Question about my graphics card...

[w00tens]

I just got a ATI Radeon 9250 256MB DDR PCI card and I installed it, but nothing looks different, my old card was just an integrated crappy one, so I was expecting to see a huge difference when i played Warcraft 3, and I also got Half-Life 2. I was wondering if there was anything I could have done wrong, because it wasn't worth the $$$ if it only looks this good.

 

[Praetor]

I just got a ATI Radeon 9250 256MB DDR PCI card and I installed it, but nothing looks different, my old card was just an integrated crappy one, so I was expecting to see a huge difference when i played Warcraft 3, and I also got Half-Life 2. I was wondering if there was anything I could have done wrong,

1. What was the old integrated model? (i.e, if your old integrated one was a Radeon9100 you wont notice much)
2. Well the 9250 isnt much of a serious gaming card in either case and on (relatively) heavy things like WC3 and HL2 you probably wont notice much of a difference because often the games are well outside of the scope of both the onboard and the 9250

 

[w00tens]

now i am mad :/

For christmas I got this really really nice graphics card, but my computer ended up not having a AGP slot, only PCI slots, so my dad and I went out to get a good PCI one, and this Radeon 9250 said that it supports DirectX 9.0, and the ati.com site says it supports DirectX 9.0, but when I change my settings on the graphics on HL2, it says that the max my card supports is 8.1, and now when I look at the website for stores like Circuit City and CompUSA it also says DirectX 8.1. Gah! I feel so terrible, I will really be depressed if I have to make my dad go out again and take another card back, and get another! Can you please recommend a PCI graphics card that also supports DirectX 9?

 

[Praetor]

Well the Radeon9250 supports DX9 but you're probably better off running the DX8 codepath; a spin through FarCry can confirm that. As for HL2 ... i'd personally chalk it up to either [1] HL2 is a stupid game and wierd stuff just happens orrrrrrrrrrr [2] The game realizes well in advance that the 9250 should be running in DX8 mode.

If you are looking for alternatives, the GeForceFX5200 and 5500 come in PCI variants

 

[w00tens]

I lost you at FarCry

If it supports DX9, why doesn't it say so?


P.S. - I thank you very much for all of your help!

 

[Praetor]

I lost you at FarCry
If it supports DX9, why doesn't it say so?

The GeForceFX5950U (as well as the rest of the GeForceFX family really), is a DirectX9 card but for all intents and purposes a DirectX8 card due to performance reasons when running the DX9 codepath. Perhaps its a siomilar deal with the Radeon9250.

 

[w00tens]

So when I play WC3 and HL2 the card does nothing for me? Since it doesn't run on DX9?

 

[Praetor]

1. Aplogies for having a brain fart. The Radeon9250 is a DirectX8 part (much like the geForce4MX is actually a DirectX7 card).

2. Because ATI is stupid and wants to f_ck with consumers, they have very friggen stupid naming conventions. Contrary to common sense, the 9250 is a slower cored card than the 9200. The 9200 runs at 250/200 while the 9250 runs at 240/250. Overall its probably faster since 10MHz doesnt make that much of a difference but its just stupid that ATI would do smething like that.

3. WC3 is not a DirectX9 game so it doesnt matter. As for HL2, your card operates in DirectX8 mode (and does so for WC3 too)

 

[w00tens]

But then why does it say it supports DX9 on the box and on the ati website?

Also, I looked at my "device manager" and it shows Radeon 9250, and then under it, it shows Radeon 9250 Secondary, what is this secondary?