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Written by Mavke
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Thursday, 18 November 2004 |
HotHardware published a
review on the ATI Radeon 9250. With a majority of the market focusing their
attention on high-end graphics cards, many forget about the consumers who are
seeking a low-cost upgrade or replacement part. These consumers are often
willing to sacrifice performance when looking for cards with price points that
are substantially lower than enthusiast-class boards. Yet they seek performance
levels which are adequate for the occasional death-match. This is where ATI's mid-range card, the Radeon
9250, steps in.
 ATI Radeon 9250 Review
When looking at our benchmark results, it's clear that the Radeon 9250 and 9600SE perform similarly. The Radeon 9600 scored victories in 9 of the tests, while the 9250 took the top spot in 6. Most of the wins for the
9250 came during the OpenGL powered Doom 3 set of tests, however, where none of the cards we tested came close to producing playable framerates.
When evaluated in the proper context, the ATI Radeon 9250 is a decent video card. What consumers need to do is seriously consider what they are looking for in a video card. If playing graphically
intense games is their main goal, the 9250 is obviously not for them. However, if improving their 2D desktop environment, whether it is for DVD's, photo editing or other applications, the 9250 will perform the task
wonderfully. This is not to say that this card will not handle some of the newer games on the market, you just may have to turn down some of the eye-candy to achieve playable framerates.
From a feature standpoint, our only gripe with the
9250 is the lack of DVI port. Though most users who are considering this card as an upgrade will probably not have invested the extra money into a DVI capable LCD, it is a possible limiting factor which reduces the overall appeal
of the card. With that said, some of ATI's partners have taken this into consideration and have incorporated a DVI port in their products. Their is also a slew of other OEMs which feature alterations such as a full half-height
card layout. Overall, gamers should probably look for a more powerful video card, but someone looking to upgrade from an integrated graphics solution or replace a similar performing card would be hard pressed to find a better
value than the Radeon 9250. At under $60 for a 128MB model, the 9250 is very affordable.
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