure you keep these up to date."

I hate to say it but that sounds like ATI is saying a lot of er... bull-you-know-what.

ATI's solution to the 9550 problem may not have helped you. If so here's my solution:

I would recommend if you wanted a good video card for a "killer machine" then do what I am, stick with NVIDEA not ATI.

EVGA NForce 680i SLI mainboard
2x GeForce 8800 768MB video card in SLI MODE

But if your on a lower budget, the best idea is to go with the NVidea Geforce 7600 GT (256MB).

Thanks for taking the time to read this review, and I hope it makes you realise that cheap ain't really better, especially in ATI's case. Don't get me wrong though, I don't hate ATI I just think that NVidea's cards are a lot better quality...