When the Radeon 9200 graphics accelerators from ATI, still Canadian at that time , appeared on the market in 2004, they belonged to the initial-class development segment. Their performance was quite enough to solve the most common tasks at that time, and even most of the toys on this adapter were launched. Now this video card is losing in performance to integrated graphics solutions. It is its characteristics and capabilities that will be considered in this material.
What segment of the graphics market does the adapter target
In 2004, only two manufacturers dominated the graphics accelerator market: Nvidia and ATI. And if, prior to the release of the products of the Radeon 9XXX series, the leading positions were occupied by the solutions of the first manufacturer, then after that the situation changed dramatically, and the adapters of the second developer took the first place in terms of productivity and speed. The discrete graphics market itself was conditionally divided into 3 large segments:
Entry-level graphics cards. Minimum performance and very, very affordable cost. In most system units of personal computers of that time, you can find just such adapters. NVidia for this part of the market positioned the products of the series GeForce 4 MX 4 XX and GeForce FX-5200. In turn, ATI opposed them with only one product - Radeon 9200 . If we compare these accelerators by productivity, then the hero of this review was faster than the MX 4XX, but worse than the FX-5200. But there was no cardinal advantage in anyone's favor in terms of productivity and speed in this part of the market for graphic solutions. For the most part, the choice was formed based on the price of the accelerator and personal preferences.
In 2004, mid-range graphics adapters belonged to NVidia FX-5600 and FX-5700, while ATI included Radeon 9500 and Radeon 9600. In this case, the total advantage was already completely on the side of the Canadian manufacturer. The computing power of its 9600 adapter was selected almost close to the then flagship from NVidia - the GeForce FX-5900 graphics card.
The niche of the most productive discrete graphics accelerators was occupied by the previously mentioned FX – 5900 and Radeon 9800 from ATI. Moreover, the latter demonstrated outstanding performance at that time and made it possible to solve almost any problem for a sufficiently long time.
In this way, the video card market was divided in 2004.
Technical specifications
The parameters of the video processor considered in this material were as follows:
The code designation RV is 25.
Semiconductor crystal manufacturing technology - 150 nm.
The frequency of the video chip is 250 MHz.
There were only 4 pixel conveyors, and each of them accounted for 1 TMU unit .
The slot type for installation is AGP version 8X.
There was also a more advanced modification of this graphic product - Radeon 9200 Pro. The difference between them was that in the second case, the frequencies of the graphic chip were increased to 275 MHz, and the RAM worked at 500 MHz against 400 for a conventional accelerator. A laptop video chip was also released , and its specifications were identical.
Video memory
The Radeon 9200 was equipped with a 128-bit RAM bus. The type of video buffer used in this case is DDR with an operating frequency of 400 MHz. The amount of RAM for this accelerator could be equal to 64, 128, or even 256 MB. In the latter case, the speed level increased significantly, but the cost of such accelerators was much higher. As a result, it was not so often that they could be met.
Cooling system
This graphic solution, as noted earlier, is a budget class product and certainly cannot boast of an impressive thermal package. As a result, often such accelerators were equipped with a passive cooling system from only one compact radiator. But also often found and active cooling systems with small coolers in size. In the first case, the accelerator was recommended to be used only in the nominal mode, and in the second it was even possible to carry out a small acceleration. There was also a similar video chip for a laptop, which was equipped only with an active cooling system.
Analogs at the time of release
The Radeon 9200 video card , as noted earlier, competed immediately with two NVidia product families - the MX 4XX and the GeForce FX-5200. The first of them was released much earlier than the hero of this article, and was significantly inferior in terms of speed to its direct competitor from the ATI camp. But in the case of using the GeForce FX-5200, it was possible to get a slight performance increase in some applications, while in most software parity was observed.
Features of driver settings for this video card
At the software level, this graphics solution met Direct X 8.1 specifications . But the later version 9.0 of this software package did not support Radeon 9200. Windows 7 can fully and fully reveal its capabilities on the latest version of Direct X. Yes, the 9200 did not have a full set of drivers for this operating system. But in practice, it was possible to install the latest drivers for XP and make this accelerator work with a newer operating system. The algorithm for their installation is as follows:
We install drivers on Windows 7 for XP under the rights of the system administrator and in compatibility mode XP / 2000.
We start drivers in the same mode and with the same rights.
We do not allow rebooting the computing system.
We move the ati2dvag.dll file from the Windows \ System directory to any convenient place, for example, on the "Desktop".
We leave the system and go.
We return the ati2dvag.dll file to its original location.
We reboot the PC. After that, the driver should already be functioning properly.
Cost. Owners opinion
Well, quite a lot of time has passed since the release of the Radeon 9200 video chip. As a result, even its stocks are sold out, and it is already impossible to buy it in a new state. But the used ones can still be found on various trading floors in the global web. Their price is very affordable and ranges from 240 to 500 rubles, depending on the state of the adapter. It is not worth considering such an accelerator as the basis for assembling a new system unit, even from outdated components. In this regard, it is more correct to pay attention to the graphics adapters of the AMD Radeon HD series , which are aimed at installing in a more recent PCI- E slot , this will allow to upgrade such a system in the future if necessary. The only case when the purchase of the hero of this review is really justified is the need to restore the working capacity of the old PC with minimal cost in case of video card breakdown. This is what the reviews on most sites on this topic indicate.
Summary
Both in terms of price and in terms of performance, the Radeon 9200 was the ideal entry-level graphics product in 2004 . And such video subsystems were still relevant for a long time. It can also be noted that on the basis of the 9XXX series video cards, later products were developed, which were called AMD Radeon HD.